Irish vs British Trainers & Stables At Cheltenham – Do The Irish Actually Have The Edge?

From the moment that Cottage Rake won his first Gold Cup in 1948, the Irish have had a long-standing love affair with the Cheltenham Festival. Cottage Rake was the first Irish-trained horse to win the biggest prize at Prestbury Park and is seen by many as being the inspiration behind the so-called Irish invasion that takes place in Gloucestershire every March. Yet what is it that gives the Irish the edge over the British stables when Cheltenham rolls around?

Is it simply a matter of the better trainers being based in Ireland or is it more complex than that? Once Cottage Rake started the movement in the 1940s it was like a dam had broken and suddenly the Irish seemed to win every year, with British trainers trailing in their wake in more recent years. When you consider that the only other other major wins for Cottage Rake away from the Gold Cup were in the Irish Cesarewitch and the King George VI Chase, it’s understandable that people might ask about just why it is that the Irish love Cheltenham so much.

The country with the most trainer wins each year receives the Prestbury Cup since 2014.  You can read more about the Prestbury Cup and previous winners on our dedicated page.

Irish Winners Continue To Rise

The graph above looks at the number of Irish trained horses that have won at the Cheltenham Festival since 1975.  As you can see before the mid-2000’s the Irish were lucky to bag 5 or more winners at the festival but since then they have gone on to dominate.

In 2021 Irish trained horses won a staggering 82% of races despite only fielding 40% of festival runners.  Most of those horses were also bred in Ireland and of the five British winners that year three were bred in Ireland.  The Brits restored some decency from 2022 to 2024 bringing that total back down to 18 for the Irish, but still there is no stopping them and Willie Mullins in particular who set a record of 10 wins in 2022.  He did that again in 2025 with another ten wins.

The period from 2022-2024 all saw 18 Irish wins and many thought maybe that is where things are settling?  But then in 2025 the Irish won 20 again and that seemed to have gone out of the window.  However, in 2026 the Brits shocked many pundits, not by winning the Prestbury Cup but by at least pushing the Irish to the last race of the week, eventually losing 15-13.  Still that was the most winners Brits had saddled since they tied with Ireland in 2019.

Maybe over the coming years British stables will start to reverse the balance but one man, Willie Mullins, who trains half of the Irish winners each year will likely have something to say about that.

Note, the Festival was cancelled in 2001 due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak, this is why the value at that point is zero.  The last time the Irish trained no winners was in 1989.

Irish Trainers

Is it an exaggeration to suggest that Irish trainers dominate at the Cheltenham Festival? A look at the top 25 list of the top trainers would suggest that a few have dominated over the years, though in times of sheer numbers of trainers that have done well the British still hold the upper hand.

Here’s a look a the best 25 trainers between the first ever Festival and 2025, including how many winners they’ve had during that time:

* Gordon Elliott was subject to a 6 month ban in 2021 and Denise Foster took over his horses for that year and chalked up three wins, these are not counted in Elliott’s total.

Out of the 25 trainers looked at, then, just seven of them are Irish and yet they’ve racked up 271 wins between them. The eighteen remaining British trainers, meanwhile, have trained 478 winners in total. That obviously seems massively favourable, but when you break it down it comes out as the British training 26.6 winners per trainer on the list compared the Irish who have trained 38.7 winners per trainer.

Obviously the stats are slightly swung by the presence of Willie Mullins representing Ireland and Nicky Henderson on behalf of the British winning 121 and 78 races respectively, but it’s still an impressive statistic that the Irish have amassed more winners per head than the British have managed during the same time period.

There may be some reprieve on the horizon too with Dan Skelton in particular impressing in 2024 with four wins, he currently has 13 Festival wins but is only young and will make this list in no time.  It will be interesting to see how high he can climb.  It is trainers like him who are vital for an British revival

If you break it down further and only look at the trainers that were still active in 2018 then you’ll find that there are 24 trainers to talk about, of whom ten were Irish, thirteen British and one French. The Irish had amounted 157 winners between them, which compared favourably with the 239 winners for the British and French.

It amounted to 15.7 winners per trainer for the Irish and 17 winners per trainer for the British / French contingent, suggesting that the Irish trainers are able to give the British a run for their money regardless of whether you’re looking over the course of the Festival’s history or just in the modern era.

Irish Owners

While the trainers are obviously important and determine whether a horse is Irish trained or not, there are also owners to consider, and whether a horse is Irish owned.

The vast majority of Irish trained runners are also Irish owned, but there are plenty of big name owners in the UK that are Irish. The biggest of those, without a doubt, is JP McManus, his famous gold and green hopes are part of both UK and Irish racing.

McManus has 88 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, owning some of the biggest names to ever grace the track. He’s known for a plot, too, it wouldn’t be a festival without a ‘McManus gamble’ involving one, or sometimes more, of his runners.

Another big Irish owner who does keep all of his horses trained in Ireland, is Michael O’Leary, perhaps better known as the owner of the Gigginstown Stud, or alternatively, the lead man at Ryanair.

Known for his big association with trainer Gordon Elliott, Gigginstown run a breeding operation and buy plenty of Irish point to point horses, giving them huge numbers and plenty of top-end individuals.

Irish-Bred Horses

When you go a step further, away from trainers and owners, you get to where horses are bred, and Ireland continues to dominate here.

With such a strong point to point scene, where young horses go to showcase their talent in the amateur scene, the pathway in Ireland is very strong. On top of that, many of the bigger trainers and owners have deals in place with breeders and bloodstock agents, allowing them to buy point to point winners before they get chance to go to market.

While we have British point to point racing, the standard of it, and the pathway for the future, is nowhere near are strong. This leads to Irish runners being plucked from point to point racing, as well as horses being bred over there more, as owners know they have a better chance of selling on for a big price.

Why Do The Irish Do So Well?

Take nothing away from Ireland, when it comes to the Cheltenham Festival, despite it not being on home soil, they continue to dominate. The very, very simple answer is because they’re the best and continue to get the best horses.

British trainers have dominated in the past, but it’s a long time ago since someone like Paul Nicholls or Dan Skelton had an absolutely dominant superstar. Nicky Henderson has had some top runners in recent years, but those have mainly been Irish-owned.

When you look at the big days, the big races and the moments we all want to win, it’s dominated by the Irish and a big part of it is dominated by Willie Mullins.

If you’d got a horse and an unlimited budget, where would you send it to be trained? Many people would have Mullins as their number one pick.

He’s got some big owners spending a lot of money and sending him their best horses, and while that continues, so will his domination.

Elsewhere, there are other big-name Irish trainers that are very well backed. Henry de Bromhead, Gavin Cromwell, Noel Meade, Joseph O’Brien and the already mentioned Gordon Elliott are all subject of big backing from owners, which keeps pushing the quality of Irish racing forward.

If you go back a couple of decades, Britain had Paul Nicholls, right now, they’ve got Nicky Henderson. But what we’ve not seen in Britain, which for me is the big difference maker, is two or three trainers really battle each other with the best and push the levels forward.

That’s what Ireland has right now. Yes, Mullins is the king, but he’s got three or four behind him who are hot on his heels, keeping him driving forward. Britain doesn’t have that, and until they do, they won’t have a chance to claw back the dominance that Ireland has right now.

The 2025 Cheltenham Festival saw Ireland win the Prestbury Cup 20-8 over Britain, more than doubling the total of winners they had. But until there’s more than just one man with top-quality horses at the top of British racing, I don’t think that’ll change too much.  Even in 2026 when Britain managed to claw back some respect by taking the Prestbury Cup down to the last race they still lost 15-13.  A good year for Britain right now is just not losing by too much.