Domination of elite is an old story of haves and have nots

The rich are different from you and me, as Scott Fitzgerald never said to Ernest Hemingway. Yes, they have more money, Hemingway never replied. Both knew about the gulf between rich and not rich, between have and have not, and the two might have leaned over the rail at Cheltenham last week and recognised the way the world wagged.

Some people have made a bit of a fuss about Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins winning more than half the races at the festival between them, as though they were uninvited big boys at a children's party who elbowed their way to too much cake and jelly. Elliott and Mullins are brilliant trainers, masters of their craft, and their overwhelming presence in the winner's enclosure last week was simply the manifestation of a wider issue that doesn't have a great deal to do with either man.

In a few months the same people who pursed their lips at Mullins and Elliott will probably be doing the same at Ballydoyle and Godolphin, as these two big boys trample the infants underfoot in their turn. It is not quite the same – Godolphin spread their joy among a number of trainers – but the effect is identical. It's a closed shop; no room at the top.