Whilst I was away on holiday I had banned myself from working in any way, shape, or form but, I did keep fully up to speed on the racing news.
I read the Racing Post article on the Angl0-Irish NH classifications and all it did was reenforce my opinion that at this moment in time, UK NH racing is very much on the decline.
The classifications were restricted to horses rated 150 or above in the 2020-2021 season and since this was done, the number of British trained horses has dropped from 111 to just 55. British based trainers have just 13 horses rated 150+, and that’s down from 35 when these new classifications came into force.
The number of British trained steeplechasers rated 150+ has dropped from 72 to just 42 since that 2020-2021 season.
The rest of the article reads:
Martin Greenwood, BHA steeplechase handicap team leader, said: “We all understand the problems we’re having in British jump racing at the moment and we can keep saying it’s cyclical, and it possibly will be, but I don’t know how long this cycle is going to be.
“I don’t think there will be much change [in terms of dominance] next season. We just haven’t got the novices coming through. If we have less novices coming through than we ever have, then where are the horses going to come from?
“I expect it to stay the same, certainly in the short term. We at the BHA are trying everything we can think of to improve these facts, but at the minute Ireland is definitely the top dog.”
Aintree Grade 1 winner Sir Gino (152) was the only juvenile or novice hurdler to feature in the classifications who had recorded his figure for a British-based trainer.
Caldwell Potter (151) also featured for his efforts for Gordon Elliott, including a top-level win at Leopardstown in December, but has yet to run for his new trainer Paul Nicholls. The Jukebox Man (147) and Jango Baie (146) fell short of the 150+ requirement.
There were no British-trained novice hurdlers in the classifications the previous season.
Andrew Mealor, BHA hurdle handicap team leader, said: “It’s really the novices that we want to see coming through for Britain as they’re the horses for the next two, three, four years. In the very short term, we’re probably not going to see much change as we’re not seeing a flood of novices coming through who will go on to open company next season.
“Sir Gino is a tip-top juvenile but it’s also a reflection on last season’s two-mile novice hurdling division being a fairly below-average bunch that he rates higher than most at that distance.”
Recently it was stated by the head honcho at Cheltenham that “we need 40-50 horses trained in the UK, to be competitive again”….where are they going to come from?
The fact Willie Mullins can become Champion Trainer in the UK with fewer than 30 winners. It is ridiculous and to compare him to the great Vincent O’Brien off the back of that is laughable.
My guess is that next year will will now see more Mullins and Elliott runners heading down south for easy pickings at Taunton, Fakenham, etc, with Mullins odds on to win our Championship again.
