MUCH ink has been spilt recently, and many angry words spoken, about the treatment of Irish horses by the British handicappers. Over the years, Ireland has generally managed to find a few handicap winners at the Cheltenham Festival – including three or four at each of the last four – and the likelihood is it will be the same this time round.

Irish handicap hurdlers have fared better than Irish handicap chasers at recent Cheltenham Festivals and impact values going into this year’s festival point to the likelihood of the same. Two particularly interesting hurdlers from a time point of view are Prospectus and Dakota Moirette in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle on the second day.

Among the British-trained handicappers, favourable timing mentions can be given to Go Conquer (paid for chasing an on-fire Tenor Nivernais at Ascot), Dominada (helped set an overly-strong pace at Musselburgh last time but still held on for second), Rock The Kasbah (figures off 10 lb lower over fences than he was running off over hurdles 12 months ago and now with ample experience over larger obstacles) and North Hill Harvey.

The last-named represents really strong novice hurdling form from last season (fourth to Buveur D’Air, Petit Mouchoir and Limini at Aintree) and ran a fast time, despite racing close to a strong pace, when winning the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham in November. North Hill Harvey trainer, Dan Skelton, is in form again now for good measure.