Irish will be the real McCoy

Our trainers eager for more huge victories | AP's credit to competition' at home for wins

- ROBERT HYNES

AP McCoy expects the Irish domination to continue at the Cheltenham Festival this year as the action kicks off today.

Our trainers won 18 of the 28 races at the meeting 12 months ago, while the scoreline was 23-5 in 2021.

Legenday rider AP is expecting a lot more success ahead of St Patrick's Day later this week.

McCoy, who remains the third most successful jockey in the Festival's history, believes both Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott could individually have more winners than all of the UK-based trainers combined.

He puts the Irish success at the meeting down to the level of competition at racecourses here all year round.

He told the Irish Mirror: "I would say Willie will definitely beat all the English, Gordon has a chance as well I'd say. I still think the gap is huge.

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"There are horses there that will win [for UK trainers] like Constitution Hill, Shishkin, Edwardstone has a chance, there's a few in the Gold Cup.

"If Galopin Des Champs didn't turn up, maybe Protektorat and a couple of them, but what are the others? "Luccia is in the Mares' Novices Hurdle but Willie has three or four mares there.

"With the exception of Constitution Hill or Shishkin, I'm not sure about Hermes Allen, I'd have probably ran him in the Albert Bartlett if he was mine. What are the others?

"The novice hurdle races are totally dominated by Irish horses, but I think that all comes down to competition.