- Dry weather has contributed to a false start to the new National Hunt season
- But lack of incentives to run top-class horses too soon is equally problematic
- Small fields and uncompetitive races are a massive turn off for punters
Patience is a virtue and it’s being seriously tested at the beginning of the jumps season.
The tormentor in chief? The weather. It’s been a dry and warm autumn that’s stretched into mid-November that has contributed to small fields. Take a look at Monday’s two racecards at Fontwell and Exeter for instance. Twenty-eight horses across seven races at Exeter and 24 across six races at Fontwell. None of the 13 races across both cards feature six or more runners.
You can pretty much rinse and repeat those numbers in the first few weeks of the jumps season. A source of frustration for all. Can it be helped? Not really. However, racing is still taking place and taking horses out on what is generally described as ‘good ground’ to be on the safe side might appear sensible on face value but it does not bode well for the sport as a whole.
Leading trainers are pleading for patience from racegoers and punters alike, insisting that they are desperate to run their horses once the rain eventually arrives.
There was a curious incident a couple of weeks ago when top trainer Dan Skelton pulled Grey Dawning out of two races. The ground was good in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby on November 2 and Skelton opted to take his stable star out of the race. The plan was to go to Carlisle the following day for the Colin Parker Memorial Chase. An easier assignment on softer ground – the going description was good to soft – looked ideal for Grey Dawning as a prep race for the Grade One Betfair Chase at Haydock on November 23.
But Skelton opted to take Grey Dawning out on account of unsuitable ground once again. It was still deemed too quick despite Grey Dawning being the clear main attraction for northern racegoers and he’s run on good to soft ground three times in his 13-race career. Yes, ground has undoubtedly played a key part in Grey Dawning’s dual withdrawal but the reality is there is no incentive to even run a horse of that calibre at this stage of the season. The same yard ran Galia Des Liteaux in the Listed Mares’ race on the same card and she is a mud lark. A quick whizz through the form book will tell you which horse ran on the wrong ground that day. Clue: It wasn’t Grey Dawning.
Grey Dawning is expected to make a seasonal return at Haydock’s Betfair Chase next week
Dan Skelton is one of many trainers that are wary of the ground being too quick at the moment
Grade One winning novice Grey Dawning has been withdrawn twice on account of the ground
The real difference? Grey Dawning is a Grade One horse and Galia Des Liteaux isn’t.
We are all guilty of looking at the whole jumping season through the prism of the Cheltenham Festival. Those four days in March hold elevated importance and Grey Dawning won the now defunct Turners’ Novices Chase last year. He’s rated 157 and is generally fourth favourite for the Gold Cup at 14-1. He is Skelton’s only Gold Cup hope this season and, quite possibly, the best chance he’s ever had to win the ultimate prize.
With brother Harry in the saddle, Dan was able to make a significant splash in last year’s Festival by winning the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle, Ryanair Chase, the Grand Annual Handicap Chase and the Turners. It was a significant breakthrough in Skelton’s young training career. It’s a long season and keeping his best horses under wraps to keep them fresher for much bigger spring targets.
This dry spell could conceivably run into next week at Haydock where Grey Dawning will presumably take his chance on ground that will likely be exactly the same as it was in Carlisle. Why will he take his chance on this occasion? Because it’s a bigger and better prize.
Grey Dawning is just one specific example. We’ve had a walkover live on ITV on Exeter’s Haldon Gold Cup Day when Paul Nicholls said horses were slipping around the bend in the first race. If racing is serious about protecting thoroughbreds when trainers and jockeys say these things then the whole meeting should be abandoned.
Welfare is a watch word for racing and the sport takes it very seriously but good ground is not unsafe ground and shouldn’t be used as a blanket excuse not to run. There’s a reason why pulling out horses because of the going is described as ‘unsuitable’ rather than unsafe in official British Horseracing Authority lingo. If it was unsafe then why are the meetings on in the first place and, indeed, why are we even here at all?
Sir Alex Ferguson enjoyed a good Cheltenham Festival last year and has had a successful week
PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK…
SIR ALEX FERGUSON may not be the official club ambassador of Manchester United but he might as well take up that unofficial role for British racing. It’s been a brilliant week for the legendary football manager. The Scot was in Bahrain to see his homebred Spirit Dancer win the lucrative Bahrain International for the second straight year.
He owned the winner of the promising Potters Charm in the Grade Two Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle in what was the best performance in the Friday of Cheltenham’s November meeting. If that wasn’t enough for Sir Alex, L’Eau Du Sud was a terrific winner of the Arkle trial and Il Ridoto won the big race of the weekend, the Paddy Power Gold Cup. Ferguson owns those two as well. An enthralling week of winners that even Treble-winning United team of 1999 would be envious of!
SELECTION OF THE DAY…
HYMAC (4-1, betfair) made a positive impression when winning on reappearance over hurdles at Newton Abbot but he’s more effective over staying trips when jumping the bigger obstacles and the unexposed eight-year-old can strike in the staying handicap at Cheltenham (2.55) off a feather weight for trainer Harry Fry.
