THE Irish authorities have always been very accommodating to British-trained = runners, allowing them to run in many of our marquee hunter chases, such as the Champion Hunter Chase at the Punchestown Festival, the former Raymond Smith hunter chase, Tetretema Cup and Joseph O’Reilly Hunter Chase.

Last Saturday’s Tetretema Cup is one of the five Irish hunter chases run this spring up to the Punchestown Festival which is open to British trained runners.

This is not anything out of the ordinary, as the welcome to travelling runners is reciprocated, to a degree, for Irish trained horses looking to run in some of the leading British hunter chases, like the Cheltenham and Aintree Foxhunters, and the end-of-season Stratford champion hunter chase.

Where the more contentious issue does arise is in the differing conditions that horses travelling from one country to another have to adhere to in order to run in these selected hunter chases in either jurisdiction.

IRISH TRAINED

While Irish trained runners may struggle to get into British races, it is not a problem for British runners looking to run in hunter chases here.

This, in particular, has proven to be very contentious in the past. In previous years, once British based horses met their own domestic criteria, they were allowed to run in Irish hunter chases, even if there were differences between the sets of rules in both jurisdictions.

In 2011, when Salsify won the Champion Hunter Chase at the Punchestown Festival, he had to take on the British trained Gone To Lunch who four weeks earlier had finished eighth in the Scottish Grand National, one of the leading handicap chases in the British racing calendar.

As the British rules allow horses to switch back from ‘rules’ racing to hunter chases (depending on certain criteria), and the Irish authorities allow British horses entry to Irish race using their own domestic British rules, Gone To Lunch was eligible to run at Punchestown.

In the end, the Jeremy Scott-trained gelding proved no match for Rodger Sweeney’s two-time Cheltenham Foxhunters winner, coming home in fourth position on the day.

DEBATE

Unsurprisingly, that situation provoked plenty of debate and the Irish authorities moved to prevent a similar situation from occurring again. Now an additional condition has been added to all hunter chases in Ireland for which British trained runners are eligible to run in, in the paragraph focussing on their participation stating: “horses with a Master of Hounds Certificate that have run in any race other than a Hunters’ Steeplechase since 1st November 2017 are excluded.”

The British authorities themselves have attempted to limit the practice of horses switching between hunter chases and ‘rules’ racing. This year they introduced a rule restricting any horse who runs in a hunter chase after January 1st, from running in any other race under rules except similar hunter chases, until the end of that hunter chase season.

It is this rule which would have caught out any ante-post punters who backed Gilgamboa in the market for the Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham.

Enda Bolger’s charge had been widely available with many firms at prices as low as 12/1 for that race for a number of weeks prior to the publications of the cross country entries just a fortnight ago.

Not qualified to run in British hunter chases this year, the 10-year-old would previously have been able to switch back to ‘rules’ racing across the Irish Sea to run in the likes of the cross country or Grand National, should his connections have wished to do so. However, under the new BHA rule, as he ran in a hunter chase at Thurles and Punchestown, he is restricted solely to hunter chases in Britain until after the Stratford fixture in early June, for which he is, of course, ineligible – thus restricting him from any British racing for the next two months.

LOOPHOLE

The British loophole has not been fully closed. Although it does prevent their horses from switching from hunter chases to ‘rules’ racing, it does not stop horses moving the other way.

This is the case with Colin Tizzard’s Grand Vision. The 12-year-old finished second in the 0-135 Mandarin Chase on Newbury’s Challow hurdle card over Christmas, before winning a 0-140 handicap chase at Wincanton last month. However, he is still qualified to run in the Cheltenham Foxhunters on account of his runs in hunter chases a full 12 months earlier. If an Irish hunter chaser was to run in a handicap chase, it would lose its hunter certificate for that season, as was the case with Foxrock when he ran in the Irish Grand National last term.

The British authorities may have restricted certain elements to that practice of switching between the two spheres, however their rules do not allow Irish horses, who may be eligible to run in hunter chases in their own country, from travelling to the Foxhunters.

For the second year in succession, the rules prevent the leading Irish hunter chaser from running in British hunter chases.

Last season, Barry Connell’s Foxrock was ineligible to run in the likes of the Cheltenham and Aintree Foxhunters despite running all season long in Irish hunter chases and point-to-points, and it is a case of déjà vu this year with Enda Bolger’s Gilgamboa.

The 10-year-old, who has been unbeaten in three hunter chases in Ireland, is restricted to a domestic campaign this season, which must be particularly frustrating for his connections, given how testing the ground at Cheltenham turned up, which is, of course, his preferred racing surface.