A RECENT article in another publication made significant criticism of the new three-year-old academy hurdles programme.

It asked the question: ‘Where is the evidence any sector of Irish racing needs this intervention?’ before repeating pre-conceptions that French-bred horses are somehow innately different in terms of earlier maturity. This meant that the article completely missed the very important purpose of these new races.

This is simply that they are designed to eliminate a long-standing disadvantage to horses raised in Ireland as against those developed in France. For over 15 years every piece of evidence, some of it reported on this journal, has indicated that French-bred horses have outperformed Irish and British-bred horses in the higher levels of jump racing. This has led to an explosion in demand for stock by French-based sires that is clearly unhelpful to the home industries.

However, if you look at the pedigrees of the best French-bred jumps horses produced in the past 25 years you find that differences in breeding do not account for the superiority of French-breds. Yes, their sires are more likely to have won over obstacles - and the case of Midnight Legend in Britain showed that this is no bad thing – but large numbers of French-breds produced by flat winners have shown levels of success disproportionate to the size of the foal crops from which they sprang.

These stallions are less likely to have been top-class flat racehorses of the type that dominate the highest levels of success for horses bred in Ireland (such as King’s Theatre, Flemensfirth and Yeats). Top-ranking French stallions Voix Du Nord, Poliglote and Martaline were good racehorses, but not of the level of the best stallions available in Ireland.

Likewise, whilst the dams of successful French-bred jumpers are more likely to have raced, they are not likely to have achieved significantly higher levels of success than those producing Irish-bred National Hunt horses. Better breeding is not the cause of French-bred superiority in the top jumps races.

Different upbringing

Instead, the biggest difference between French-bred jumpers and their rivals is one of upbringing. As reported here previously, the best French-breds are likely to begin racing over obstacles around 12 months before Irish-bred rivals. Educating National Hunt horses to jump obstacles earlier, to get them racing as soon as they are ready, is the single biggest source of French-bred advantage.

Seeking to offset the disadvantages of the present National Hunt development regime is the purpose of the new academy hurdles. Anyone who struggles to understand why these are being introduced shows a lack of awareness of the realities of National Hunt breeding in the country that was long the bedrock of jumps horse production – that which produced Cottage Rake, Arkle and Best Mate long before the appearance of more recent heroes like Kauto Star, Sprinter Sacre and Galopin Des Champs.

The purpose of academy hurdles is to try to encourage horses raised in Ireland to be broken and taught to jump earlier, having the opportunity to race over obstacles several months before the first four-year-old point-to-points are run.

Whilst the latter are now by far the most successful development route for Irish-based horses, and have narrowed the gap between these and French-breds, they have not eliminated it. HRI’s objective in introducing academy hurdles is to achieve this by promoting the early development regime long practised by a small number of visionaries like Tom Costello, who produced seven Cheltenham Gold Cup winners.

Maiden status

Once one accepts that academy hurdles are necessary, which should be apparent when breeding realities are considered, controversy arises in regard to the status of horses winning these races. Are they ‘maidens’ or ‘novices’, and can they compete in National Hunt flat races, even though they have won a hurdle race?

If the answers to these questions is the resounding ‘No’, then the future for academy hurdles will be short – and the few French National Hunt breeders that concern themselves with what’s happening abroad can rest happy in the knowledge that the superiority of their produce on the racecourses of Britain and Ireland can continue unabated.

However, there are other approaches that offer different answers. Horses that win bumpers can run in novice hurdles as maidens, even though they have won bumpers already. Even more significantly, horses that have won highly competitive four-year-old point-to-points can run in bumpers or novice hurdles as maidens, even though they have had far more jumping education than is needed to win a maiden or novice hurdle.

So, couldn’t academy hurdles be regarded in Ireland as having the same status as point-to-points in terms of the opportunities afforded to their winners? They could then run in bumpers, maiden and novice hurdles – just as point-to-point winners can. Similar approaches could be followed in Britain, though with slight differences in terms of bumpers.

If both of the countries that were the traditional homelands of National Hunt breeding and racing take these actions, then we might gradually restore the balance of power with French-breds. If they don’t, we are likely to continue our present inferiority in results – and those that oppose the changes that might aid recovery will have inadvertently helped prolong this sad state of affairs.

Bryan Mayoh is a National Hunt breeder based in Britain. While he was actively involved in developing several initiatives whilst a member of the TBA board, including the NH Elite Mares Scheme, NH MOPS, GBB and Junior NH Hurdles, he now has no official position with any such body and the views he expresses are entirely his own.