They stay nothing stays the same and fortune and reversal turn full circle but as far as the state of National Hunt racing in the north is concerned, the omens do not bode any encouraging signs that the outlook will turn anytime soon.
Saturday will see the fourteenth running of the Betfair Chase, the highest class event in the top half of the country staged outside of the Aintree Festival. Of the runnings so far, twelve have gone to horses trained in the south of the country, and one to Wales. There will not even be a northern trained runner in the race this weekend.
Long gone are the times when the two races that morphed to form the Betfair Chase, the Edward Hammer and Tommy Whittle Chases, in their original formats, would turn out fields with the likes of Silver Buck, Night Nurse, Bregawn, Little Owl, then later Forgiven n' Forget and The Thinker.
The maturing long term racing fans will have our favourite renewals of those events. The 1981 running of the Edward Hanmer run on Wednesday November 25th was a memorable one.
Silver Buck, who would go on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup the following spring, gave 13 lb and a length and a half beating to Sunset Cristo. With John Francome replacing the sidelined in-house regular partner of the horse Robert Earnshaw, Raceform's Alan Amies commented that Silver Buck was inclined to be lazy in front and had to be driven out all the way to the line. This, of course, was staged over that fearful and challenging chase course that has since been ripped up. It had a two-furlong run-in, longer than all the other courses bar Aintree. It was a true gem.
Back to the 1981 running, Night Nurse carrying top weight of twelve stone was a long way back in third after making a bad mistake two fences out. This made it a one, two, three for northern trained runners, the result affected when Arthur Moore's hardy chestnut Royal Bond hit the deck when Tommy Carberry was bringing him through to challenge at the last.
This at a time when the Irish economy deemed that they sold most of their best young animals, a situation which made Royal Bond something of a hero, one of only a handful carrying his country's flag at the top level in what was an uphill struggle at the time.
The race we now have is run on a course width inside the old course, with portable fences without the old traditional drop on the landing side, and a significantly shorter run in. To all intents and purposes, the Betfair Chase is run at a completely different venue. It is certainly underwhelming despite the prize money pulling in many of the top chasing stars.
However much you go through the northern handlers, looking at the strength at their disposal, you can't even twist things around to come out with even a faintly armed argument to build up hope for the years ahead.
Having three Aintree Grand National winners in the past ten years is not food for thought alone. The fact is that season in season out the top events in the jumping calendar consistently lack respectable northern representation. This is the true barometer.
Another area to consider is the depth of quality northern representatives in novice hurdles at northern venues. At one time a Wetherby, Haydock Park, Doncaster or Ayr novice hurdle might have representatives from the yards of Peter Easterby, Jimmy Fitzgerald, the Dickinsons, Arthur Stephenson, Neville Crump and Gordon W. Richards, all trainers who could slowly nurture potential top class steeplechasers.
Fast forward to the present and those races now contain a mish-mash of all sorts, the only quality representatives coming from elsewhere in the country save the odd half promising Nicky Richards, Sue Smith or Donald McCain jnr runner.
It was a sign of the dire state of northern jump racing when Graham Wylie, the best supporter of jump racing in the region since the likes of Alex Stevenson and Peter Piller, moved his representatives away from the area when Howard Johnston fell foul of the laws and was in the process of having his trainer's licence revoked.
Remember, Wylie was a late convert to racing and was bitten by the bug with the success of Lord Transcend who he chose to put into training at Johnson's Crook base, as he wanted a trainer who was based in the region where he was born and brought up.
When he multiplied his investments after the success enjoyed with Lord Transcend, he kept faith with Johnston. Every time the yard had a lean spell whispers would go around that it was blind faith and that it would only be a matter of time before the string would be dispersed around other trainers but they remained together until the laws intervened.
In light of this many expected Wylie to remain committed to having a reduced but quality string of horses trained in the northern regions. The now late Alan Swinbank was a name bandied around with him being based just over twenty miles away from Johnson. When it transpired that the region was not going to be on the agenda it was a measure of just how restricted the quality of the game in this part of the country has become.
In complete contrast to the past, the horses remaining were placed with the horse racing equivalent of the Mercedes garage, with some going to the equivalent of the Ferrari camp. And curiously, as it stands, the successful times with Johnson have not been surpassed despite the owner still retaining a concentrated string of high-quality animals with Willie Mullins.
For every stated quality handler in the region who some claim do not receive the acclaim that he or she deserves, such as a Brian Ellison, John Quinn, Philip Kirkby, and even Grand National winning trainers Lucinda Russell and Sue Smith, a similar profile could be pulled from the past.
How about Ulverston based Roger Fisher of Ekbalko fame, whose Carl's Wager won the novice chase at Haydock on that aforementioned 1981 card, or Ted Carter who trained the likes of Megan's Boy and Eborneezersdouble, or Grand National winning trainers Stuart Leadbetter and Denys Smith.
However you look at it the region in its representation of National Hunt racing is a poor imitation of its past, not just for the equine quality housed there but also for the quality of its trainers, jockeys, owners, and Aintree apart, racecourses. That it plods along and cuts its cloth accordingly is no comfort to those who fondly remember the heady 1970's and 1980's, but accept they are days which are unlikely to ever return.
image - paddock scene prior to running of 2005 Betfair Chase, taken by author
No comments:
Post a Comment