This year may seem a little bare to many as it will be the first time that the Welsh fixture won't coincide with the publication of Timeform's Chasers & Hurdlers, with the Halifax organisation for many years sponsoring the Free Handicap Hurdle on the card.
In fact, it's very rare nowadays to be able to get excited over the prospect of the previous season's juvenile hurdlers reappearing, for the Triumph Hurdle itself lost its mojo when the Fred Winter was introduced to the festival, the result being that the traditional juvenile championship is now unrecognisable from the large field cavalry charge it once was, though looking at the actual numbers that lined up before and immediately after the addition of the new race, there really should not have been much of a change in the nature of the event.
Whatever, there is no doubt that contestants who had looked visually impressive in small field, moderately run events, properly had their mettle tested. Some believed the old race ruined animals but the mighty Night Nurse finished unplaced in 1975, while Monksfield, a candidate for the toughest animal to ever look through a bridle, was placed in the race in 1976, and See You Then was beaten into second in 1984 - three all time greats coming through the race in ten years.
See You Then was having his first first outing since bring transfered from Michael Cunningham's yard in Ireland to Nicky Henderson. The trainer had another fancied runner in the race, the ex Michael Stoute inmate Childown, who had developed into a smart juvenile but who sadly sustained a fatal injury passing the stands for the first time.
While those aforementioned three renewals had field sizes of twenty eight, twenty three, and thirty respectively, with the first three years after the introduction of the Fred Winter fielding numbers of twenty three, seventeen, and twenty three, there was already a less chaotic feel to the big race at this early stage.
If that impression may seem subjective exaggeration in hindsight, then it at least cannot now be denied that in recent times the field sizes as well as the chaos have fallen. In fact the largest field in the last nine runnings has been seventeen. Moreover there has been two single figure line ups in the last four years and if anyone attempts to put the blame on Covid for the eight runner field this year, they can try explaining why only nine horses line up in the 2018 renewal.
The new look, increasingly milder contest, has now been run seventeen times producing a real mish mash of winners. Tiger Roll is the eyecatcher but producing staying chasers has never been the purpose of the race so having this unique horse on the roll of honour cannot be used as justification for meddling with the juvenile races at the Festival. Same goes with the 2016 running that included two future King George winners in the field in Clan Des Obeaux and Frodon - it is no compensation in any way for the race now becoming a near nonenty as a major pointer to future runnings of the Champion Hurdle.
You have to go back to Katchit, the winner in 2007, and the fourth in the same event, Punjabi, to find the last winners to graduate from the event and win a Champion Hurdle, the pair being the only winners to emerge from the event and take the Blue Riband of hurdling since the Fred Winter was introduced. And the fact that last season's winner Quilixios is shorter in the Ante Post markets for the Arkle than the Champion Hurdle, indicates that the drought will not be ending this season.
Indeed, the decline of the quality in the hurdling ranks is a factor that has diminished the National Hunt scene in recent times. There are just so many outlets for quality flat horses who may once have been snapped up by connections of the big jumping yards. There can be little doubt that if Sea Pigeon existed now he'd be racing at the Dubai winter programme or even more likely have been hunted down and secured by an agent from Down Under.
While it is indeed ironic that three previously mentioned greats in Night Nurse, Monksfield and See You Then would, if racing now, still have been put over timber, there is a good likelihood that Istabraq would not have been cast off to the Horses In Traning sales and would instead have been transfered to race at the Dubai winter fixtures. And as for the likes of Alderbrook and Royal Gait, the question needn't even be asked.
This state of affairs were the Champion Hurdle along with the other top hurdling prizes are less coveted than was once the case, impacts on trends across the whole jumping scene. Put it this way, if Altior had been running in an earlier era what are the chances that in light of that mighty impressive Supreme Novices successes, he would have been kept to hurdles for one more season at least to target the most prestigious prize in hurdling?
Very likely that he would have been reappearing in the Bula Hurdle and if balancing the boost it would have been to the hurdling scene against the loss to the novice chase ranks, then it is surely right and proper that he should have remained over hurdles and aimed for the top. If he fell short, then the chasing ranks have missed him for just one season, if he succeeded then he remains over hurdles irrespective of the loss to chasing. That is how it should be.
image Katchit - taken by author
They say that certain music can poisin the mind - you often wonder sometimes if it can affect the sports you grow to like, even betting habits - for example, someone listening regularly to Arlo Guthrie, Eric Clapton, or Anne Murray may like the pace of life that fits nicely with betting on horses, while those who get addicted to more chaotic music may feel more inclined to bet on footy and general sports or even casino style games, and may even feel hostile towards horse racing. Music can have a retarded affect on some minds.In 1984 there was a cult VHS video in thousands of households called ' UK Decay', focusing on the second wave of punk rock, which emerged after most of the bands in the first wave sold out and moved on. Of course, both waves were influenced by the great rock bands of the late 60's early 70's, copied versions rejigged,with an anarchist angle added in. I think most of these here ( taken from 'UK Decay') would have ended up concentrating the majority of their betting on footy and other sports. Racing's loss indeed,
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