The Cheltenham Festival is underpinned by a keen rivalry between British and Irish trainers. Yet while the home contingent held sway at Prestbury Park this year, Ireland is in the ascendancy on the Flat.

There could be no better place for redress than at Royal Ascot, the quintessential British occasion that gets under way on Tuesday. Nevertheless, British trainers appear underdogs in advance of seven championship races to be disputed next week.

Ballydoyle's Yeats, Henrythenavigator and Duke Of Marmalade are three formidable favourites for their respective races, while Fleeting Spirit and Sakhee's Secret must contend with a sizeable foreign presence in the King's Stand and Golden Jubilee Stakes respectively.

This follows a sole British-trained victory - the Oaks triumph of Look Here - in the ten classics run this season in Britain, France and Ireland. James Fanshawe went close when Spacious beat all bar Natagora in the 1,000 Guineas and few hold better prospects of a domestic triumph than the Cheveley Park Stud home-bred filly in the Coronation Stakes.

Fanshawe himself is unperturbed by the foreign invasion. “I try to focus on my own horses without worrying how Britain as a whole is faring,” he said. “Looking at the classics, I don't think we had a single horse start favourite. That's the way the cookie crumbles."

There has been plenty for Fanshawe to ponder of late. He is bemused by a run of near-misses: his last 30 runners have yielded 14 places but a solitary winner. And his sense of frustration is exacerbated by his Newmarket neighbour, the in-form William Haggas, who flies the Union Jack above his stable whenever he hits the target - a frequent occurrence of late.

Haggas holds an attractive Royal Ascot hand, headed by Danehill Destiny (Queen Mary Stakes) and Aqlaam (Jersey Stakes), yet has no one horse of the calibre of Spacious. “Jamie [Spencer] rode her on Friday and was very happy,” Fanshawe said. “She still has some filling out to do but she looks like she is progressing all the time.”

Another with claims is Cesare in the Queen Anne Stakes. “He just loves his racing,” Fanshawe said. “There was no pace when he finished fourth in the Lockinge Stakes and, of course, he adores Ascot.” Conversely, Artimino, second favourite for the Royal Hunt Cup, trod on a loose shoe on Saturday to leave his participation in the balance.

Fanshawe's Zidane is likely to contest the Golden Jubilee Stakes, where he would run into Sakhee's Secret, who pleased his trainer, Hughie Morrison, in a gallop yesterday morning. Interestingly, Morrison echoes Fanshawe in his ambivalence to Britain's shortage of classic triumphs. “I never look at it that way,” he said.

In other Ascot developments, connections of Rio De La Plata are hoping that the colt, who tore off a shoe when seventh in the Derby, recovers sufficiently to contest the St James's Palace Stakes.