1. Gigginstown domination

Not a bad Christmas for Eddie and Michael O’Leary was it? The maroon and white silks of Gigginstown were carried to victory 19 times, including five Grade 1 wins - Notebook (Racing Post Novice Chase), Abacadabras (Future Champions Novice Hurdle), Apple’s Jade (Frank Ward Memorial Hurdle), Delta Work (Savills Chase) and Battleoverdoyen (Neville Hotels Novice Chase).

It was also significant that they won five bumpers, with what is essentially their final batch of horses. This extends a very good record for Gigginstown in bumpers this year, a point made by Ryan McElligott in The Irish Field Christmas Eve edition, which bodes well for the operation’s twilight years. They may be dwindling down but their final generation, including the likes of Eric Bloodaxe, Uhtred, Farouk D’Alene and Lieutenant Command, could be as good as any they’ve had before.

2. Cedarwood puts O’Loughlin on the Road

The Leopardstown Christmas maiden hurdles and beginners chases are notoriously difficult to win but Cedarwood Road made it look easy on St Stephen’s Day, catapulting his young trainer Gearóid O’Loughlin to his biggest track success.

Clare native O’Loughlin spent time at the well known Costello family farm before gaining experience with Jim Bolger and Enda Bolger. He became manager for Chris Jones’s pre-training yard near Dunsany in Co. Meath in 2017, and trained a few for point-to-points. From only a handful of horses, he had his first winner on the track with Sidetracked at Clonmel last January.

Cedarwood Road showed significant progress from a debut sixth place finish at Fairyhouse and will be trained for the Dublin Racing Festival now but O’Loughlin is already thinking about fences next year, and Cheltenham isn’t on the card this year, at this stage.

3. Trainers - top brass dominate

There were eight Grade 1 races in Ireland over the Christmas period and Gordon Elliott won half of them, all for Gigginstown. The other four were split evenly between Willie Mullins and Henry de Bromhead.

Taking all 57 races into account, the trio mentioned plus Joseph O’Brien accounted for 35 winners between them. Elliott sent out 68 horses for 10 winners, the same total as Mullins who did so with 70 runners. O’Brien had eight wins from 43 runs and de Bromhead had seven wins from 48. The latter mentioned deserves a special mention as teaming up with Rachael Blackmore, who was in excellent form, the pair took the first two feature Grade 1 races on the first two days, and then finished second in the feature races of the remaining two days.

It’s also worth referencing the trainers’ championship, as it is at these big festivals where the battle is won and lost. Elliott now holds a €350,000 lead over Mullins, which isn’t unusual for this time of the season. Recent history suggests the Meath trainer will need to build up a more substantial lead pre Punchestown to give himself a better shot at landing a dream first title.

4. Jockeys - Blackmore, Kennedy and Mullins

There were a number of top class riding performances last week but special mention goes to Rachael Blackmore, Patrick Mullins and Jack Kennedy.

Blackmore again showcased how good she is with an excellent winning ride on Notebook in the Racing Post Novice Chase, not giving an inch away on the turn for home and then riding strong in the finish. Losing rides can be just as good as winning ones and her efforts on Petit Mouchoir, dictating the pace from the front, and on Monalee, where she lost her irons after the last but still kept her mount going, were very good efforts in defeat.

Kennedy got the better of Blackmore on Delta Work, and that was a top class effort as well from the Kerry native who has had a bad run of injuries but took the main plaudits at Leopardstown on the 28th with a Grade 1 double, a day after his never-say-die effort on Roaring Bull in the Paddy Power.

The quality-over-quantity approach was the order for Patrick Mullins. The history-making amateur jockey only had six rides over Christmas but rode four winners and two seconds. That included a Grade 1 at both Limerick and Leopardstown at either track on each day.

5. Attendances

Leopardstown attendances for the Christmas period were marginally up on last year’s figures, the small increases for the first three days making up for a decrease on the final day. A total attendance of 57,000 isn’t bad in the current climate and when you consider parts of the course are still under construction.

Limerick also saw their attendances grow marginally - with small increases on each day resulting in an overall small total attendance increase to just under 41,000. Their biggest day was St Stephen’s Day, when 13,266 were treated to a thrilling win by Faugheen in the feature contest.

