Donn McClean shines a light on the myriad of Irish Cheltenham Festival chances away from the 'Big Four' training operations.
Willie Mullins was dominant last year. Nothing new there. Another Gold Cup with Galopin Des Champs, another Champion Hurdle with State Man, and Jasmin De Vaux bringing up his 100th Cheltenham Festival winner. Remarkable. Nine winners for the week and the leading trainer award again.
Other members of Ireland’s Big Four pitched in. Gordon Elliott’s three winners took him to 40 winners in total, level with Fulke Walwyn and the joint-fourth most prolific trainer ever at the Cheltenham Festival. Henry de Bromhead won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle with Slade Steel and the Champion Chase with Captain Guinness, Gavin Cromwell won the Kim Muir with Inothewayurthinkin and he won the Mares’ Chase with Limerick Lace.
It wasn't only about the main quarter last year though. It often isn’t. Lark In The Mornin won the Fred Winter Hurdle, a fourth Cheltenham Festival winner for Joseph O’Brien. Corbetts Cross won the National Hunt Chase, a second for Emmet Mullins.
It was a similar story in 2023. There were 18 Irish-trained winners in 2023, same as in 2024, and they were spread among nine different trainers. Tony Martin won the Pertemps Final with Good Time Jonny, a seventh Cheltenham Festival winner for the trainer. Colm Murphy won the Mares’ Chase with Impervious, the fifth Cheltenham Festival winner of his career. And there were four Irish trainers who had their first Cheltenham Festival winners in 2023: Barry Connell with Marine Nationale, John Kiely with A Dream To Share, John McConnell with Seddon and Sam Curling with Angels Dawn.
This year, the list of trainers who cross the Irish Sea in hope runs deep. Joseph O’Brien probably has the strongest team that he has ever had for the Cheltenham Festival, headed up by Banbridge in the Gold Cup, and augmented by Solness in the Champion Chase and Home By The Lee in the Stayers’ Hurdle. Add Lark In The Mornin and Busselton and Nurburgring, Jordans and San Salvador and Galileo Dame, Puturhandstogether and Beyond Your Dreams plus Comfort Zone and Out For A Stroll, and, if they all take their chances, it’s shaping up to be a fairly formidable team.
Emmet Mullins will have a strong team too, Corbetts Cross in the Gold Cup, Its On The Line in the Hunters’ Chase, McLaurey for the County Hurdle, So Scottish maybe in the Grand Annual, Vischio perhaps in the Coral Cup.
Sam Curling will be back again with Angels Dawn, this time for the Hunters’ Chase, not the Kim Muir, and the Yeats mare goes there with a big chance. We know that she goes well at Cheltenham, she won the Kim Muir in 2023 and she was running a big race again in her bid for a repeat win last year when she came down at the second last fence. The Hunters’ Chase has been the plan for her since the start of the season and she goes there via two point-to-point wins. She will be joined in the race by her stable companion Wonderwall.
Ryehill chased Angels Dawn home at Dromahane just after Christmas, and he was impressive in winning a good hunters’ chase at Naas, a race that Billaway used to win with monotonous regularity, and that was after making a bad mistake at the third last fence.
Ryehill’s trainer Ross O’Sullivan went close last year with Eagles Reign in the Fred Winter Hurdle, and he will bid to go one place better in the race this year with Slurricane, a game winner last time of a four-year-olds’ handicap hurdle at Punchestown, the race that Eagles Reign won last year before he went to Cheltenham. Ryehill will go to the Hunters’ Chase too with a real chance, which will be enhanced if there is some rain before Friday.
Angels Dawn and Ryehill will be joined in the Hunters’ Chase by Willitgoahead. Sean Doyle’s horse was progressive in point-to-points through the early part of the winter, and he was impressive last time in winning a good hunters’ chase at Thurles. The ground is coming in his favour in his bid to provide his trainer with a first Cheltenham Festival winner.
Paul Nolan had his first Cheltenham Festival winner in 2005, when Nina Carberry drove Dabiroun to victory in the inaugural running of the Fred Winter Hurdle, and he had his latest in 2021 when Mrs Milner won the Pertemps Final under Bryan Cooper.
He has a real chance of winning the Pertemps Final again this year with Feet Of A Dancer, whose profile is not dissimilar to the profile with which Mrs Milner went into the 2021 race.
Mrs Milner was a six-year-old mare who had raced 10 times over hurdles, who had finished fourth in the Pertemps qualifier at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival and who raced in the Pertemps Final off a handicap rating of 134. Feet Of A Dancer is also a six-year-old mare who has raced 11 times over hurdles, who finished third in the Pertemps qualifier at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival and who is set to race off a handicap rating of 136.
