Irish influence abounds at epic festival – and in some unusual ways

Even with the settling of dust since the end of the Cheltenham Festival it is hard to know where to begin in assessing the Irish influence during an extraordinary four days. Twenty-eight races, 19 Irish-trained winners, six each for our two leading trainers, a career highlight for our greatest female trainer with Sizing John in the Gold Cup, an Irish narrative attached to virtually every single race.

And yet the week involved some substantial anomalies from an Irish perspective, not least on the punting front, the massive haul of winners masking a tale of woe for more conservatively minded Irish punters. Only the Willie Mullins-trained trio of Yorkhill, Un De Sceaux and Let's Dance were winning Irish-trained favourites. The visitors were responsible for 13 beaten favourites.

If Douvan was the most spectacular reverse, Irish punters are likely to have lost more heavily on more enticingly priced propositions such as Supreme Novices' Hurdle second Melon, OLBG Mares' Hurdle third Limini, Albert Bartlett flop Death Duty, Djakadam, relegated to minor money in the Gold Cup for the third time, the Enda Bolger-trained-pair Cantlow and On The Fringe, as well as several strongly supported handicap candidates.