Mega money spent at the sales gives British jumps trainers more hope than anything we’re seeing on a racecourse

It’s hardly the most striking revelation to say that Ireland’s best horses stand taller than their British counterparts. Their respective winning tallies at the Cheltenham Festival have been emphasising the point for the last ten years, but the preamble to the last two held that Britain’s horses were closing the gap.

That wasn’t borne out by the numbers. Yes, Britain has progressed from the 2021 humiliation, when it managed just five out of 28 winners, but the score at four subsequent festivals has remained constant at between nine and ten. It’s hard to fathom how some pundits managed to detect green shoots in the first place.

The weekend’s action on either side of the Irish Sea demonstrated just how big the gulf is. There were two Grade 1 staying chases: the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase and the Betfair Chase at Haydock. The former attracted 11 runners who had collectively won 16 Grade 1 races; the latter drew just five, who had posted five Grade 1 wins between them.