I get that completely, hurdling being a stepping stone. But was it just a coincidence that in the 60s and 70s that many horses stayed hurdling then? I would have thought at that time there would have been less ex flat horses that didn't want to jump fences so you would expect horses like Persian War, I love that horse by the way, and all the other greats of that time would go over the big jumps after hurdling. They didn't though, they stayed hurdling, and many of them would have looked like hurdling was a stepping stone too. I remember at that time in the 70s, there was like a divide, you had great hurdlers, great chasers, you would never see many really good hurdlers even tried over fences. Yes there were exceptions to that, and sometimes it ended in tragedy. I wonder if the tragedy aspect put trainers off sending good hurdlers chasing?
I don't know what changed but from the mid 80s things changed, not completely obviously, you still had hurdlers that never attempted chasing, but the pool of horses staying hurdling seemed to get smaller. I followed Night Nurse closely, he was one of those really exceptional hurdlers that had a great chasing career too, I often wonder why he was switched to chasing when he was such a great hurdler. He could have had another 3 years having a poke at Sea Pigeon, Monksfield etc over hurdles, but they went the chasing route with him. Yet such as Sea Pigeon and Monksfield were never tried at the big jumps. I find this hurdling/chasing decision with a horse really interesting. Why did Istabraq never go chasing for instance? Why did your great love Hurricaine Fly never go chasing? I would love to know how a trainer makes that decision..keep hurdling..or go chasing.
