took a beating in Paris last week<\/a> and the footballers are struggling to reach even a 48-team World Cup, but its horses, trainers and jockeys are not about to surrender their dominance in National Hunt racing.<\/p>\nThe re-emergence of Gordon Elliott as a serious rival for Willie Mullins in the Irish title race feels particularly ominous from a British perspective. Ireland came away from last year\u2019s festival with 20 winners, its second-biggest return after the extraordinary 23-winner spree in 2021, despite Elliott drawing a blank with his first 51 runners at the meeting before Wodhooh, the 52nd and last, took the final race on Friday.<\/p>\n
It was a frustrating week that culminated in tears of joy and relief as Elliott welcomed her back to the winner\u2019s enclosure, and one that he is in no mood to repeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn racing, soccer, rugby, it\u2019s the same, you\u2019ve got to keep your head going,\u201d Elliott said this week. \u201cBut as hard as it was for me, for all my staff who were putting in all the hours, it was harder for them. The horses didn\u2019t run badly, we just didn\u2019t get the bounce of the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at this season, everything is bouncing right for us. That\u2019s sport. You just put those days behind you but that\u2019s what makes it better when you win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The headliners from Elliott\u2019s stable next month will include Brighterdaysahead, the second-favourite for the Champion Hurdle, and Teahupoo, the market leader for the Stayers\u2019 Hurdle, alongside the unbeaten novice chaser, Romeo Coolio, a likely runner in the two-mile Arkle Trophy but with an option to switch to the three-mile Brown Advisory Novice Chase instead.<\/p>\n
Brighterdaysahead was a disappointing 5-2 shot in last year\u2019s Champion Hurdle but Elliott remains hopeful that she will be able to translate her exceptional form around Leopardstown \u2013 including a win in the Irish Champion Hurdle this month \u2013 to Cheltenham.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think last year she wasn\u2019t right,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cAfter Punchestown [in April] we discovered something and we rectified it. She was beaten after a hurdle last year. We might do something different this year. We might stable her outside Cheltenham and just try to do something different.<\/p>\n
Gordon Elliott supervises work at his stables this week. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re always thinking of something different. She\u2019s been to Cheltenham twice and hasn\u2019t won and last year was very bad, but if you don\u2019t try to tweak and change things then you shouldn\u2019t be training horses. That\u2019s my job and I\u2019m trying to do something different every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elliott is about \u20ac500,000 (\u00a3435,000) clear of Willie Mullins in the Irish trainers\u2019 championship, and feels that his 50-strong team for this year\u2019s festival is his deepest for a decade. Mullins, though, seems sure to outdo him for numbers, at least, with a squad of about 70 runners horses expected to travel to the meeting.<\/p>\n
Typically for Mullins, there are late decisions to be made on the running plans for several of his stable stars, including whether the impressive Irish Gold Cup winner, Fact To File, will be supplemented for the Gold Cup or attempt a repeat success in the Ryanair Chase.<\/p>\n
Mullins suggested on Wednesday that his team could be a little behind in terms of its preparation this year, not least due to the effects of the wettest winter for many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think things would be as quiet [in the first part of the season],\u201d Mullins said, \u201cbut we had a very wet time from November up to right after Christmas. We were waiting for a little less weather but it never really happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no bug or anything l like that. They were all eating well and they all seemed to be fine. But sometimes at that time of the year, we are a bit slow and then in the spring, things come right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mullins and Elliott lead the way for Ireland in terms of numbers, ably supported by trainers including Henry de Bromhead, who has not drawn a blank at the festival since 2016 and has a 12-point profit to level stakes over the last decade.<\/p>\n
