We Irish usually blow our own trumpets with impunity on just about any occasion, whether we deserve it or not. However, nobody could have avoided noticing that this year's Cheltenham festival really was the year of the Irish - there were Irish horses, Irish trainers, Irish owners and Irish jockeys all over the winner's enclosure during the week, and for once we should all be blowing our own trumpets very hard indeed.
The first Irish winner of the week was French Ballerina, who is trained by Pat Flynn and owned by John Magnier's wife, Sue Magnier. Sue was unable to pick up the prize so her good friend Diane Nagle of Barronstown Stud stepped in and did the honours instead. Noel Meade certainly didn't have the luck of the Irish on Paddy's Day - he narrowly missed being the next owner into the winner's enclosure when his horse, Hill Society, came second after an agonisingly long-deliberated photo finish. There was no such deliberation necessary in the Smurfit Champion Hurdle with Istabraq romping home a clear first.
Oddly enough, Michael Smurfit ignored racing tradition and kept his hat on at the presentation podium. However, when he embraced the winning owner, his old friend J.P. McManus, his hat came off, restoring proper etiquette. Aidan O'Brien was the trainer here and he was also the man behind Theatre World, the second-placed horse owned by, well, Sue Magnier. And who said the racing world wasn't a small one?
Aidan called Carol Durkan to the the podium at the presentation ceremony. Carol is the wife of the late John Durkan, who trained Istabraq before he died of leukaemia earlier this year. On Wednesday, the Irish connection was Florida Pearl trained by Willy Mullins, who had a second winner at the end of the day when Alexander Banquet won the Bumper.
This horse, which was ridden by Ruby Walsh, the young son of RTE sports pundit, Ted Walsh, is owned by Noel O'Callaghan, owner of the Montclare, Davenport and Alexander Hotels. However, Noel won't be enjoying his winnings on this race; at a raffle at Leopardstown Racecourse last year, one of the prizes was the ownership of Alexander Banquet for a year, a prize won by Martin Swarbrick. However, for this race at least, it was Noel who collected the prize even if he didn't keep it.
There was a large political showing at Cheltenham, no doubt keeping on eye on one of Ireland's best exports: it included the Minister for Sport et al, Jim McDaid, who has made it to the festival every year for the past 17 years; the Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh; Charlie McCreevy TD; Brian Cowen TD and Michael Lowry TD.
Other Irish faces on the racecourse included Donn McClean and Matt Mitchell of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing; Noel Ryan, head of the Irish Horseracing Authority; Leo Powell of Goffs; owner Michael Tabor; trainer Richard Fahy and his brother-in-law, trainer Tim Easterby, and RTE's Robert Hall.