For many years, there was an unwritten battle between British and Irish racing at the Cheltenham Festival.
The home favourites, of course, wanted to dominate and ward off the threat of the Irish; the raiders from across the Irish Sea were intent on taking some handsome loot, in the form of the meeting’s generous prize money, back with them.
That rivalry was franked by the introduction of the Prestbury Cup in 2014, which quite literally pits British and Irish racing against each other to see who will win the most races.
Now, that previously unspoken rivalry has a quantifiable edge….and a shiny trophy to play for.
But when it comes to international Flat racing – be it in France, the United States or elsewhere – there is something of a camaraderie between the British and Irish camps. There’s a sense that they’re on the same team: the overseas raiders looking to show foreign connections how it’s done.
And, frequently, that’s exactly what they’ve done: bringing home sizable cheques after triumphing in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Breeders Cup meeting and other prestigious festivals.
However, it feels like there is something of a sea-change in the air, with many only too quick to sound the death-knell of British racing.
So are those concerns justified? And just how dominant has British racing been in overseas action on the Flat?
Is British Flat Racing On Its Knees?
Despite glories past, fast forward to the autumn of 2024 and it feels as if British racing may, possibly, be facing a power struggle in international races.
Load up the ante post betting market for the Arc, and it’s notable that the first five horses in the odds are either Irish or French; with those two countries offering up eight of the first ten in the market.
Of the two British fancies, only one – Ralph Beckett’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes runner-up Bluestocking – can be described as ‘truly’ British.
The other, Delius, is owned by the Smith/Magnier/Tabor connection and was bred in the UK, but the three-year-old is trained by Jean-Claude Rouget and raced exclusively on French soil.
The Arc is a race that, between 2015 and 2023, was won four times by British horses – a better strike rate than any other individual nation.
It’s also one of the few renewals each season that can be considered truly European in nature, so success here has been an indicator of strength for British racing. However, in 2024, it’s likely that trend will come to an end.
You can also look to the Longines Best Racehorse World Rankings for further evidence of a shift. In 2018 and 2019, four British trained/bred horses sat astride the top of the standings – albeit some were tied in the same year.
But since then….radio silence.
- 2018 – Cracksman (GB), Winx (AUS)
- 2019 – Crystal Ocean (GB), Enable (GB), Waldgeist (GB)
- 2020 – Ghaiyyath (IRE)
- 2021 – Knicks Go (USA)
- 2022 – Flightline (USA)
- 2023 – Equinox (JAP)
Unfortunately, the 2024 rankings offer little hope of a quick uptick either. There are six horses tied in seventh place in the standings, which has created what is, effectively, a top 12.
Of them, only two – Lockinge Stakes winner Audience and Sussex Stakes champion Notable Speech – are British trained and owned. Otherwise, six of that top 12 are Irish, three are American and Germany has a sole representative in the shape of Goliath.
That’s great news for Irish racing, whose conveyor belt of talent continues to roll on successfully, but for stakeholders in British racing that has to be a grave concern.
Generally, British connections have travelled well to the Arc and Breeders Cup meetings; be it with a small army of high-quality horses, a large contingent of entries, or a bit of both. In 2024, at the Longchamp spectacle at least, it appears as if neither of those boxes will be ticked.
In echoes of what has happened, and continues to happen, in the National Hunt, the Irish have also begun to dominate the Brits on their own turf too. At the time of writing (October 2024), 28 Group 1 renewals had been contested during the 2024 season. British horses had won less than half of them (12), with the Irish (14) dominating and both France and Australia picking up a victory apiece.
By way of context and comparison, there were 36 Group 1 races contested during the 2019 Flat season. And here’s where the winners of them were trained:
So, as recently as five years ago, British trainers were responsible for 69% of all Group 1 winners on home soil. Ireland (25%) and France (6%) lagged behind considerably.
Statisticians will tell you that this is a small sample size, and that only lukewarm conclusions can be drawn from the numbers. But the takeaway point remains: over the past five years, the number of British trainers winners of Group 1 races on domestic soil has fallen considerably, with Ireland being the chief beneficiaries.
As for the reasons, well, they could be debated until the cows come home. The question of prize money will often rear its head: is there a financial incentive to train in Britain? Is British racing too heavily reliant on the likes of John Gosden and Charlie Appleby to compete with the international powerhouses?
Maybe it’s all just a temporary thing, and British Flat racing will return to its formerly rude health – both at home and away – in the near future.
But you only need to look at the power struggle in National Hunt racing, where the Irish continue to give the Brits a good old pasting, to see where the trend lines are heading.
The French Resistance
When times are tough, nostalgia has that ability to be a warm, soothing comfort blanket.
Because British Flat racing hasn’t been in the doldrums for long. In fact, when you look at the results of the Brits overseas in some of the world’s most prestigious races, it’s clear that Team GB has been able to hold its own up until very recently.
The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is a useful marker. Based at Longchamp, the playing field is somewhat levelled – you would expect the French to compete in forthright fashion against the raiders from Great Britain and Ireland.
It’s a Group 1 established more than a century ago, and with a total prize pool of around £4 million, there’s plenty of incentive for connections to point their star assets in the direction of Longchamp.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, French horses dominated the Arc in the early decades of the race. In fact, they had a near monopoly on the winner’s enclosure. Between 1920 and 1969, British horses won the race four times while Ballymoss, in 1958, was the only Irish winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in that time frame.
But since 1970, when more money began to flow into British and Irish racing – which in turn raised standards and, crucially, ensured they were financially able to take a strong travelling contingent with them to Longchamp.
Since then, the goalposts have moved. Here’s a look at the winners of the Arc between 1970 and 2023:
The French are still the premier force in arguably their most prestigious race, winning the Arc 31 times since 1970.
