THE domination of French-bred horses in major races is not the only problem facing Anglo-Irish National Hunt racing and breeding.

There is also a danger that races are becoming increasingly uncompetitive, reducing the interest of bettors, spectators and fans alike.

This is indicated by reduced entries in even the most important races. Compared with only four years ago, those for the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup are down by 54% and the Champion Hurdle by 41%, with the Aintree Grand National attracting 15% fewer.

Significant numbers of graded races in both Britain and Ireland are generating particularly small fields. Recently, in Britain, we witnessed a three-runner Grade 2 novice chase, offering blacktype and a £5,000-plus prize just for finishing.

This was followed by a Grade 2 hurdle at Cheltenham, where the 1/12 favourite, Constitution Hill, winner of two Grade 1s in the past 13 months, carried just 2lb more than the sole Grade 3 winner in the race and 6lb more than three non-blacktype winners. The major excitement was when he stepped at the last hurdle, causing more flutters than in several of his Grade 1 wins at odds of 1/12, 2/15, 1/7 and 1/4.

In Ireland, things are no better. A recent Grade 3 hurdle featured three runners with the favourite, a 1/10 chance, strolling to an unchallenged victory. He was therefore following in the hoofprints of his stablemate, State Man, who had previously won five Grade 1s containing just three opponents, three with four rivals, one with five and only a single Grade 1 with as many as eight taking him on. His longest-priced victory came at odds of 6/5, the shortest at 1/6.

Star Trek’s Mr Spock might have commented: “It’s racing, Jim, but not as we know it.” True: too often, it seems to consist of well-rewarded exercise gallops.

Broken pyramid

The so-called ‘Pattern’ is suffering from a degree of confusion. It is surely meant to take the form of a pyramid, with a small number of races at the top level identifying the very best horses, and lower levels in which horses are tested against each other, before the better ones move upwards.

The top conditions races within this pyramid are usually called Grade 1s, Grade 2s and Grade 3s respectively. However, as we will see later, neither the Irish nor British jump race programmes look much like pyramids, unless somewhere in Egypt there are pyramids with flat tops.

In regard to handicaps, Ireland used to have a rational classification of these too, the top races being Grade As, with slightly lesser ones Grade B or Grade C. Britain formerly defined similar races as Grade 3 or listed, but then removed listed status from some and classified the remainder as ‘Premier’ or Grade 3 handicaps.

Unfortunately, for some long-forgotten reason, catalogues showed Irish races not as Grades A, B and C, as they were defined, but as Grades 1, 2 and 3. This meant that the Irish Grand National and other leading handicaps in Ireland were shown in catalogues as ‘Gr1’, with others as ‘Gr2’ or ‘Gr3’, whereas the Aintree Grand National and other prestigious handicaps in Britain were labelled as ‘Gr3’.

Horse Racing Ireland sought to rectify this unfortunate situation, not by persuading Weatherbys to show the actual Grade A, B or C status in catalogues and gently suggesting to the BHA that they might adopt this same rational approach to handicaps, but by moving the Irish system towards the rather odd British ‘Premier’ / Grade 3 approach.

So, the Irish Grand National is now a Grade 3, just like the Aintree Grand National, although past results shown in catalogues will still indicate it as far more important!

Get them jumping

Finally, having praised the Irish approach in regard to the previous classification of handicaps, and suggesting that it would be far better had this not been changed, let me redress the balance somewhat by mentioning an Irish practice that I believe serves no sensible purpose and that should change – one that seems to keep some promising horses away from the purpose that jump racing is meant to involve. The clue is in the name: it is called ‘jumping’.

In this regard, it makes little sense that races intended to give jumps horses early experience of racing in public, namely NH Flat races, become a mini-career for some, encouraged by valuable prizes and blacktype status, with few constraints on how many such races a horse can run in.

In Britain, bumpers are limited to horses aged three, four and (up to the end of April) five, with a maximum of five starts, of which the last two are confined to a small number of specified graded races.

I am unaware of any limits for age or number of starts in Ireland, but I do know that Redemption Day won a Grade 1 bumper as a seven-year-old on his seventh National Hunt Flat start; and that Familiar Dreams ran in nine bumpers, the last two being blacktype events. Only on her 13th career start did she run over hurdles. Is this really an approach designed to encourage the development of high-class hurdlers and chasers?

Encourage competition

The most obvious means of encouraging competition, and interest in jump racing with it, is to follow the French model (yet again!), in which there is a strict hierarchy of the most important races, with the blacktype programme consisting of only 54 races in each year.

There are a maximum of two Grade 1 races for each major subset of jump racing, (5yo+ hurdles, 5yo+ chases, 4yo hurdles, 4yo chases), one staged in autumn and one in spring, plus one autumn race for three-year-old hurdlers - making nine such championship races in a full year.

So why, at the last count, does Ireland need 37 Grade 1s and Britain 38?

