Irish trainers' dire record in Britain and what it means for the Cheltenham Festival

It was fantastic to see Shishkin come right back to form to land the Ascot Chase on Saturday by a wide margin and it added to the feeling the British challenge at Cheltenham is starting to look strong.

The transformation from where we were just a couple of weeks ago to now is striking. A Cheltenham Festival that looked like it was going to be the most one-sided of all time in favour of the Irish now has a slightly different slant as the British have some serious chances.

Jonbon, Constitution Hill, Hermes Allen, Edwardstone, Shishkin and Luccia could all be described as likely winners of their respective races and, furthermore, some of the Irish favourites don’t look anywhere near as good as they did before they had their final prep runs.