It’s all the time darkest earlier than the daybreak. Within the days main as much as the latest Cheltenham Competition, the headline of this column was ‘The Cheltenham Competition is approaching the brink’.
The phrases could have appeared dramatic, however they had been chosen rigorously. They sought to sum up what was feared to be the upcoming fruits of a few years of alarms being sounded and deep issues being expressed across the path of journey of the Cheltenham Competition as Nationwide Hunt racing’s essential occasion.
Some had hoped the principle hazard had handed in 2022 after the Jockey Membership had been talked down from the ledge of constructing what would have been a catastrophically unhealthy choice to increase the assembly to 5 days.
Nevertheless, a mix of an uninspiring season, the absence of among the sport’s largest gamers and weaker-than-expected ticket gross sales threatened to ruthlessly expose the results of permitting the race programme of the Cheltenham Competition to grow to be so grossly diluted for the reason that assembly was prolonged to 4 days in 2005.
Everyone seems to be entitled to their very own emotions and opinions, however for me it was the flattest Cheltenham Competition I’ve skilled in over 20 years within the sport.
I used to be removed from alone in feeling that means. Coupled with disappointing attendances and a flood of complaints concerning the shopper expertise, final 12 months’s Cheltenham Competition actually did really feel prefer it needed to be a watershed second for the assembly.
The requires change grew louder than ever and the hope was the Jockey Membership and BHA must take motion.
New-look Nationwide Hunt Chase a welcome change
Following a prolonged session course of, the Jockey Membership has introduced a sequence of modifications that search to deal with among the most urgent issues concerning the Cheltenham Competition.
So, what to make of all of it? It will not come as a shock to anybody that my focus is on the modifications to the race programme.
By way of the precedence record of areas that demanded addressing within the race programme, the novice chases would have been proper on the prime of the record for a lot of. Three Grade Ones and a Grade Two was clearly far too many, enabling a lot ducking, diving and dilution that so frustrates the fanbase that desires to see the very best racing in opposition to the very best.
The Jockey Membership has handled the matter in exactly the best way I had hoped they might by changing the Turners Novices’ Chase with a restricted novices’ handicap chase and changing the Nationwide Hunt Chase right into a 0-145 novices’ handicap chase.
These modifications ought to assist to funnel the perfect novice chasers into the 2 remaining Grade One novice chases. With a spot of simply over a mile in distance now separating these two choices, this may supply way more readability concerning what race the very best novice chasers are prone to goal from a a lot earlier stage of the season.
Not solely will this ship a lot deeper Grade One novice chases on the assembly, it is going to make them a lot simpler to advertise and construct as much as prematurely as uncertainly will likely be so drastically decreased. Superb!
One facet of the novice chase modifications that was extra of a shock was the choice to open the newly-modified Nationwide Hunt Chase to skilled riders, thus lowering the variety of novice rider races on the assembly from three to 2.
This may not go down effectively in some quarters, however talking plainly, the novice rider ranks turned unhealthily polarised lengthy earlier than the Nationwide Hunt coach ranks did. It would not be tough to argue that having three races with such a drastic vary in rider potential from the very best to the worst is just not applicable on the largest stage of the game.
In addition to that, whereas nobody in energy is ever prone to admit it, one will get the distinct impression that for the reason that notorious Nationwide Hunt Chase of 2019 which noticed simply 4 finishers and a number of riders being banned for “continuing in the race when it appeared to be contrary to the horse’s welfare” the authorities had been in search of a technique to cut back the variety of novice rider races on the assembly. Whether or not that’s the case or not, we could have one much less novice race in 2025 both means.
Handicap rule modifications ought to assist discipline dimension points
Cheltenham have introduced a sequence of massive modifications for 2025
The subsequent change centres on the Glenfarclas Cross Nation Chase which will likely be altered from a circumstances race to a restricted handicap with a 20lb weight vary. Once more, the logic is obvious. Whereas it will likely be to the detriment of some much-loved veterans that can not have as winnable a goal to goal at, it turned clear the circumstances of the race very a lot favoured probably the most highly effective trainers who’ve a lot equine ammo that they may goal horses rated 160+ on the race.
That is not what the race was designed for and returning it to a handicap will make it a way more aggressive contest that may be focused with sensible hopes by a a lot bigger group of trainers and house owners. Thoughts, it will not shock if the connections of proficient veterans nonetheless goal the race regardless of the change in circumstances.
Whereas it could not seize too most of the headlines, the influence of the rise in variety of qualifying runs required to be eligible for non-novice handicap hurdles and chases on the Cheltenham Competition could possibly be vital. What turned generally known as the ‘State Man rule’ noticed the required variety of qualifying runs for handicap hurdles on the assembly elevated from three to 4 in 2022.
