Will there be a backlash?

Trumpism at its finest or worst depending on your outlook.
So if Ireland rips England a new one in the 6 nations today are the English going to opt out of it in the future.
What about Ballydoyle? Their horses going to have to carry xtra weight in the classics to even things out??
Ireland has big time owners investing their own money in the sport.
All that whining.
England more and more becoming a nation of pussies if you ask me.
 
Ireland clearly come out on top in the handicaps regards strike rate. Britain basically had 3 runners to the 1 of the Irish.
 
Can't win if you don't compete...the handicapper has and always will be way too heavy on horses in the UK that win **** races so their chance of winning is remote.....Alan King said it all when he said the handicapper has made it impossible to run Elgin anywhere else but in the Champion Hurdle Ok he got 12k for finishing 5th but unless he can find poorly contested Grade 1's next year his win career is over fore some time
 
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It's a ridiculous non-story that smacks of sour grapes. I can't believe for a second that the majority over here have even thought about it.

Cheltenham is the pinnacle of our sport and surely the majority of true horse racing fans are watching horses and not nationalities. I can't imagine too many genuine racing fans give a flying so and so about a UK v Ire scoreboard.
 
The handicapper takes ages to drop horses Village Vic for example has barely been sighted for two years but has been dropped only 3lb
 
That is it in s nutshell.
Nicky H could not get over the reception Sprinter Sacre got at Punchestown.
Racing Fans respect and throng to see top horses run top races.
For long enough we had Galmoy to cheer for and nothing else; give it ten years and the balance could be on the other side .
 
Happily it looks like the views of the anonymous BHA official in the article giving rise to this thread are not widely shared.

As swedish chef has pointed out, the score in the handicaps was five each to Irish stables and UK stables. Not much to be concerned about there. Of the five Irish winners, four were from the Elliott stable. The Guardian has an interesting piece on this today, which points out that for three of those wins he also had a better horse winning a graded equivalent: Samcro/Blow By Blow, Shattered Love/The Storyteller, Farclas/Veneer Of Charm. In other words, because of the great strength in depth of his stable he could afford to run good horses in handicaps because he already had even better ones for the higher class races.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/b...gordon-elliott-was-the-festival-handicap-king

The news that Mullins and Elliott horses had been visited before the festival by BHA dope testers came as a surprise to many, but as long as they are testing with the same rigour in their own jurisdiction people will be ok with it, and in any case the situation in Ireland with regard to testing needs to improve.

The other complaint by the anonymous BHA official is that the 1% levy on betting by Irish punters, used to fund Irish racing, includes a hefty proportion of betting on British horse racing, which is therefore being cheated of this money. This facile line fails to take into account that the reverse is also true, that there is significant betting on Irish racing in the UK, for which Irish racing receives no benefit.

UK betting turnover on racing is about five times higher than in Ireland (around 4.5 bn sterling versus €1.1 bn euro), so the proportion of betting on British racing in Ireland would also need to be five times higher than the proportion of betting on Irish racing in the UK before there could be any serious grounds for concern.

The anonymous official also needs to remember that the Irish levy, which yields around €70 m, covers all types of betting with bookmakers and not just horse racing. They might also have forgotten that racing in Northern Ireland is currently funded by the Irish state rather than the UK. When these factors are taken into account the pot of gold being eyed up is surely illusory.
 
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I think Willie makes a very good point. I think we'd all agree that prize money is an issue in the UK, but the observation about the percentage of novice and juvenile hurdles, and bumpers, compared to handicaps is a very good one.

What he misses however is the buying power of owners. Yes, success goes hand in glove with buying power, but nevertheless Owners are increasingly spending more money on Irish based horses.

What surprises me is that more trainers don't have satellite operations over in France, as Nick Williams has done for example. UK and Irish raids over there are infrequent, yet day to day French prize money easily eclipses that in both Ireland and the U.K, and we still hear complaint about programme and prize money.

If and when I go back in to ownership, it would be an attractive proposition to have a young horse in France during its novice season before bringing it over here if it can cut the mustard. I would however prefer to have said horse with a trainer that operates both in France and the U.K.
 
Maruco said:
What he misses however is the buying power of owners. Yes, success goes hand in glove with buying power, but nevertheless Owners are increasingly spending more money on Irish based horses.
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I understand what you mean but I think it's a bit of an over-simplification.

While 2 of the biggest owners, in Gigginstown and McManus, are Irish, Ricci, Wylie and Sullivan aren't but choose to have horses trained and active in Ireland because of the higher prize-money and lower training fees. It's a little chicken and egg but it was certainly part of my decision to try Supreme. After 22 runs since the start of this NH season (none in handicaps!), 'my' horses have picked up prize-money of over £1000 on 17 occasions to a total in excess of £130k. While it's still hard to make a profit without spending big bucks (I think that my most expensive horse was £80k), it certainly helps that we have a sporting chance of at least winning race-day expenses.

I agree about the France situation but transport is so expensive and the best trainers like to be properly in charge so would not be keen on a satellite yard. It's noticeable how performances of Willie's horses dip after he's away from the yard for more than a few days. He's a master of producing them at their peak and you can't do that remotely.
 
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It has been highlighted too that Willie has been outbid in France for around 2 seasons now and he has had to buy horses with potential for lower amounts as a result.

UK has plenty of expensive horses both from France and Irish points but for whatever reason they haven't made an impact.

I was told Willie paid 200k for Blackbow from the UK point scene who looks a proper talent. The same horse from the Irish scene would be 350.
 
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