British-Irish divide of quality horses evident in Cheltenham Festival handicap weights say handicappers

British runners made up only a third or less of the 20 top-rated runners in four of the nine handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival, as the weights were published for the meeting on Wednesday.

The figures are the latest example of a decline of British-trained talent in jump racing. It comes after just 31 of 85 entries made for this year's Grand National were for British-trained horses and the BHA's handicappers said it was evidence that Ireland had the bigger volume of top-quality horses.

Just five of the top 20 in the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle and County Hurdle, races which have been only won by Irish runners this decade, were trained in Britain and only six featured in the Coral Cup and Grand Annual. The Ultima, Pertemps and Kim Muir were the only handicaps which the hosts dominated at the top of the weights.

The Irish dominance has been a theme at the Cheltenham Festival in recent years with the visitors winning 41 of the 56 races at the meeting in the last two seasons. Betfair Sportsbook make Ireland 1-10 to retain the Prestbury Cup, the competition for the most winners between Britain and Ireland.

Weights for the festival handicaps were assigned by BHA handicappers Michael Harris (chase) and Andrew Mealor (hurdle). The Willie Mullins-trained Historique Reconce was given the biggest hike by the assessors, increasing from 120 to 131.

Harris said: "The biggest thing to take away is the bigger proportion of Irish runners. The Plate was 30 per cent [Irish-trained] last season and it's 44 per cent this year, while the top of the weights in the Grand Annual is quite Irish-heavy.

"In terms of quantity, there's definitely been a difference but the ratings between the Irish and English are quite close. Quite a few have come over here earlier in the season which has given us a good guide on the marks.

"I expect the chases to be more competitive but I wouldn't necessarily say the Irish have a much stronger chance in a lot of the races. The horses you expect to be in the handicaps are, it's just the volume of good horses that are trained in Ireland. You have to have the quality horses and I think the trainers are doing as best as they can with the horses they've got." 

Over hurdles, changes to qualification understandably led to a decrease of entries. Novices were required to run four times, instead of three, to be able to run in the handicap hurdles, while horses needed to register a top-four finish in a qualifier for the Pertemps. Previously a top-six finish would suffice. 

The BHA's hurdles handicapper Andrew Mealor said: "Entries are down and the novice restriction possibly reduced runners, while the rules for the Pertemps specifically might have also had some effect. 

"I suspect, and this probably affected the Grand National as well, owners and trainers have been a bit more pragmatic in what it takes to get into these races. The idea of a social runner is on the way out and I think people are much more realistic about what it takes to get into the race. You can see numerically, particularly in the hurdles races, if you look at the top 20 or 30 in each of the handicaps it's predominantly Irish though."

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