How the data reveals the truth behind the Irish jumps domination

What has happened to British jump racing? It was not so long ago that it was regarded as being in rude health: demonstrably more popular than Flat racing, with stories like Bryony Frost's King George win serving the sport with more regular visits to the back or even front page.

The transformation has seemingly been as sudden and as dramatic as the one that befell Gregor Samsa in Kafka's The Metamorphosis. What we had one day was the sport's salesman; after a night of restless dreams it had awoken as a sorry, moribund creature.

The flashpoint was this spring, when runners from Ireland dominated at the Cheltenham Festival and drove the point home at Aintree, including by sweeping the Grand National itself. Now everyone is in agreement: there is a problem with British jump racing. The complicating factor is that everyone has a slightly different idea of what exactly the problem is. So the problem has become everything and everything is now a problem.