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Thread: NH Racing in Crisis

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    NH Racing in Crisis

    Kevin Blake article in ATR worth a read.


    Another tough weekend for National Hunt racing
    Could the last defender of the current state of National Hunt racing please shut the door on their way out?
    It goes without saying, if you have found your way to this page, the chances are that you love National Hunt racing. I certainly do. I always will. However, the way the quality of the National Hunt racing product has been allowed to go into a nosedive by those at the wheel in the last 15 years has been shameful.
    All the issues that have led us to where we are, have been widely highlighted, and warnings have been sounded for much of the last decade, but those with the power were either unwilling or unable to address them, leading us to the low point we now find ourselves at.
    A grossly bloated programme book, particularly in terms of higher-class races, coupled with an ever-increasing emphasis on the Cheltenham Festival, has enabled and encouraged a highly conservative approach to the campaigning of National Hunt horses. This has utterly spoiled the week-to-week quality of the National Hunt racing product.
    What transpired at Ascot on Saturday was just the latest example of how close to the brink of farce National Hunt racing tends to sit these days. A richly endowed card that was already short on runners was reduced to an embarrassment of just 30 runners across seven races after drying conditions led to multiple trainers deciding to withdraw their runners. For a Saturday card that was showcased on terrestrial television, it was a pitiful spectacle.
    On what was a thoroughly disappointing day for the sport of National Hunt racing, I’m afraid Nicky Henderson made it worse with his comments surrounding his decision not to run Constitution Hill.
    Everyone knows at this stage that Henderson is a particularly conservative campaigner of his horses. As frustrating as that can be from a fans point of view, he is entitled to choose to do whatever he wants with the horses he trains. However, one would really have hoped that such an experienced and successful trainer would have the bigger-picture awareness to see how potentially damaging for the sport it is to use the language that he did regarding the ground at Ascot.

    This isn’t the first time Henderson has sought to create the narrative that he is protecting his horses from injury or worse by choosing not to run them on occasions when he has decided that conditions were unsuitable for them. Perhaps he feels that going down such a road insulates him from criticism of his conservative decisions, but such dramatic comments can only be described as irresponsible in a sport that can never lose sight of the importance of horse welfare.
    How must a wider audience interpret such comments? If they hear one of the greatest National Hunt trainers of the modern era saying that he doesn’t want to run his horses for fear of injuring them on the prevailing surface, what does that say to them about the trainers that do choose to run their horses? One can only imagine the pressure that such comments put on the other trainers with runners at Ascot on Saturday. It really did make a bad situation even worse.
    While Nicky Henderson tends to find a way to make himself the scapegoat for the frustrations of National Hunt fans, he isn’t the architect of what has happened to the sport. It is the programme book that enables him to be so picky about where he runs. He didn’t run Constitution Hill last Saturday but has a Grade 1 option for him in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle this coming Saturday, a race that has attracted just six entries. If options were as restricted as they should be, or the alternatives to Grade 1 contests were handicaps, these situations wouldn’t arise nearly as much, as the scope for cherry-picking targets would be greatly diminished.
    Same point - same outcome
    The repetition of this point for so many years is as tedious for me to make it as it is for you to read but nips and tucks are not what the current programme requires, it is slashing and burning. The BHA’s Quality Jump Racing Review has made the right noises about the sort of changes they would like to make to the programme from the 2023/24 season onwards, but whether they are brave enough to be as aggressive as they need, remain to be seen.
    Until then programme book is rectified and restructured, National Hunt racing will continue to deliver on no more than a small fraction of its potential as a sporting product. For every year that we continue as we are, interest levels can only diminish. Are we as a sport in such a strong position that we can afford to continue to dilly dally after over a decade of dilly dallying? One would hope that debacles such as what we saw last weekend will help stimulate a very belated sense of urgency amongst those with the power to drive change – however, history has shown us that change tends to come all too steadily in our game.

