WHAT have you done, BHA, robbed us of one of the races of the Festival? So went some cries of anguish after the last two weekends’ events on track.

The authorities each side of the water can’t seem to win this season, as two of the major changes in the programmes at the feature meetings now have the appearance of being wrong moves.

What is rare is wonderful they say, and who could have predicted such a season for novice chasers.

When, if ever, have we last seen the four Cheltenham Grade 1 novice hurdle winners go back to the Festival for a novice chase the following season, as we seem to have this season?

The Supreme (Slade Steel), Ballymore (Ballyburn), Albert Bartlett (Stellar Story) and Triumph (Majborough) are all going over the larger obstacles.

Add in Martin Pipe winner Better Days Ahead and the narrow Albert Bartlett second, The Jukebox Man. And I would not be surprised to see the top-rated four-year-old Sir Gino also go chasing before the 2025 Festival.

The Champion Hurdle is becoming hotter. State Man, Sir Gino and dark horse Anzadam all wear the same colours. If State Man steps up on his seasonal debut, and both Lossiemouth and Constitution HIll make it to the Champion Hurdle, might the Donnelly youngsters be aimed elsewhere?

It is possible to go into the Arkle off a short prep. Back in 2004, the five-year-old Well Chief moved to novice chasing in the spring and took the Arkle off one chase run on February 2nd. (When we had only the two novice options – he beat subsequent Gold Cup winner Kicking King.)

Battalion

Gordon Elliott has a mini-battalion of young novices in Stellar Story, Better Days Ahead, Firefox, Croke Park, Down Memory Lane, Farren Glory, Touch Me Not and Search For Glory.

Two of the better jumping performances came from what may be the second division of those, Touch Me Not at Punchestown and Croke Park at Fairyhouse, so they are the type of horse to make a proper race with some of those more well-known top hurdlers. Willie has started Ballyburn and Impaire Et Passe, with Majborough and Dancing City to come.

Henry de Bromhead has Grade 1 hurdlers Slade Steel and Inthepocket. Over the water, there have already been pleasing wins over fences by novices L’Eau Du Sud, The Jukebox Man and Caldwell Potter, which seems a decent stab at a home defence.

So, all things considered, it looks as though we will have enough horses in the division to have decent fields for the three distances! And enough home contenders to make the loss of the two mile novice from Leopardstown at Christmas look like a wrong move too.

The Turners, the most recently-established Festival Grade 1 novice, was always likely to be the casualty if a novice contest was removed.

With only eight, four, seven and 11 runners in the last four years, those horses could have run elsewhere.

The loss of the two-mile novice from the Leopardstown Christmas meeting does leave a big gap there though, with the amount of good novices we have. The Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick might be over two and a half, but it is essentially more a stayers’ race usually run in soft to heavy ground.

It’s not often we are complaining we have more good horses than races for them these days!

Lossiemouth lays down a Champion Hurdle marker

WHILE I don’t agree with Willie Mullins that all contenders for the big prizes should avoid each other until Cheltenham, it’s good to see each potential challenger strut their stuff at different venues over the last few weeks. At the end of last season, State Man (169), Constitution Hill (158), Lossiemouth (156) and Sir Gino (152) were the top hurdlers, though Lossiemouth’s rating was on the two and a half mile category and Sir Gino missed Cheltenham.

State Man’s rating, as they say on reality TV shows – ‘is what it is’. His run of victories over two years leave nothing to prove. But a length and a quarter defeat of Irish Point in the Champion Hurdle does leave a lot of hope for improving rivals.

Of those, both Lossiemouth and Sir Gino have potential to be better than they have yet been tested on the track. Anzadam might be entering Champion Hurdle discussions also, and he wears the same colours as State Man and Sir Gino. And add in some confidence that Brighterdaysahead is well fit for this battle too.

Despite some questioning how good her Fairyhouse win actually was (good ground, beating a stayer), Lossiemouth possibly has still the most potential of the lot. There can be little doubt she has not been asked the sternest question yet, due to the way she was campaigned last season. She still needs that top quality run over two miles. Though it was queried last season if she was a strong enough stayer to win the longer Mares’ Hurdle.

It seemed to be forgotten that her Triumph Hurdle win had the fastest final three furlongs of any hurdle race at the 2023 Festival [Simon Rowlands ATR analysis] and, take a look at it again, she was travelling in the front rank but well within herself.

So much depends on what shape Constitution Hill returns in, the current 4/1 was unimaginable this time last season. But he simply has more question marks than the mare does against him.