Lookout Cheltenham, the Irish are Coming!!

The Irish Are Coming

With the Festival just around the corner, many thousands of Irishmen and women will be making their annual pilgrimage to the home of National Hunt racing.

Along with the thousands of pints of Guinness that will be drunk and the thousands of euros that will be wagered the formidable Irish trainers and owners will be bringing over their very best horses and will be looking to take home plenty of prize money and the prestigious honours from the best National Hunt race meeting in the world.

In this blog we are going to look at the numbers and see just how dominant they have been and in which areas that dominance has come.

ALSO READ

Essential Guide To The Cheltenham Festival 2025

Ten Year Statistics

As you can see from the table below, the Irish entries have won 50% or more of the race at each of the last nine festivals, seven of those festivals they won 60% or more of the races.

The 2021 festival was a bumper year with them winning an incredible 23 of the 28 races, that was 82% of the races that year.

A Handicap or Not?

This probably is not news to many but the majority of the winners do come in non-handicap races, however, do not be put off in a handicap by all means!

The Irish have won 68.33% of the non-handicap races at the last ten festivals, that is an impressive 123 races won from a possible 180.

They have won just over half of the handicaps but only just, from the 96 handicaps, they have won 49 of those (51.04%).

• 123-180 (68.33%) in Non-Handicap
• 49-96 (51.04%) in Handicaps

ALSO READ

Cheltenham Festival Handicap Pointers

The Class

When it comes to classes there is one which stands out and that is the Irish entries into a Grade 2 races which include the Challenge Cup, Mares Novices Hurdle and Mares Novices Chase.

Over the last ten festivals there have been 21 renewals of those races and the Irish have won 81% of them, that is 17 of the 21 races!

Their Grade 1 record is good too, they have won 68% of those which is 94 of the 139 races and the last four festivals have seen win rates of 86%, 71%, 71% & 86%!

Schedule for Tuesday at the Cheltenham Festival

Prepare for the ROAR of the Cheltenham Festival on the opening day when the tape goes up for the Supreme Novices Hurdle, the feature on Tuesday is the Champion Hurdle.

Schedule for Wednesday at the Cheltenham Festival

The dust has settled on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival and now on to day two. The feature on the second day is the Queen Mother Champion Chase. We also have the cross country scheduled on Wednesday, a race like Marmite, some love it and some don't!

Schedule for Thursday at the Cheltenham Festival

Halfway through the festival and onto day three where the Stayers Hurdle is the feature race. A hurdle race to test the stamina and see how can last best up the Cheltenham hill.

Schedule for Friday at the Cheltenham Festival

The final day of the festival and feature race that we have all been waiting for, the Cheltenham Gold Cup in which the Irish have been fairly dominant in recent years.