The Cheltenham festival has changed, wins for the romantic underdog are rarer now

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The Cheltenham festival has changed, wins for the romantic underdog are rarer now
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On a day of dominance for Irish-trained horses at Cheltenham, led inevitably by Willie Mullins, even the sole plucky 'underdog’ winner of the day - Chianti Classico - was Irish-bred

Derek O'Connor on Corbetts Cross and, second right, owner JP McManus, after the victory in the Maureen Mullins National Hunt Challenge Cup at Cheltenham. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inphohas changed quite a bit in the 10 years or so since I was last here. Police with automatic weapons now greet you at the entrance, for one thing.

But it may also be because, British or Irish, winners tend increasingly to be from the bigger stables and wealthier owners. The days of the romantic underdog are gone. Even jumps racing, traditionally the flat’s poor relation, is mostly big business now.

Regulars around the winners’ enclosure included Denis Kiely, whose noisy friends told The Irish Times: “His wife doesn’t know he’s here”. Kiely agreed: “I told her I was going to a meeting”. But he bravely gave his name to the paper anyway. In between, Mullins had also saddled State Man to win Tuesday’s big one for the colourful and extremely wealthy former Cork bookmaker, Joe Donnelly.

If there was a triumph of the underdog on Tuesday, it was when the plucky home team had their only one of the day. The English saviour took the unlikely-sounding form of a horse called Chianti Classico, which caused near raucous celebrations when taking the third race for trainer Kim Bailey.

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