SOMETIMES you can have too much of a good thing, and, personally speaking, that theory applies to the number of Grade 1 races programmed over jumps in Ireland and Britain.

The purpose of having races at the highest level is surely to determine who is the elite of the elite in any given season, a championship face-off to signal the cream of the crop.

That objective is evidenced in how French National Hunt racing approaches its Grade 1 programme. In total, across the entire year, there are only nine Grade 1 races in France’s jumping calendar. They run four in May and five in November.

The landscape is much different on these shores. Even with the reduction of two Grade 1 races from the Irish calendar this winter, there are a whopping 73 individual Grade 1 races across Britain and Ireland in any given campaign.

Having 73 chances to earn the highest possible honours doesn’t exactly signal absolute elite status, for all that it must be said these races are obviously divided up between different divisions.

As we witnessed last weekend with a John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase for the ages, getting the very best horses around to clash as often as possible creates box-office enjoyment for racing fans.

Sure, many of the horses involved in the Punchestown prize could have alternatively started off their season in the Betfair Chase at Haydock a day earlier, but the prospect of facing what is often extremely testing ground over three miles isn’t everyone’s cup of tea for a first run of the winter.

For example, Timeform described the going as heavy for the Betfair Chase last Saturday and, while upbeat about the run of second-season chaser Grey Dawning, they noted that he “endured a gruelling reappearance”.

Superb switch

There are not exactly a plethora of options for that same type of horse in Ireland, so the John Durkan, which has been wisely moved to an earlier slot in the season by the authorities, fits in ideally as a launchpad to the rest of the campaign. It very much stands on its own feet too.

As Willie Mullins noted in the aftermath of Fact To File’s excellent performance: “It was a hell of a race, and I think all these horses are going to win big races between now and the end of the season.

“It’s fantastic that Punchestown have brought the race back to this time of the season and all these horses can recover in time to run around Christmas. I don’t know where they will go next, but Fact To File and Galopin Des Champs could both run at Leopardstown.”

This experiment is very much working on the evidence of what was served up to us last Sunday.

The authorities have rolled out further changes to the programme book this winter and the intention behind them looks well meaning. Downgrading Fairyhouse’s Royal Bond Novice Hurdle to Grade 2 status and removing Leopardstown’s Grade 1 Racing Post Novice Chase from the schedule, essentially reduces Ireland’s number of Grade 1s by two to 35. After all, the greater the number of Grade 1s around, the greater the chance of dilution in quality.

However, any hope that removing Leopardstown’s Racing Post Novice Chase might boost the competitiveness of a race like the Faugheen at Christmas, became a lot less realistic once an upgrade was announced for another two-mile novice chase at Naas during the first week in January.

Limerick competitiveness

When the Leopardstown Grade 1 novice chase over two miles was removed from the programme, it left no graded option for a two-miler over the festive period in Ireland.

That could have forced connections’ hands to try a step up to an extended two miles and three furlongs at Limerick - a race that could have done with a hand in terms of boosting its typical field size.

While Munster’s only Grade 1 worked out very well 12 months ago, Gaelic Warrior did only face four rivals. It was the same disappointing field size when Gerri Colombe won a year earlier (and when Colreevy did in 2020). In fact, there has never been the chance for each-way betting with three places (i.e. - minimum eight runners) in what is now the Faugheen Novice Chase since 2008 when nine lined up - its joint-biggest field size since at least the turn of the millennium. The average number of runners since 2010 is only 5.5.

In terms of market attractiveness/competitiveness too, 11 of the last 13 renewals have had an odds-on favourite, with another renewal in that same period having a favourite sent off at 11/10.

Instead of the Faugheen being strengthened by there being one less option for horses to run at Christmas, the authorities have sweetened the appeal of waiting to run somewhere else pretty much immediately after at two miles.

The newly-upgraded two-mile Racing Post Novice Chase, established at Naas on their Lawlor’s of Naas card, is worth nearly double what it was last year at €35,000 and has gone from having no blacktype to now hold Grade 2 status.

Ducking and diving

Yes, it means two-milers won’t have the option of splitting between Leopardstown’s axed Grade 1 and Naas, which is a positive, but it does little to nothing to strengthen any of the other Christmas contests (like the Faugheen). It takes away from the overall Christmas schedule. This is very much Naas’ gain and Leopardstown’s loss.

As it stands, Willie Mullins, who described the removal of Leopardstown’s Racing Post Novice Chase as “disappointing”, said he will not be running the Sporting Life Arkle favourite Ballyburn in Ireland over the festive period. He may go to England or wait for the newly-upgraded option at Naas, though Mullins has indicated that the closer proximity between Naas and the Dublin Racing Festival is far from ideal, compared to the gap from Christmas.

Leaving the Naas contest without any extra incentives might have at least tempted some to try their hand at top-level honours at Limerick, even if it was a little further than some twomilers want.

If the authorities wanted to be even punchier, however, could the Limerick contest have dropped in distance to an extended two miles and one furlong, which would have encouraged more two-mile types to have a crack, and then take both the Leopardstown and Naas contests off the agenda?

They did race at that shorter distance over fences at Limerick in April and the gap to the Dublin Racing Festival would remain essentially the same.

That would have really condensed the novice chasing options on the table and led to more clashes worth looking forward to. You can be sure that would have led to boosted field sizes too.

Less can certainly be more in the right circumstances.