MY article went down well on the most part last week, but I was incorrect in saying that Richie Forristal was frowning upon Willie Mullins’ domination. He made it clear in his article that he didn’t think his supremacy was having anything to do with the state of Irish racing. I picked it up wrong and I thought his article was very interesting.

He made a lot of suggestions on how to improve the condition of horse racing in this country. I agreed with some of his points and I disagreed with others. I can’t imagine Richie having a major problem with me disagreeing with some of his article. The world would be very boring if people didn’t have their own opinions.

I wrongly understood his reference to Willie Mullins, when he suggested that races should be confined to trainers that have had 10 winners or less in the previous season. His article was an interesting read, but I do not agree that the racing fixture list should be cut or that there should be less races on the calendar.

Willie Mullins is already sending a large number of his horses abroad and to smaller tracks to try and divide up his string. If you cut the number of fixtures, then it’ll be leaving less races for Mullins to split up his horses and result in even more domination. On the other hand however, I do agree with his complaint of the grading status in Ireland.

GRADING STATUS

There are 34 Grade 1s, 39 Grade 2s and only 28 Grade 3s. There should be more Grade 3s for the simple reason if a horse is rated in or around the 135 or 140 mark, he probably deserves to have a bit of blacktype as he is above average. Because of the way the tier of graded races go, it makes the Grade 3s too competitive. I think the number of Grade 2s is about right, but the number of Grade 1s needs to be cut.

The large amount of Grade 1 races makes it too easy for the top horses to avoid one another. Each Grade 1 should be very attractive and should leave trainers with less choice of going elsewhere. This would attract the better horses and would create better competition between the top class horses, rather than having to wait for Cheltenham before they have to take on other genuine Grade 1 rivals. Grade 1s should be for the elite – with 34 of them during the year, how do they expect there to be an anyway decent sized field each time? Grade 2s will be and are targeted by Grade 1 horses because they can run with a penalty.

There are plenty of horses in the country however, who are a shade short of Grade 1 level but at least, have a fair chance in Grade 2 company when they receive a weight allowance, which makes it a level playing field. How is it possible to have 34 Grade 1s when there are probably only 20-30 genuine Grade 1 horses in the country? Grade 3s should be for progressive horses coming through but also for horses with decent ratings to have a chance at getting blacktype. Why don’t they deserve more of a chance to distinguish themselves from horses rated 85? They should be made more abundant and more competitive to the smaller owner and trainer, to have a chance of winning a good race and a nice pot.

If there were more Grade 3s it would give the lesser man that has a decent horse more of a chance. It would mean these horses wouldn’t have to run in handicaps off top-weight being rated 130-140. You have situations where the horse is clearly talented, but is in a zone where he is struggling in handicaps and doesn’t have any realistic chance of winning a graded race because there are not enough opportunities. Slightly unfair perhaps, when there are any amount of races for horses that are rated higher and lower than them.

That seems like the logical way the graded tier would work, but I must be missing out on something.

THE KUBE

Last Saturday night, there was a fundraiser in the Killashee House Hotel. It was organised by Martina Murphy Dunne among many many others, but she was the driving force. It was a great night with an unbelievable turn out and the proceeds went to the Robbie McNamara Fund. I couldn’t believe the support that it got, it was very humbling to see.

The fund was set up to support my ongoing recovery. It will help with medical bills, materials that aid me walking, there are things you wouldn’t imagine but as you may know, anything medical is very expensive. All of the funding will go towards that and not towards my own weekly pocket or anything like that. There are three trustees in charge of the fund and they have the final say on whether or not the money will be allocated to certain places. I just want to put people’s mind at ease that the money that was so generously donated won’t be squandered on alcohol or be gambled on slow nags. Not that I do any or either obviously.

I have to thank everyone along the way that put so much work into all of the events for the Robbie McNamara fund. From James Collins, Shane Donohoe, Enda Bolger, Suzanne Murphy, Frankie Ward, Tom Hogan and Martina Murphy Dunne. I know I’m going to leave people out but it’s hard to remember everyone when there are so many to thank. And of course to each and every person who has supported the events.

As you can imagine, these events aren’t the easiest things for me to attend. Obviously, I would much prefer if I wasn’t in this position and the events also bring my injury back to the forefront of my mind. I just want to move on and get going with my life – show people that I can do great things even though I’m sitting down all the time.

Take the bankers a couple of years ago, they never got up off their backsides, yet still managed to run a whole country into the ground. I’ll try to be a little more proactive than that.

If any of you still happen to feel supportive, then I’ll have no problem taking a horse for you once I go training. A bit tongue in cheek but no harm chancing your arm!