But there are much smaller operations too that add further depth and colour to the country\u2019s festival challenge. Jimmy Mangan, who has not saddled a winner in Britain since Monty\u2019s Pass in the 2003 Grand National, will send the 8-1 chance Spillane\u2019s Tower to the Gold Cup, while Declan Queally, who both trains and rides the Grade One-winning I\u2019ll Sort That, will run his stable star in either the Turners Novice Hurdle or the Albert Bartlett.<\/p>\n
Trainer Willie Mullins pictured at his stable\u2019s media day this week. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
And there will be two runners too from Barry Connell\u2019s bespoke stable in County Kildare, including Marine Nationale, the defending champion in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.<\/p>\n
Connell is a former hedge-fund manager who learned to ride in his late 30s, took out an amateur jockey\u2019s licence in his 40s and then turned his attention to training having observed trainers including Elliott at close hand during several decades as an owner.<\/p>\n
His operation is a seamless combination of tradition and modern ideas, in a built-from-scratch stable where the handful of \u201cstore\u201d horses that he buys each year are given all the time they need to mature and thrive, and everything from airflow to the disposal of manure is meticulously planned.<\/p>\n
And Connell\u2019s record at the festival speaks for itself: five runners, two wins, one second, one fourth and just one runner out of the frame.<\/p>\n
Marine Nationale is the second-favourite for the Champion Chase behind Mullins\u2019s Majborough, who beat him at the Dubin racing festival last time out, but Connell is confident that he can turn the tables next month.<\/p>\n
Quick GuideGreg Wood’s Thursday tipsShow<\/p>\n
Taunton 1.05 Western Cross 1.40 Five Bar Gate 2.15 Cooler Than Me 2.50 Jongleur D\u2019Etoiles 3.25 Welsh Charger 4.00 Beacon Edge<\/p>\n
Lingfield 1.23 Joseph 1.58 Spanish Voice 2.33 U S S Charleston 3.08 An Laochmor 3.43 Haveagobeau 4.15 Lexington Jet 4.50 Woodraff<\/p>\n
Leicester 1.30 Grandad\u2019s Cap 2.05 Epic West 2.40 A Little Something 3.15 Hawk Stone 3.50 No Tackle 4.25 St Cuthbert\u2019s Cave<\/p>\n
Chelmsford 4.55 Amarachi 5.30 Numero Vingt 6.00 Gallant 6.30 Carlton (nap) 7.00 Stay Salty 7.30 Crimson Rambler (nb) 8.00 Captain Parma<\/p>\n
Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has been to Cheltenham twice, won there twice and not been off the bridle twice,\u201d Connell said. \u201cWhen he walks around the pre-parade ring [there] it\u2019s like he\u2019s walking around the courtyard here at home. Having the right temperament is a huge thing, especially for those championship races.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ll see a different horse again in March. That\u2019s not just my opinion, it\u2019s backed up by the form book when you look at what he does when he goes there every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quick GuideGreg Wood’s Friday tipsShow<\/p>\n
Fakenham 1.20 Character Testing 1.50 Brother Boris 2.20 Jurys In 2.50 Kalista Love 3.25 Stattler 4.00 Castanea Breeze 4.35 Cooltobecareless<\/p>\n
Kelso 1.30 Kocktail Bleu 2.00 Judicial Deference 2.30 Bertie\u2019s Ballet 3.00 Empire Steel 3.35 Moon Phases 4.10 Slaney Opera 4.45 Lion Rose Sivola<\/p>\n
Chepstow 1.40 Bossman Jack 2.10 Merci Mam 2.40 Juby Ball 3.10 Getaway Theatre 3.45 The Big Reveal 4.20 Churchman 4.55 Delta Blues Belle<\/p>\n
Wolverhampton 5.15 R P McMurphy 5.45 Desiderata 6.15 Miss Lady Grace 6.45 City Cyclone (nap) 7.15 Al Najashi 7.45 Sam\u2019s Xpress (nb) 8.15 My Genghis<\/p>\n
Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n
Will Team Ireland reach the giddy heights of 2021 this year? Probably not. But a repeat of last year\u2019s 20-8 final score is an entirely realistic ambition for National Hunt\u2019s dominant force and punters on both sides of the Irish Sea will need to ride the green wave to stand any chance of finishing the festival in profit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first four Grade One favourites at Cheltenham next month are stabled in British yards. So are three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-294481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}