Glorious DRF weekend shows Cheltenham exactly where it's going wrong

It took six years, but last weekend finally saw the Dublin Racing Festival begin to fulfil the enormous potential many of us believed it has had since its 2018 inception. Maybe it is putting too fine a point on it and a sample size of one obviously doesn’t prove anything categorically, but it felt like the DRF came of age in 2023. In some respects, it was a perfect storm.

Most importantly, the progress that has been made with the ground on the chase track reaped its reward because trainers had a far greater degree of confidence ahead of the event. Conditions could hardly have been any better, and the upshot, in contrast to 12 months ago when the fields collapsed after trainers lost faith in what sort of ground would prevail, was that the vast majority of horses that you would have expected to be there were there.

Galopin Des Champs, State Man and Honeysuckle are all box-office names who helped capture the imagination in the build-up, and not having a clash with a home Six Nations game also proved a fillip. Throw in the rapidly increasing interest in the DRF from across the water, an aspect that in turn was bolstered by the cost of accommodation and flights not being inflated by a Six Nations fixture, along with the favourable weather and the inaugural St Brigid’s bank holiday making it a long weekend (Covid-19’s parting gift), and all the stars aligned.