Dealing with ‘the art of the (just about) possible’, might it not be a good idea to impose sensible limits on the numbers of Grade 1s to make them real championship races? Considering the nuances of our racing programmes, with a much greater emphasis on challenges over different distances and less on the avoidance of racing in winter, one possibility might be:

This would give a maximum of 20 Grade 1 races in both Britain and Ireland in each year. In order to create a genuine pyramid with elite races at the top, there might then be a 1:2:3 ratio of graded conditions races, with 40 Grade 2s and 60 Grade 3s distributed pro-rata to the above, in both Britain and Ireland.

The 20, 40 and 60 Grade 1, 2 and 3 contests (totalling 120 - still more than twice the number in France) compare with circa 38, 63 and 40 (the latter now retitled as listed races) at present in Britain (meaning only 21 more but with a very different distribution) and circa 37, 29 and 62 in Ireland (totalling only eight more, but with a significant shift from Grade 1s to Grade 2s).

More penalties

In order to generate greater competition at all levels, other steps might also be taken. The first is to make more aggressive use of penalties. Whilst there should continue to be none in Grade 1 races, Grade 2s might require +6lb for the first Grade 1 won in the past 15 months and +4lb for a Grade 2 success, with half these penalties for all other such successes in the past 24 months.

In Grade 3s, similar penalties might be +8lb and +6lb, with Grade 3 wins incurring +4lb penalties, once more with half these levels for other such wins within 24 months.

The second step is to enforce prize money levels that again emphasise competition, with Grade 1 prize money having minimum values well above the maximums for Grade 2s for the same category of race (open, novice or juvenile / any sex or mares-only), with these in turn carrying minimum values significantly higher than the most valuable Grade 3s.

A third step could address the inevitable complaint from some quarters that penalties such as those suggested, might drive the top horses away from racing other than in the few Grade 1s. However, for these animals, there is another possibility, one that springs from increasingly distant memories of the past.

Handicap option

If the penalties in Grade 2 and Grade 3 races seem excessive, there is nothing to stop the best horses running in... handicaps.

This might be encouraged by restoring the former Irish classification of these as Grade A, Grade B and Grade C, with minimum prize money levels for Grade A handicaps being below those for Grade 1 conditions races, but above those for Grade 2s; and for Grade B handicaps similarly below Grade 2 levels, but higher than those for Grade 3s. Prize money for Grade C handicaps might be just below levels applying to Grade 3 conditions races.

The combination of appropriate penalties in Grade 2 and Grade 3 conditions races and higher prize money in Grade A handicaps, might at last render recollections of the triumphs of Arkle, Desert Orchid and Denman seem less like age-induced fantasies.

Finally, increase competition in jump races by restricting horses to only four runs in NH Flat races, the last no later than the April of their five-year-old year, with no blacktype awarded for any race in which no obstacles have to be jumped.

If any of the runners are good enough, they will have numerous opportunities to win blacktype later in their careers.

Horses should not be allowed to run in NH Flat races once they have run over hurdles. I realise that some trainers argue that certain horses need more racing experience before returning to hurdles after unsuccessful initial attempts; but, if necessary, there are other means of doing this. They are called ‘Flat races’.

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Conclusion

It is apparent that the Anglo-Irish jumps industry has significant problems, not least the French domination of breeding; small field sizes in races that are meant to be both prestigious and competitive; and, as a result, declining public interest and betting turnover. The solutions lie principally in the hands of HRI in Ireland and the BHA in Britain – but in both countries third-party organisations, vocal minorities and public opinion complicate matters.

In particular, politics internal to racing play a key part in rendering the jobs of the more visionary members of the governing bodies (of which I know at least two) more difficult.

Vested interests frequently undermine what is best for the sport as a whole, whether of trainers looking for facile wins in valuable races or payment for talking to TV about the sport that provides their living; owners desirous of good prizes for bad horses; breeders hoping for easy blacktype; pinhookers seeking to profit from French-bred foals, since their pedigrees seem suitably exotic; or just about anyone who is comfortable enough with the status quo that they see almost any change as a threat.

Narrow self-interest is likely to drive arguments why this or that won’t work, isn’t a problem, is too difficult, isn’t fair, et cetera. Not so widely aired are suggestions of actual solutions to our problems, other than that prize money should be increased or other people should sort things out in various unspecified ways.

However, the ideas I am suggesting don’t involve rocket science, just elementary logic and a commitment to the greater good.

Politicians sometimes say that ‘Doing nothing is not an option’, before doing zilch. Not being a politician, as anyone reading this might deduce, I personally believe that doing nothing is in fact an option. It is the option to take if you simply want to moan, but do nothing about a decline that is already happening and will inevitably lead to a loss of public interest in the activity we spend much of our lives caring about.

Taking the actions described above would surely provide at least part of the solution. Anyone concerned about the health of our industry, and sharing my fears, should do all they can to support appropriate corrective action – NOW!