6. Star juveniles

The Triumph Hurdle market had two new names at its top after the Christmas period, with Aspire Tower’s 18-length win at Leopardstown on St Stephen’s Day and then Allmankind’s remarkable front-running performance in the Grade 1 Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow on the 27th.

The addition of Cerberus in the Chepstow race offers a significant bridge of form between the Irish and British horses and suggests that there can’t be much between these two. Cerberus beat A Wave Of The Sea at Fairyhouse earlier in the month and that runner was well held by Aspire Tower, and in turn Cerberus was well held by Allmankind at Chepstow. That is a very literal reading of the form and it is obviously not always that simple but what we do know is these are two extremely exciting prospects. It may be that they do not meet until Cheltenham but if Dan Skelton wanted to be bold, he could look at the Spring Juvenile Hurdle for Allmankind, seeing as that is the only other Grade 1 juvenile race pre Chetlenham on both sides of the Irish Sea.

7. A worthy Champion Hurdle favourite?

After Epatante’s five-length win in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day, many thought the Champion Hurdle division had the clearcut contender it needed badly. I’m not so sure. Certainly not about a 7/2 chance, which is the top price about Nicky Henderson’s mare for the Champion Hurdle now.

She jumped well, travelled well and put the race to bed comfortably but she was beating the 154-rated pair Silver Steak and Ballyandy, off 3lb better terms. It’s also worth noting she bombed when a short-priced favourite in the Mares’ Novice Hurdle last season and connections could opt to keep her to her own sex again, and go for the Mares Hurdle.

Sharjah made it back-to-back wins in the Matheson Hurdle but again the form looks underwhelming with just three lengths back to Petit Mouchoir. It was further back to Couer Sublime who was reported to have made a noise, while Klassical Dream was disappointing again in last.

To these eyes the Champion Hurdle remains wide open and the opportunity is still there for a Honeysuckle or a City Island to come from left field.

8. Fabulous Faugheen

When Faugheen won a Grade 3 novice hurdle at the Limerick Christmas Festival in 2013, the talk was of him as a chaser in the marking. Funny how things work out. Six years later he returned to the same track to win a Grade 1 novice chase.

You could make a case that this was one of his best performances. He jumped and travelled lovely, and when he was asked to wind it up, he pulled away from a flailing Samcro. A lot have crabbed the form with regard to Gordon Elliott’s much touted chaser, but that is to do a discredit to Faugheen, who got his main rival out of his comfort zone late on, and in any case, the front two came all of 22 lengths clear of Castlebrook, a very decent yardstick.

It’s next stop the Dublin Racing Festival for Faugheen and that is seriously exciting prospect. His best ever performance came in the Irish Champion Hurdle at that venue so there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic him thrilling in the capital again.

9. Clan a worthy Gold Cup joint-favourite?

In winning the King George, Clan Des Obeaux became the 14th dual winner of the race and there is no doubt the Kempton contest provides a unique test. The Gold Cup, around the undulations of Cheltenham is another unique test. So you take two unique tests and you need a very unique horse to succeed at both.

That said, you couldn’t not be impressed with the performance of Paul Nicholls’s chaser, who put 21 lengths between himself and his highly touted stablemate Cyrname. It’s probably true that the race fell apart in behind him and you could hardly take the performance literally on the ratings, but you can only beat what’s put in front of you and that Clan Des Obeaux did easily, in a good time as well.

On the evidence of both of his first two runs this season compared to his first two runs last season, he looks like an improved horse, which makes sense anyway because he is only seven. Don’t forget, he wasn’t beaten all that far when fifth in the Gold Cup last year and he’s trained by a master trainer of a staying chaser.

10. Paddy Power Chase eyecatchers

The Paddy Power Chase was probably the most exciting race of the week but the first two home are quite exposed, for all that Fitzhenry has to rate one of the most consistent horses in training and clearly deserves a big handicap win.

The two I took from the race were Poker Party and Robin Des Foret. Poker Party was held up and came through with a very good run to finish fourth. It was his first start since his Kerry National win (107 days off) and he will be an interesting contender for the Thyestes if that is where connections go next.

Robin Des Foret travelled best of all turning in but didn’t see his race out over the three-mile trip. It was also not that long since his run to finish third to Warthog in the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham and he may have just been feeling the effects. There is a big two-mile-five-furlong handicap chase at the Dublin Racing Festival that could well suit him better.