Irish stables have a 64% strike rate at the Cheltenham Festival over the past five years, outscoring the home team by 89 wins to 51, and there were ominous hints of another drubbing in six weeks’ time at the track’s trials meeting.
Willie Mullins, Ireland’s perennial champion, had a double on the card and his nephew, Emmet, took the Cleeve Hurdle with Noble Yeats, while even the heartwarming success of Elixir De Nutz in the Clarence House Chase was the result of a worryingly slipshod performance by Jonbon, the second-favourite for the Champion Chase on 13 March.
