19 Cheltenham winners - but the underbelly tells a very different story

It really is one of the great contradictions. The evidence provided by the Cheltenham festival - an unprecedented 19 winners for Ireland - tells us that the National Hunt game in this country is absolutely flying, writes Pat Keane.

In so many ways it is, with great prizemoney, trainers, owners, jockeys and a depth of high-class horses that are basically far in advance of anything we have seen here before.

But beneath appearances there is growing dissatisfaction, with the vast majority of trainers seriously struggling to make a living.