Proof from all of the handicap hurdles and chases on the assembly lately demonstrates to a stark extent that trainers have labored out that lightly-raced novices are the correct ones to run in these races. Certainly, within the final 5 years, 30 per cent of the runners and 53 per cent of the winners of handicaps on the Cheltenham Competition had been novices.
Rising the variety of qualifying runs required for handicap chases to 4 and for handicap hurdles to 5 will assist tip the stability away from lightly-raced horses and again within the favour of extra uncovered handicappers for whom these races are designed to cater for.
The hope is that this alteration will even have a optimistic influence on the sector sizes and competitiveness of the novice hurdles and novice chases on the assembly.
Of the smaller modifications, the removing of the penalties for the Daybreak Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle was a no brainer.
The logic that justified the penalties was all the time very shaky certainly and the latest renewal of the race noticed the much-feared penalties of the penalties play out on the observe with a mare that had been cleverly campaigned to keep away from choosing up a penalty beating three mares that carried 5lb penalties.
Having a situation the place the fourth-best mare on the weights can win what is meant to be the race that every one novice hurdling mares aspire to is clearly unsatisfactory and it’s only proper that it has now been modified.
Adjustments do not really go far sufficient
Lossiemouth comes dwelling in splendid isolation within the 2024 Mares’ Hurdle
My largest points will not be with what has modified, however what hasn’t modified. There are two areas particularly that demanded consideration and so they have been left just about unchanged: novice hurdles and the mares’ programme.
These concerned on this course of appeared on the novice chase programme and really clearly concluded that three Grade Ones and a Grade Two had been far too many and duly axed that down to simply two Grade Ones.
In gentle of that, I wrestle to see how the identical group of individuals can take a look at the novice hurdle programme of three Grade Ones, a Grade Two mares’ novice hurdle and the Triumph Hurdle (not being a novice race, however the overwhelming majority of runners in it are novices) and conclude that no change is required to it.
The very same points which have blighted the novice chase programme on the Cheltenham Competition have been a long-term subject within the novice hurdle programme too. The proliferation of choices results in nice quantities of uncertainly within the build-up to the assembly and produces a diluted finish product as probably the most highly effective trainers cut up their aces as finest they’ll.
Those who made the choice to not change the novice hurdles have defended it by way of the info on horse populations suggesting to them that the scenario is not as urgent as it’s within the novice chase division and that the modifications to the qualifying standards for the handicaps on the assembly promise to assist discipline sizes within the novice hurdles. Nevertheless, I strongly suspect we will likely be revisiting the topic of the diluted Grade One novice hurdle programme once more within the close to future.
Thoughts, the largest supply of controversy is prone to be that of the choice to not make significant modifications to the mares’ programme. The unfavourable influence that the Mares’ Hurdle and to a lesser extent the Mares’ Chase can have on championship races on the Cheltenham Competition has been an enormous supply of heated debate over time.
The latest and significantly stark instance of it got here final March when the connections of the deeply-exciting Lossiemouth determined to run her within the Mares’ Hurdle relatively than the Champion Hurdle.
This robbed the primary day of the assembly of what would have been an excellent conflict between State Man and Lossiemouth and left us with two snooze-fest Grade Ones that produced winners at 2/5 and eight/13 with the viewers being instructed “sure you might see them take each other on next year”. Is it any surprise the environment on day one of many assembly was so flat?
Proposed modifications to the mares’ races on the Cheltenham Competition have all the time been extremely controversial as the event of the broader mares’ programme has been one of many brightest success tales of the final 15 years of Nationwide Hunt racing.
The mares’ races on the Cheltenham Competition have been positioned as the head of this very profitable motion and any calls to make modifications to them are usually unfairly represented as an assault on the broader pursuits of Nationwide Hunt mares.
To be very clear, it’s doable to be an enormous supporter of the development of Nationwide Hunt mares while additionally seeing the larger image that the mares’ races on the Cheltenham Competition can have a detrimental influence on the competitiveness of the assembly.
Whereas it might need been asking for an excessive amount of to transform the Mares’ Hurdle and the Mares’ Chase to mares’ handicaps, a middle-ground compromise of adjusting the Mares’ Hurdle again to a Grade Two with Grade One penalties would have drastically raised the opportunity of reaching the specified objectives of encouraging elite mares to run within the open-class championship races which can be so in want in depth of high quality while making the Mares’ Hurdle a extra sensible goal for the numerous relatively than the few.
The conclusion given by these with the ability to make modifications was that there are not any significant modifications that could possibly be made to both the Mares’ Hurdle or Mares’ Chase that would not materially threat the advantages presently being derived. I respectfully disagree with that conclusion and strongly suspect that the circumstances of those races will demand revisiting within the close to future.
