I think we should be alarmed at the current situation of National Hunt racing in Britain.
Cheltenham this year was great, with drama, emotion, great horses, some fantastic racing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also mostly agree with the comments about not being too concerned about where the horses are trained (in fact I tend to think the Irish horses are underrated before the festival, and provide better betting opportunities). I do however only really have an interest in betting on British Racing (and to a lesser extent Irish Racing).
However, looking forward, the signs for the top end of British NH racing are not good and the direction of travel is for things to get worse, possibly much worse. Over the last few years, the conveyor belt of talent turning up in Bumpers &. Novice hurdles at Cheltenham has overwhelmingly shown the Irish have far superior talent. This follows on to succeeding years where horses come back to win again at the next level. This year, Willie Mullins has gone a step further, and attacked the Triumph Hurdle with 11 horses. The 5 of these bought at auction, mostly ex-flat, averaged about £250,000 each and the others are probably of at least equivalent value given their ownership. Clearly, Willie is a great trainer and with a fantastic network for identifying the best young talent. However, the deep pockets of his numerous wealthy owners mean nearly all of his rivals are unable to compete.
The funding of British racing is very unlikely to improve any time soon, and with the vested interests involved, a Government looking for money and changes in Gambling laws, it will probably decline further. In Ireland their better prize money is bolstered directly by government and tax advantages for the sport in Ireland make it a more attractive home for overseas (including British owners).
Nicky Henderson will be 75 in December and he can’t go on forever (Willie Mullins is 6 years younger, but seems to be building an empire that will still be in place when he retires). Paul Nicholls seems to be having a never ending rebuilding phase, so our main, or maybe soon only, powerful defence against the Irish, would be Dan Skelton. It must also be a much friendlier environment to recruit and retain staff in Ireland, with their access to the EU.
The reason this all matters is that if funding of our racing worsens, prize money reduces, revenues from these major festivals reduces (which in turn means less money going in to the prize money pot) as attendances declining with the reduced British participants at major festivals involved year-on-year. As prize money reduces some owners (and these are a much older demographic already) are likely to give up, which further weakens the sport. I can see a spiral of decline unless urgent action is taken. This won’t come from our government and the BHA doesn’t have the power, or perhaps ingenuity, to drive any meaningful change in the structure of the sport.
For a few years I have been hearing that these things go in cycles and British NH horses will be competitive again soon, but I see know reason why this should happen.
All that said, I’m still optimistic and looking forward to Aintree and next years Cheltenham, which will still be great, already.