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    Many reasons to worry

    It is a million dollar industry but is very niche

    On top of all Blake said, he ignored what I see as the biggest worry and that is the wok culture in existence

    I can readily envisage a time in future when no animal is used for sporting reasons
    Some people say he’s the best since Arkle and that’s certainly true when you look at what he’s done

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    Quote Originally Posted by granger View Post
    Many reasons to worry

    It is a million dollar industry but is very niche

    On top of all Blake said, he ignored what I see as the biggest worry and that is the wok culture in existence

    I can readily envisage a time in future when no animal is used for sporting reasons
    Not sure I’d go that far atm. Certainly the sport does itself no favours with whippers-in at the start of NH and man-handling reluctant horses in the stall on the flat. It all makes it seem to the casual observer that the horses don’t want to do it and are forced into it. So easy to deal with, too, in NH if it doesn’t start, it doesn’t start and in the flat if it won’t just walk into the stalls it’s a non-starter. It is, after all, just a matter of proper training.

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    I agree with much/most of what Blake says, though I'd perhaps counter it slightly with the following - which I confess is all a bit off the top-of-my-head.

    The Pattern for the top-end 2-mile chasers is more-or-less as follows:

    Schloer Chase - early/mid-November meeting
    Tingle Creek - early December
    Desert Orchid - Christmas
    Clarence House - mid-January
    Game Spirit - mid February
    QMCC - mid-March

    Then there's the option of the Melling at Aintree over 2m4f, and/or the Champion Chase at Punchestown.

    That's actually a fair Pattern for the top 2m chasers. The problem we have, is that the trainers of the horses don't want to run more than a couple or three times before they get to Cheltenham. It's this timidity which robs us of the sort of clashes we should be witnessing throughout the season, rather than any evident 'bloating' of the pattern (with races coming at a rate of around one race per month through the core of the season).

    So what can be done to improve it?

    The two 'problematical' races in this division (imo) are the Desert Orchid, and the Game Spirit, as they offer softer alternatives to the Tingle Creek and Clarence House respectively.

    I would therefore make them G2 handicaps with no ratings ceiling. I would also make the Clarence House a G1 handicap with massive prize-money. This would, of course, mean that any top-end horse wanting a run between the Tingle Creek and Cheltenham, would likely have to run in one of the handicaps. No bad thing, in my view.

    Will it make trainers more inclined to run their top 2m horses? Perhaps not, but then there's no real incentive to do that now, so how much would we lose by making these adjustments? Besides, running the amended races as handicaps, is certain to at least provide for better betting opportunities than the anaemic events we've seen over recent years.

    As I say, this is all off the top of my head, and there's probably large gaps in my thinking.....and perhaps other divisions have much bigger problems. But whilst Blake is probably right in large measure when it comes to the NH programme, a scorched-earth approach to the book won't make a jot of a difference, as long as trainers want to give their horses as easy a time as possible, ahead of the spring Festivals.

    My suspicion is that even if we adjust the pattern to limit 'easy' opportunities (to win, or to avoid stern opposition), then the training community will probably default to even less runs-per-season for their good horses, than they do already. If anything, it is the mindset of trainers that's the issue, rather than the Pattern.
    Last edited by Grasshopper; 22nd November 2022 at 3:39 PM.
    "Beat the price and lose. It's what we do".

    SlimChance, March 2018

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    barjon (22nd November 2022)

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    Could have Cheltenham at the beginnng of the season . Then it’d all be over and they could concentrate instead on everything else.

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    "Beat the price and lose. It's what we do".

    SlimChance, March 2018

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    Is jump racing almost a victim of its own success or more specifically the success of the Cheltenham Festival at times?

    The more people and owners interested in it, means owners are surely paying more and more each year for horses that aren't necessarily any better than in prevous generations. Even flat operations like Cheveley Park are now in the game.

    Thereby the reluctance to race such expensively bought horses unless they get their ideal conditions?

    I don't know. Just a thought.
    Last edited by Marb; 22nd November 2022 at 4:30 PM.

