Our columnist feels both Irish and British racing have plenty to ponder after another wonderful Dublin Racing Festival.
The Dublin Racing Festival was magnificent. A brilliant spectacle which has hopefully put to bed any talk of a similar Festival over here at this time of year.
The fact is it can’t compete both with what we saw at Leopardstown and also with all the other major sport going on. A racing festival would get lost amongst the feast of Six Nations and FA Cup action.
Thanks to Irish racing's deal with the Racecourse Media Group we were able to broadcast both days of the DRF and show off the top-class Irish racing to a terrestrial UK audience.
Being able to add the extra day on Sunday was a bonus and the meeting has the perfect blend of high-quality Grade Ones and big field handicaps for punters to get stuck into. And my word did they make it pay.
With no offence to the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase, the Sky Bet Supreme still sets up as the race of the meeting at Cheltenham. He didn’t jump with any fluency but I’m firmly with Sir Gerhard for the Festival opener.
The performance of the weekend for me was Vauban in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle, the vibe for Fil Dor was so strong yet he was kicked into touch by an absolute monster.
Honeysuckle’s win and reception from the crowd was absolutely spine-tingling. If and when she wins the Unibet Champion Hurdle I am looking forward to the reception that awaits her at Cheltenham more than anything else across the week.
People are desperate to make amends for missing out last year when one of sport’s great combinations, Rachael Blackmore and Honeysuckle, returned to silence in an empty winners’ enclosure. What a contrast March 15th promises to be.
The one race where I think the British have a chink of light is the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup. For me Ireland has all the quantity but do they have outstanding quality? Their top staying chasers all look much of a muchness to me.
The British cupboard is very bare but in Protektorat I just think we have one of the only contenders, other than Al Boum Photo, who hasn’t blotted his copybook this year and will come to the meeting at the top of his game.
Away from that race the Irish battalions look incredibly strong.
It was frightening to compare the two British Graded races on Saturday, one with four runners at Wetherby and a five-runner rout for L’Homme Presse in the Scilly Isles, with the star-studded, high-quality, ones run tat Leopardstown.
But that’s not to say Irish racing doesn’t have challenges too. I don’t know what RTE’s viewing figures are but there must be some concern at the lack of competition on the racetrack. We know all too well at ITV how vital that is to attract the wider-sports audience so while Willie Mullins’ six Grade One wins from eight weekend races was staggering, it could also cause concern.
Ireland has the vast majority of the good horses right now but they are in very few hands. From the initial 120 entries for the Grade Ones at the DRF, over 90 were trained by Mullins, Gordon Elliott or Henry De Bromhead.
I also cannot get my head around how such a spectacular show fails to sell out at Leopardstown either. Crowds of around 13,000 on Saturday and just 11,000 on Sunday makes absolutely no sense to me in a country where they’re mad about their National Hunt racing.
Contrast that to this country with all its well-publicised faults. We know all about the popularity of jumps racing on television but a card like New Year’s Day at Cheltenham attracted over 30,000 racegoers.
The Jockey Club report record pace of ticket sales for the Festival in March and Aintree's Grand National meeting. Yes, we have too much racing in Britain, yes there are too many Graded races and far too many options for too few good horses, but we also have plenty to be positive about.
With some tinkering we could make our product which is already so popular in this country, even more compelling. We don’t need a Festival to try and rival what they do in Dublin, but a winter showpiece of some description is still worth exploring.
I’ve often written about the possibility of changing the Christmas programme, but I do like Mark Howard’s idea which brings together two other meetings.
He proposes: “Cheltenham’s traditional Trials Day meeting would still take place on the Saturday but then Ascot would hold a similarly prestigious meeting on the Sunday – it would be a combination of their fixture from the 22nd January and the one due to be held on 19th February.
“The card at Ascot would consist of: Grade One Clarence House Chase, Grade One Ascot Chase, Grade Two Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase, Grade Two novice hurdle over two miles - plus, a few handicaps and a bumper.”
It’s been a season of PR challenges and endless talk of how the Cheltenham Festival overshadows the rest of the season and yet we’ve been spoiled with stories that have engaged that wider sports audience - and crucially the love has been shared.
From Trevor Hemmings winning the Ladbrokes Trophy to Snow Leopardess’ heroic tale in the Becher, Bryony and Greaneteen in the Tingle Creek, another home win in the Coral Welsh Grand National, Evan Williams’ family triumphs , Rachel and A Plus Tard at Haydock, Shishkin v Energumene at Ascot, the Hamiltons and Tommys Oscar through to Paisley Park’s remarkable last-to-first Cleeve Hurdle triumph.
We’ve now got a brilliant week to look forward to, Newbury’s Super Saturday card will be on the main ITV channel - I always look for a JP McManus novice in the feature Betfair Hurdle and Broomfield Burg ticks an awful lot of boxes.
Before that on Thursday I shall be attending the 2022 Broadcast Awards at Grosvenor House. One thing that gives me the biggest thrill in this industry is taking racing to the biggest sporting stages.
The Grand National is shortlisted for Best Sports Programme and racing is on the same stage as The Hundred, Premier League football, Paralympics, European Championships and Olympic Games.
Horse racing’s alright, you know.
