ON foot of the IHRB integrity statistics that showed a decrease in the number of National Hunt trainers’ licences issued (down 10.5%) and National Hunt restricted trainers’ licences issued (down 13%), it was worth recalling Michael O’Leary’s comments for the future recently in the Racing Post.

“I think it will become very, very centralised, concentrated around four or five very, very large, successful trainers, and probably the same number of owners. Jump racing will go exactly the same way as the flat in that sense.”