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    The importance of Cheltenham (rather than the "success", I'd suggest) has been an evolutionary thing. I do recall it being a pretty big deal back in the 1970s, when I was sending money home from France for the brother to punt for me. But it's certainly taken on much more significance in recent times.

    I'm going to be a wee bit controversial here and suggest that owners (and their respective trainers) like JP McManus haven't helped. Once they started being successful with their gambles it seems [to me] that the rest of the Irish trainers decided tehy wanted to do likewise.

    I think it's especially the case in the handicaps. There was a time when having 7lbs in hand over your mark allowed you to be very competitive in the handicaps. Now it's almost like every handicap is a mecca with a good half-dozen targeting each one like it is their Gold Cup.

    That approach is also filtering down into the big Saturday handicaps. I've mentioned the phenomenon a few times over the last few years. The big Saturday handicaps are being targeted as never before. Big increases in prize money - which are very welcome - are helping drive it. Let's face it, I know if I owned a horse that the trainer was telling is a 160 staying chaser in the making, I'd be wanting it to get into the Hennessy off 140 and the National off 148.
    Illegitimi non carborundum


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    To be fair to JP from what I understand, he was a bookie in the 70s and then landed some successful gambles, but surely not even those conkers were enough to build his racing empire.

    Hence, this is when he aligned with Joe Lewis, John Magnier and the rest and is said to have profitted on international currency markets.

    My main point is JP has definately had an interest in the game for decades. Whether or not he plotted one for a handicap is not that relevent in terms of discussions around owners and trainers running or not running horses in graded races.

    Hence, I couldn"t point the finger at him for trying 'to get in on the act', so to speak.

    He was backing and laying horses at Cheltenham before most of us were conceived!
    Last edited by Marb; 22nd November 2022 at 6:38 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marb View Post

    My main point is JP has definately had an interest in the game for decades. Whether or not he plotted one for a handicap is not that relevent in terms of discussions around owners and trainers running or not running horses in graded races.

    Hence, I couldn"t point the finger at him for trying 'to get in on the act', so to speak.
    That's not my point.

    My point is that - in my opinion - he has contributed to the perceived "importance" of Cheltenham and the knock-on effect is that the entire meeting has become the be all and end all for many. That's impacting on the rest of the calendar.

    The brother and I were having a mutual whinge on the phone last night about the fuss being made about Hendo, CH and the plethora of non-runners at the weekend. I can remember back in the 1970s, the ITV Seven races were regularly contested by very small fields. That would probably have been down to unsuitable conditions but good ground management since then saw increased numbers and now when the weather defeats CoCs (or when they're as incompetent as Stickells and Tellwright) and we end up with small fields suddenly there's a heated debate to be had.
    Illegitimi non carborundum


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    He probably contributed to the 'perceived importance' of Man United aswell but whether that means he did anything wrong is obviously not really the case.

    He definately was a trend setter in jumps racing, as opposed to a lemming following others off a cliff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by granger View Post
    Many reasons to worry

    On top of all Blake said, he ignored what I see as the biggest worry and that is the wok culture in existence
    I always woddered what they did with the dead horses. If this gets out to the general public our sport is history.
    "And still they gazed and still the wonder grew. That one small head could carry all he knew.

    And that small head knew that Impaire Et Passe would win the Champion Hurdle."

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marb View Post
    Is jump racing almost a victim of its own success or more specifically the success of the Cheltenham Festival at times?

    The more people and owners interested in it, means owners are surely paying more and more each year for horses that aren't necessarily any better than in prevous generations. Even flat operations like Cheveley Park are now in the game.

    Thereby the reluctance to race such expensively bought horses unless they get their ideal conditions?

