Cheltenham Festival 2025: Levelling the playing field

Irish domination looks certain to continue past this season, but don’t be surprised if the gap closes just a little this week.

MUDDY MARVELS: Jockey Derek O’Connor with Inothewayurthinkin after winning the Kim Muir at last year’s Cheltenham Festival. Inothewayurthinkin was the only Irish -trained horse to win a handicap chase at the 2024 Festival. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

UPON the conception of the Prestbury Cup — that entirely manufactured ‘team’ rivalry between Ireland and the UK, where the number of winners by trainers based in each country is totted up — I genuinely believed that, given the numbers of runners involved, it would take something miraculous for the Irish trainers to lead the way against the home-based players.

Not only did they do that for the first time in 2016, shading the verdict 15-13, they have won the numbers game in all bar one Festival since — the 2019 outcome was a 14-14 draw. More than that, it became quite embarrassing for the home team in 2021 when they managed to win just five of the 28 races.