Gavin Cromwell's remarkable achievement and the worrying implications for British jump racing

The spotlight will rightly be on Willie Mullins this week after a phenomenal season in Britain and Ireland, but there is another Irish trainer whose achievements certainly deserve a mention.

The curtain came down on Cheltenham's 2023-24 season last week and Gavin Cromwell finished it having trained more winners than anyone bar Mullins. That is a fairly extraordinary accomplishment – particularly when you delve into the numbers behind his nine winners.

They came from just 30 runners, meaning his strike-rate at the home of British jump racing was a quite remarkable 30 per cent. They include a festival double, courtesy of Kim Muir winner Inothewayurthinkin and Limerick Lace, and a number of big handicaps throughout the autumn and winter.