    I don't know. Just a thought.
    Simple, but radical.
    Make all races handicaps, bar end of season Championships?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marb View Post
    He probably contributed to the 'perceived importance' of Man United aswell but whether that means he did anything wrong is obviously not really the case.
    Exactly where did I say he did anything wrong?
    Illegitimi non carborundum


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    Quote Originally Posted by reet hard View Post
    Simple, but radical.
    Make all races handicaps, bar end of season Championships?
    No complaints from me if this were the case.

    Bar the King George, Tingle Creek etc I would go along with it.

    Re-DO. Sorry if it appears I tryed to put words in your mouth!
    Last edited by Marb; 22nd November 2022 at 8:06 PM.

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    The Irish NH season has always been a slow build towards the spring festivals, Cheltenham above all but also Aintree, Fairyhouse and Punchestown.


    But over the years the Christmas racing at Leopardstown has improved greatly, and so has the Limerick meeting, and now the Dublin Racing Festival is also a great staging post.


    Before Christmas the Fairyhouse meeting contributes plenty and next year there will be an attempt to create similar weekends at Punchestown and Navan.


    I don't see anything fundamentally wrong with the structure of the Irish season, but I would like to see the major open Irish Grade Ones become more valued in their own right The best way to bring that about is probably to boost their prize funds, maybe in conjunction with downgrading some races with an inflated status, such as the Morgiana and the chase at Down Royal.


    Regarding the British season, the calendar is too dispersed to easily start creating new centrepiece meetings. Maybe Haydock and Aintree could join forces to create a big autumn weekend, other opportunities are harder to spot. But I would be inclined to give a big boost to the prize funds of the likes of the Betfair Chase, Tingle Creek, Christmas Hurdle and King George. The Fighting Fifth also needs to be either boosted or scrapped as a Grade one.

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    Quote Originally Posted by reet hard View Post
    Simple, but radical.
    Make all races handicaps, bar end of season Championships?
    Yes,I agree.all hcaps,now you're talking.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Outsider View Post
    Yes,I agree.all hcaps,now you're talking.
    Tony Martin and Charles Byrnes go into Punchestown neck and neck for the trainers title.
    "And still they gazed and still the wonder grew. That one small head could carry all he knew.

    And that small head knew that Impaire Et Passe would win the Champion Hurdle."

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    Quote Originally Posted by Grey View Post
    The Irish NH season has always been a slow build towards the spring festivals, Cheltenham above all but also Aintree, Fairyhouse and Punchestown.


    But over the years the Christmas racing at Leopardstown has improved greatly, and so has the Limerick meeting, and now the Dublin Racing Festival is also a great staging post.


    Before Christmas the Fairyhouse meeting contributes plenty and next year there will be an attempt to create similar weekends at Punchestown and Navan.


    I don't see anything fundamentally wrong with the structure of the Irish season, but I would like to see the major open Irish Grade Ones become more valued in their own right The best way to bring that about is probably to boost their prize funds, maybe in conjunction with downgrading some races with an inflated status, such as the Morgiana and the chase at Down Royal.


    Regarding the British season, the calendar is too dispersed to easily start creating new centrepiece meetings. Maybe Haydock and Aintree could join forces to create a big autumn weekend, other opportunities are harder to spot. But I would be inclined to give a big boost to the prize funds of the likes of the Betfair Chase, Tingle Creek, Christmas Hurdle and King George. The Fighting Fifth also needs to be either boosted or scrapped as a Grade one.
    I agree with all this except the prize money for the bigger races Eddie

    The big races already have huge pots and there shoud be more done to encourage the better grade 2 and handicaps to enduce better racing season long

    Irish racing has already implemented a fixtures change to make November weekend's more enticing and this is great for the viewer

    The BHA throwing more money at Cheltenham and Aintree is only accentuating the problems facing non-festival UK racing
    Some people say he’s the best since Arkle and that’s certainly true when you look at what he’s done

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    You make a good point about the money thrown at Cheltenham and Aintree, Colm. Both those courses are owned by the Jockey Club, as are Kempton, Sandown and a dozen others. They could easily do a bit of resource reallocation without having to involve others.

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