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We’ve had plenty of positive comment about the introduction of the DRF, asking why we don’t introduce something similar over here. Perhaps the results this week provide an answer to that question.
There are eight Grade 1 races at the DRF, six of the winners ran this week at Cheltenham:
Talk The Talk – 7th, btn 13L
Brighterdaysahead – 2nd, btn 6 1/2L
Kaid D’Authie – fell
Romeo Coolio – PU
Majborough – 7th, btn 25L
Doctor Steinberg – PU
To be fair, several that were placed at the DRF found a bit extra this week – Kargese, King Rasko Grey, Lossiemouth and Gaelic Warrior. If only there was some common thread connecting those four?
Not only mullins horses. Cromwell,de bromhead,nolan and meade all seem to have their horses primed for the big races at cheltenham. Elliot hit the bar a few times too. Are the british trainers subconsciously targeting the earlier season group ones where the irish trainers arent as focussed as cheltenham and accepting their fate this week. Just an observation.
How does it compare to other years?
Some effort from Gaelic Warrior to be hitting the line in the KG, running free in the Irish Gold Cup then winning a fence on the bridle in the Gold Cup
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
“Are the british trainers subconsciously targeting the earlier season group ones where the irish trainers arent as focussed as cheltenham and accepting their fate this week?”
I can understand trainers taking that view. Realistically, Mullins is going to win something like 8 races at the meeting. De Bromhead and Elliott are going to get on the scoresheet and so is Henderson.
If you are a upper middle to middling British trainer, is there any point priming a horse for Cheltenham when you are almost certainly up against it. They can run a perfectly profitable business targeting the early season graded races and big handicaps.
Thats a very good summing up cork. I do feel for the likes of mcain and tizzard who have got the likes of henderson and skelton who get better horses snd struggle to compete in early season big races and then have the irish battalions to deal eith at cheltenham. Its like the difference between the premier league and the championship. Hard to say when things will change but mullins lost gigginstown horses and he just got more owners and probably even stronger when you consider the 3 big race winners were second strings. It all goes back to the buying of horses similar to scouts in football. Without the horses you cant compete at the top level. Plus mullins fantastic with the owners apparently. Maybe its cyclical and it wont go on for ever but cant see it changing much in the near future.
Agree mickey. I have heard the same about Mullins and his owners.
I was thinking of McCain the other day. It is not that long ago that he was having Cheltenham winners, including a Supreme Novices (Cinders And Ashes). It all seemed to go downhill for him after Peddlers Cross was thumped by Sprinter Sacre at Kempton one Christmas and was never the same horse.
He still gets plenty of winners and I am sure his business is profitable but he is competing at the likes of Bangor and Cartmel nowadays and nowhere to be seen at Cheltenham.
It is interesting to note that the owner of Cinders And Ashes has gone back into racehorse ownership after a long absence with Mydaddypaddy, trained by…Dan Skelton.
Success breeds success in any field. Mcain and tizzard and the likes need to unearth a big winner or to get the ball rolling. Easier said than done.
Nicholls has been targeting his horses earlier in the season for many years now since, I suppose, he saw the way things were going with the firepower the Irish were being sent/buying.
Olly Murphy gets plenty winners but struggles a bit to get a roster of horses that can compete at Cheltenham. Skelton can clearly get them ready and I’d see top owners trusting him with them and Pauling seems to be able to get them ready too, hence the McManus patronship.If I was in the bracket just below Henderson I’d definitely be almost inclined to ignore the festival – finding owners willing to do the same might be the tricky part of that plan.
Skelton seems to be the one most able to do both at the minute.
NTD was the king of cleaning up in the summer to say Nov , now he can’t due to Nicholls/Eliott doing sim ( Nigel use to love clearing out Perth ) somebody at sometime is going to have to a go , Patrick is already training plenty and will step in once Willie has had enough
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
What about Gigginstown? No winners at Cheltenham and not too many prospects on the horizon. Are they beginning to wind down their operation?
I imagine Elliott and Gigginstown will be having a sit down soon …
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Didn’t O’Leary say he was getting out of the game a few years ago? Then he seemed to change his mind but he doesn’t seem to have got back to the level he was at before.
I’m not convinced there is a DRF negative factor, Over 5 weeks gap between races is usually sufficient for most horses. There were other excuses for most of the horses highlighted and as been said, others that were beaten at DRF were successful last week.
A bigger factor for me was probably the different ground conditions at Cheltenham compared to Leopardstown.“I imagine Elliott and Gigginstown will be having a sit down soon …”
Gordon – here, come and join me for a cup of tea would ya
His top eight Irish horses this season with over € 100k in earnings are in six different ownerships. Apart from Teahupoo Robcour doesn’t have too much of high class horses with him.
I’m sure Jonjo wasn’t too disappointed that Wellington Arch got balloted out of the Coral (MGM) Cup on Wednesday.
Instead he went for a Cl3 at Uttoxeter on Saturday, won convincingly to collect nearly £8k. Which is more than he’d have got for coming fourth in that hugely-more-competitive Cheltenham race.
Similar with Derham’s Teddy Blue, who won a seven-runner Cl2 20F handicap chase (winner £31k) at Kempton on Saturday, rather than go to the Plate on Tuesday, for which he’d have won the same £31k for finishing second to handicap blot Madara.
And I suspect that the Kempton race took a lot less out of Teddy Blue than it would have taken on Tuesday amongst the Festival hubbub.
OK, there’s not the glory of being at Cheltenham, but if you want to find the owner prize money with handicappers, then avoiding the oversubscribed and super-competitive Festival races is obvious.
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