Ireland football legend turned horse racing breeder shares surprising hope for Cheltenham Festival 2024

KEVIN DOYLE is hopeful the Irish dominance at Cheltenham won't be as extreme this year as horse racing fans have become accustomed to.

The former Ireland striker is hugely invested in the sport nowadays as he runs a stable in his native Wexford.

He owns horses such as Baby Kate - who is trained by Willie Mullins - and will be competing at Aintree next month.

Ahead of this week's bonanza, he sat down with BoyleSports, who offer the latest Cheltenham Festival odds, to preview all four days of thrilling action.

It was evident that he is concerned for the overall competitive well-being of the sport as Irish super yards like those belonging to Mullins and Gordon Elliott leave their British rivals further and further behind.

He noted: “Not that I’m loyal to Willie Mullins, but he does have a lot of good horses at the moment.

"Everyone has a good horse, but the case with him at the moment is when his favourite has an off-day, he usually has a second-favourite horse that will come from the pack to win.

“I think that it will be pretty obvious that Willie will be the top trainer at the meeting.

“In my case, though, I would like English trainers to do better.

"You want the competition, you don’t want it just to be a walkover like it’s been in the past few years - you need that competition for rivalry and to create an atmosphere.

“If it’s just Ireland winning easily, you would like Britain to be a bit more competitive from my point of view."

However, for all of that, he doesn't anticipate Irish punters growing weary of all of the success.

Instead he is sure they will continue to flock across in their droves for years to come.

Asked if boredom could become a problem, he added: “Being as successful as we are at the moment, no!

"It’s more of a tradition as well with generations going to the Festival and people with horses having connections. 

“Especially at the moment, you’ll always get people going over with Ireland being such a heavyweight force.”

Since he can offer rare insight into the similarities or otherwise between the elite end of football and racing, he was quizzed about the respective roars at a Premier League stadium versus at Cheltenham.

The 40-year-old remarked: “It’s the equivalent to when a goal goes in during a Premier League match, with that deafening sound for a minute.

“If the jockeys are half-a-mile away on the other side of the track, they might not hear it.

"But for anyone in the stands it’s the equivalent in terms of the buzz, atmosphere and build-up.”