There has been lots of cross-channel hand-wringing after Cheltenham as to whether jump racing’s greatest meeting is losing its lustre. But with Anglo-Irish rivalry so critical to the festival’s appeal here, Ireland might be faced with dreaming it all up again too.
Far too much of last week smacked of the humdrum. In terms of atmosphere and anticipation the sport’s biggest dates were muted to a once unimaginable extent.
Irish-trained horses, and specifically Willie Mullins-trained horses, were expected to dominate and duly did so. In Prestbury Cup terms, Ireland wound up double scoring the home team 18-9. Mullins on his own drew with them. In Grade One terms, it was barely a contest.
Recognition of the excellence behind it doesn’t preclude acknowledgment that such superiority bordered on the boring at times. Rather like Manchester City rolling over inferior opposition, it could be beautiful to watch yet curiously insipid.
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Ballyburn might be an exceptional talent. But watching him lead home four stable companions in a seven-runner race verged on the farcical. It’s not Willie Mullins’s problem. But a flawed programme that contributes to such a scenario is a very real issue for the sport generally.
Attendance figures down over four per cent overall on last year – a whopping 18 per cent down compared to 2022 – are the most obvious evidence of slipping public engagement. It has prompted a cut in ticket prices for next year’s festival.
That’s welcome as complaints surrounding excessive pricing of all kinds tie in with a perception of the Jockey Club being more than a bit high-handed when it comes to taking race fans for granted. But such cuts might well prove to be a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
Cheltenham used to more than live up to its billing as an annual pilgrimage. But it’s not just British festivalgoers increasingly opting to worship from afar. A worrying number of once stalwart Irish fans are staying at home too.
It’s about much more than just boots on the ground, though. Cheltenham is National Hunt racing’s shop window, the sport’s chance to sell itself to the widest constituency. The festival engages on a level that nothing else does. The problem is predictability is a hard-sell to any audience, specialist or otherwise.
An event that for decades pointed upwards in every measure of public appeal seems to have plateaued or perhaps even started a slide that will prove difficult to reverse if competition issues aren’t urgently addressed.
That is primarily a matter for those in charge in Britain. It is after all their patch and their party. But it’s a situation that leaves this side of the Irish Sea recalibrating its relationship with an event which for so long has so defined racing success in this country.
There’s a reason why so much of the festival narrative over the years has come wrapped up in a ubiquitous if amorphous ‘Team Ireland’ concept. It makes no logical sense in such an inherently individual sport. But sentiment is often odds on to beat logic in any sporting environment.
Irish fascination with Cheltenham was always in a context of a small country raiding its bigger neighbour and beating them on their own patch; the underdog sticking it to The Man in his own backyard, shoving a little humble pie down some condescending English throats for a change.
It could be chippy and childish but only the most wilfully unwitting could pretend it didn’t exist. Not for nothing did so many come back to the winners’ enclosure with tricolours, defying their hosts to not respond with equanimity.
But as Ric Flair, wrestling’s own Wittgenstein, once put it, to be the Man, you gotta beat The Man.
Irish-trained horses outscored the home team for the first time in 2013, since when the raiders have established themselves firmly and indisputably on top of the festival pile. 2021′s freakish 23-5 final tally took place in the surreal context of Covid lockdown, but the new top dog reality is indisputable.
It raises the question from an Irish perspective as to how much of the ho-hum vibe that hung over last week’s action is a result of the old underdog role now being redundant. No one’s waving flags any more because it doesn’t feel right.
Childishness now comes in expensive English accents spouting idiotic ‘Stop The Boats’ type outrage. It’s a role reversal requiring a mental reboot on all sides since there’s no sign of anything changing anytime soon. Irish supremacy, even if it’s really Willie Mullins supremacy, is here to stay.
Irish dominance isn’t a hit in Britain, but what’s curious is how the novelty appears to be starting to wear thin here too. If the old context isn’t applicable any more, how the festival’s allure gets rejuvenated in the wider public consciousness will be interesting to see.
What would help is the home team getting its act together. The vehemence of some of the reactionary cross-channel commentary illustrates how the Anglo-Irish rivalry is no one-sided affair as often presumed in the past. Maybe hurt pride can prompt a resurgence rather than just rancour.
A rivalry presumes both sides can win, and Cheltenham’s long-term outlook is bound up in generating a vital new kind of festival context that works on both sides of water.
Something for the Weekend
PAUL MARVEL (4.33) is no Willie Mullins star but he teams up with Paul Townend for the first time over fences in Navan’s novice handicap chase on Saturday. The way he stayed on behind a stable companion at Leopardstown suggests a stretch out in trip should suit.
A little earlier, GAME ON FOR GLORY (4.25) can appreciate better going and follow up a recent Ludlow victory for Bryony Frost.
