Irish Gold Cup much more than a Cheltenham trial

Around this time every year the Cheltenham Festival frenzy intensifies to the extent that precious little else in the racing world seems to matter.

No sooner has a horse passed the winning post in a race of any significance than bookmakers react with betting updates for the festival. How a horse's performance, in victory or defeat, impacts on Cheltenham prospects is all important in many eyes, even superseding the achievement of winning a Grade 1 race in the run-up to the festival.

Take the Irish Gold Cup, sponsored for the first time by Stan James, as an example. Statistics tell us that viewing the Leopardstown event merely as a trial for the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup doesn't stack up. Since it was first run 30 years ago, as the Vincent O'Brien Irish Gold Cup, only two horses have won the race and gone on to achieve Gold Cup glory at Cheltenham in the same year.