Nolan also has Daily Present for the Kim Muir again, Sandor Clegane for the Coral Cup, Park Of Kings probably for the Martin Pipe Hurdle, Conyers Hill for the Grand Annual, and impressive Leopardstown winner An Peann Dearg also for the Grand Annual or the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase. It’s a really nice team.
An hour after Seddon won the Kim Muir in 2023, an hour after John McConnell recorded his first Cheltenham Festival winner, he had the 1-2 in a claiming race at Dundalk, and the multipurpose trainer looks set to have runners on Thursday at Limerick, but his attention will probably be focussed on Cheltenham, on Moon D’Orange, on Seddon again.
On Friday he has Intense Approach in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle, a race in which he has gone close in the past. On Tuesday, he has No Time To Wait in the National Hunt Chase. On Wednesday he has Heads Up, who could out-run big odds in the Champion Bumper.
Sky Bet welcome offer
Padraig Roche recorded his first Cheltenham Festival winner in 2022, when Brazil got home by a short head from Gaelic Warrior in the Fred Winter Hurdle, and he goes there this year with a nice chance of doubling his tally with Win Some Lose Some in the Pertemps Final. The Champs Elysees gelding was game in winning the Leopardstown qualifier at Christmas, and it may be that he is progressive enough to be able to cope with a British handicap rating of 138, 13lb higher than the Irish mark off which he won at Leopardstown.
John Flavin will have his first runner at the Cheltenham Festival when Midnight Our Fred lines up in the Kim Muir on Thursday. He has been there before mind you, Midnight Our Fred has been to Cheltenham three times, and he has run well three times, he has finished second three times, but this will be his first time going there in March.
The Finsceal Fior gelding has been in tremendous form this season. He won at Gowran Park on his seasonal return in October, going right-handed, which isn’t ideal for him, and racing over two and a half miles, which is probably too short. He stepped up on that last time in the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown at Christmas, stepped up to three miles and going left-handed, when he ran a big race to finish second to Perceval Legallois in a race that is already working out spectacularly well. The ground is coming in his favour, and he is fully deserving of his place high in the market for the Kim Muir.
Rocky’ Diamond is also fully deserving of his place in the Stayers’ Hurdle line-up. Declan Queally’s young horse ran a massive race at a massive price in the Savills Hurdle at Leopardstown at Christmas, keeping on well to take third place behind Home By The Lee, and he improved on that last time when he won the Galmoy Hurdle.
No five-year-old has won the Stayers’ Hurdle in its current guise, but not many try, there hasn’t been a five-year-old runner since 2015. And no five-year-old had ever won the Galmoy Hurdle either until Rocky’s Diamond won it this year.
Declan Queally is having a really good season, and he will also be represented this week in the Hunters’ Chase by Rocky’s Howya, whom he will ride himself, who has won nine of his 11 point-to-point, and who was a game winner at Cragmore last time.
Paddy Power welcome offer
Jazzy Matty won the Fred Winter Hurdle for Gordon Elliott in 2023, and he has been going well of late for Cian Collins. Only just beaten by Path D’Oroux in a novices’ chase at Cheltenham’s October meeting, the Doctor Dino gelding stayed on well last time in a handicap hurdle at Thurles to finish a close-up second behind Samui. He should appreciate the return to Cheltenham.
Answer To Kayf should also appreciate the return to Cheltenham. Terence O’Brien’s horse ran a massive race in the Martin Pipe Hurdle at last year’s Festival, staying on well to take fourth place behind Better Days Ahead, the first four clear of their rivals. He looked really good in winning at Naas last time on just his third run over fences, and he is another for whom a drop of rain wouldn't be a negative in advance of his engagement in the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase on Thursday.
Mark Fahey has Flicker Of Hope in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle, Tom Cooper has D Art D Art in the Pertemps Final, Eddie and Patrick Harty have Irish Panther in the County Hurdle, Paul Gilligan has Sequestered in the Ultima, Conor Maxwell has Kool One in the Fred Winter, Lorna Fowler has Colonel Mustard in the Coral Cup. There are chances everywhere. Hamsiyann for Tony Martin in the Martin Pipe Hurdle perhaps, Roi Mage for Patrick and James Griffin in the Cross-Country, Solar Drive for Paul Flynn in the Fred Winter.
There is breadth and there is depth to the Irish challenge this year. It may be worthwhile taking a brief glance beyond the Big Four.
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