But they no longer have a complete monopoly on the trophy, with British horses winning 13 times in that timeframe, Irish horses prevailing six times as well as three and one win for Germany and Italy respectively.
We can also laser focus our research into editions of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe ran since the year 2000. Now, the results look even more promising for the overseas raiders:
- France – 11 wins
- Great Britain – 7 wins
- Ireland – 4 wins
- Germany – 2 wins
It’s enough of a turnaround to make some simple conclusions; most notably, that training standards in Great Britain and Ireland, as well as the investment into Flat racing, is such that they have been able to close the gap considerably on the French in the Arc.
Frankie Dettori has ridden five of Britain’s seven Arc winners since 2000 – his retirement means that new heroes will need to stand up and be counted, but Luke Morris’ triumph aboard Alpinista in 2022 at least hints at a new guard breaking through.
American Adventure
There’s no shortage of high-quality action on the Flat over in the United States.
In fact, there’s more than 50 races that have been assigned the Grade 1 status, from the Kentucky Derby to the Pegasus World Cup.
Some of those renewals carry huge purses, with more than 30 Grade 1 races in America boasting a prize pool of $1 million or more.
Although the logistical challenges for British and Irish connections in sending their horses to race on American soil are obvious, the rewards – both financially and in the prestige of winning these internally-known renewals – speak for themselves.
As far as a complete meeting is concerned, it doesn’t come much bigger in the United States than the Breeders’ Cup. This festival, which takes place each November, has 14 different races on the card and each of them has a prize pool in excess of $1 million.
Some, like the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Breeders’ Cup Turf, offer connections a pool in excess of $5 million to battle it out for.
So while there’s richer races individually taking place around the globe, for a two-day card you’re unlikely to find a more lucrative meeting anywhere on the planet.
As such, you can’t blame the Brits and the Irish for eyeing an American adventure; and they’ve headed Stateside with mixed results in recent years.
Of course, American horses have the advantage. They’re on home turf, for starters, which has long given them an edge, as have the local conditions at the various tracks on the Breeders’ Cup rotation.
The qualification criteria for the Breeders’ Cup Classic effectively rule out overseas raiders. Of the eight ‘win and you’re in’ races, six are held in the United States, one in Japan and one, the International Stakes, is at York.
Often, a British winner of the International Stakes won’t even be entered into the Classic by their connections, for the simple reason that the race is run on dirt tracks – not a surface that British horses are overly familiar with.
Instead, it’s the turf-based renewals of the Breeders’ Cup meeting that are the most of interest to Brits and the Irish. And they don’t come much more appealing than the Breeders’ Cup Turf, which has had its purse increased to $5 million in time for the 2024 edition.
Racing on turf acts as a great leveller for horses of any nationality, and it’s in this particular race that we note the dominance of British and Irish trained horses:
Since the year 2000, British and Irish trainers have shared 18 winners of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, with Americans enjoying five wins and France two (the anomaly in the numbers comes from the 2003 edition, where High Chaparral and Johar were locked in a dead heat finish).
The notion that British and Irish racing is more than a match for any other nationality on the grass is confirmed by their performance in the other turf races at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
There’s the Filly & Mare Turf, of which British trained horses have won four of the last ten editions: including Inspiral’s stellar performance in 2023. The Irish have won two editions in the past decade, with a hat-trick for America’s Chad C. Brown – and a rare Japanese win on the turf – rounding out the rest.
The Juvenile Turf is another race that has been kind to the Brits and Irish. First ran in 2007, in the time that has passed since there’s been six wins for Aidan O’Brien – each ridden home by Ryan Moore, three for Charlie Appleby and two for John Gosden.
One of the newer races on the Breeders’ Cup itinerary, the Juvenile Turf Sprint was won every year by an American-trained horse between 2018 and 2021. But then along came the Brits: Mischief Magic and Big Evs winning for Charlie Appleby and Mick Appleby respectively in 2022 and 2023.
And while success in the Juvenile Fillies Turf has been harder to come by for overseas raiders, that magic team of Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore did oblige in 2022 courtesy of Meditate.
At the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Championships alone, British and Irish trained horses combined to win four of the six races held on the turf, bringing home a combined prize money pool of some $4.9 million (£3.7 million).
Up for the Cup
It’s a shame, from a British and Irish perspective, that some of the most valuable races on the planet are contested on dirt tracks, rather than turf.
That effectively counts them out of the Kentucky Derby, Pegasus World Cup and the Dubai World Cup, to name but three.
But there are other turf races in far-flung corners of the globe that catch the eye; not least the Melbourne Cup.
Weights announced for 123 Lexus @MelbourneCup contenders 🏆
Read 👉https://t.co/wp25hVR4KC pic.twitter.com/PSVwf6ifhg
— Victoria Racing Club (@FlemingtonVRC) September 17, 2024
Known as Australia’s premier race, the Melbourne Cup is held on the turf at Flemington Racecourse each November – essentially giving connections a choice whether to target that or the Breeders’ Cup meeting.
Some Brits and Irish connections have decided to give the Melbourne Cup a try in recent years – with lucrative results. Although Australian trained horses have prevailed in the last three editions, just prior to that there were victories for the likes of Joseph O’Brien and Charlie Appleby within the past decade.
And it wouldn’t be a surprise to see more overseas raiders targeting the Melbourne Cup in years to come: the prize pool has been increased to $8.4 million AUD, which equates to around £4.3 million.
So while there’s insinuation that British racing, both Flat and jumps, is struggling to keep pace with its counterpart over in Ireland, the key is that plenty of Brits continue to enjoy success in the sport – particularly, it seems, n foreign soil.