IT is 10 years ago this spring since the inaugural Prestbury Cup between Britain and Ireland was officially launched, and the mood surrounding the concept being formalised at that time was mixed to say the least.

Described as “utterly redundant”, “a farce of a competition” and “a load of old Cotswolds” by some journalists and betting traders in its debut year, many felt it was a pointless exercise as Ireland would nearly always be pushing water up a hill when trying to win more races than the hosts in their own backyard.

Britain were made 1/3 favourites to win the inaugural competition and duly delivered, with the country’s National Trainers Federation proudly tweeting after the Thursday: “Congratulations to British trainers for wrapping up Prestbury Cup 14-6 before the final day.”

A closing-day six-timer for the visitors put a bit more of a respectable look on the scoreboard, but layers still made Ireland the clear outsiders again in 2015 at 7/2 (from 9/4 a year earlier).

Even after Ireland won five of the first six races in 2015, Britain remained 1/2 favourites in-running, and the home team just about managed to cling onto the title on a 14-13 scoreline.

However, it is a representation of just how dramatically the tide has turned in National Hunt racing that Britain has failed to win the Cup outright in any year since.

Rising green tide

From being a competition that many felt Ireland would be serial underdogs in back in 2014, the visitors were priced up at 1/14 to retain the Cup this year and 1/4 to have 18 or more winners. Layers were also quoting 4/5 for 20 or more Irish winners. A surreal turnaround.

After Irish-trained runners scooped six of the seven races on day one this year, and four of the six on Wednesday, there was a feeling that matters might be getting somewhat out of hand in terms of the imbalance of power between the two nations.

Healthy competition is vitally important for any sport and while it is obviously encouraging from an Irish perspective to see the country’s horses at the top of the table, an absolute greenwash is not ideal for the wellbeing of the sport. Even the most patriotic of Irish supporters can appreciate that.

That said, Ireland’s position of power has not come about overnight or without a mammoth effort from participants and the authorities on these shores. This standing has been well earned and, while all is not perfect by any means with Irish National Hunt’s overall structures, there are clear issues in the British system that need addressing.

Dismal prize money in many instances, an overweight fixture list and an excess of small-field graded options for a tightening pool of quality horses are just a few long-standing problems that the British authorities are seemingly struggling to grapple with.

After Irish-trained runners shot the lights out in 2021 when winning 23 of the 28 races at the Festival, the BHA set up the Quality Jump Racing Review Group, with a stated aim “to strengthen the performance of British jump racing at the top end of the pyramid”.

Attractive handicapping

One part of that strategy was to redress an apparent handicap imbalance after Ireland won seven of the nine handicaps at the 2021 Festival, with a change to British handicapping seeing older horses receive bigger drops after being beaten, as well as certain sections of the novice hurdle division starting on lower marks than was previously the case.

While there is absolutely merit in attempting to have the fairest races possible in handicap company, some of this week’s Festival results raise questions over whether these efforts to avoid inflated ratings in the British ranks have gone too far, relative to how Irish-trained horses are treated when competing in British handicaps.

Heading into the final day of the 2024 Festival, British-trained runners won five of the meeting’s seven handicaps (71%), including through some high-profile cases of horses being dropped dramatically in the weights over a short space of time for disappointing runs pre-Cheltenham. It probably would have been an even stronger return for the hosts if anyone other than Paul Townend was riding Absurde in the County Hurdle on Friday. His masterclass denied the Skeltons a handicap hat-trick through L’Eau Du Sud.

The handicap winner that caused some debate was back-to-back Coral Cup scorer Langer Dan, who only went up 6lb for winning the ultra-competitive prize 12 months ago and managed to get dropped that 6lb for four poor runs in the lead-up to the Festival.

A year earlier, he also got dropped 4lb for three runs before Cheltenham. Handicapping of this nature in Ireland is far from frequent.

Grand Annual winner Unexpected Party was another British scorer to benefit from generous drops in the handicap before the British one-two in that contest. He came down a whole 8lb for just three runs before the meeting, and was actually running off 4lb lower than the mark he held when beating Knappers Hill in a listed novice chase at Chepstow in October.

Clean sweep

The Pertemps Final was another British annihilation. The first six home were all trained in Britain, with the winner, Monmiral, winning off 138. He was rated 145 on his second last hurdles start before this when down the field in an Aintree Grade 1.

Thursday’s TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase was dominated by the home squad too - they were responsible for five of the first six home. It is quite remarkable that the winner went up only 3lb for a seven-and-a-half-length win in the £100,000 Paddy Power New Year’s Day Handicap Chase at this track in January. Likewise, big-race favourite Crebilly (runner-up) was raised only 1lb for winning a shade cosily a month earlier. The penalties for these wins in Ireland would be significantly higher.

One of Ireland’s handicap winners, Inothewayurthinkin in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir, skated in off an attractive mark of 145. However, if the assessor had given him 1lb higher in Britain that would have made him ineligible to run, it would have left the British-trained second Git Maker 18 lengths clear of the rest of the field. He went up just 11lb for rattling off three handicap chase wins in a row this winter, and he was dropped 1lb for his final run pre-Cheltenham.

Irish-trained runners were dominant across much of the meeting, but handicaps are supposed to be where there is most balance and equal opportunity for all horses. There surely must be some reflection after this meeting on how Irish-trained handicappers were treated relative to the home team’s runners.

We all appreciate the healthiness of wanting a spread of winners between the two nations at this meeting, but that cannot come at the expense of handicaps that give the impression of being somewhat imbalanced in some areas.