THE HURDLING WASTELANDS

It is now accepted across the board by the reasonably minded that we are in an era where the hurdling ranks are thinner in quality than anyone currently alive can remember, and that the position of the Champion Hurdle itself in the big race pecking order, is lower than at any time since WW2.

Let's not doubt that for many years the Champion Hurdle deservedly shared the same high stage with the Cheltenham Gold Cup at the festival. Allowing that you would get vintage, standard and below par fields and winners of each event, they were of almost equal prestige, the Gold Cup ahead if only marginally.

We now have a Cheltenham Festival with the Gold Cup ahead of a pack that has the Champion Chase at least the equal of its hurdling counterpart. Put it this way, in times gone by there is no way that Altior would have gone straight over fences the season after hammering his field in the Supreme Novices.

He looked a potential champion hurdler in waiting that day, even without knowing how the career path of Buveur D'Air would meander. The current title holder was a well-beaten third in the race and by custom would have been the one earmarked for the Arkle Challenge Trophy route, a path he started promisingly on until being suddenly switched back to the smaller obstacles after a cloud appeared over the future of Faugheen.

The two mile chasing division did receive a massive boost in kudos from the 1980's onwards. Starting with the magnificent Badsworth Boy, followed by the admirable Pearlyman, then on to that closely contested Viking Flagship era in the 1990's which was entertaining but without a truly outstanding champion, and into recent times with legends Moscow Flyer and Sprinter Sacre.

But in a perfect world, the Champion Hurdle should have more prestige and be the trophy that you would take given the choice.

While it is an agreed fact that the main reason for the general decline in the strength of the hurdling ranks stems from the demand and opportunities for flat horses to continue their careers in the likes of Australia and the Middle East, along with an expanded All -Weather programme here, there seems to be a knock on effect on the sense that animals that have been reared through the traditional store route and who turn into high-class novice hurdlers are increasingly likely to switch straight to fences.

This goes hand in hand with the loss in prestige of the division, something that will not be helped by Samcro's hugely disappointing beginning to his second season over timber. The hurdling arena needed a big fillip and many were hoping that he would be turn into the horse he visually looked to be last March.

As time races on the vintage 1970's era for the two-mile hurdling division becomes more of a distant memory. Indeed, it is an era that the small number of modern-day racing fans will care or know nothing about.

This was clear when a few years back the Racing Post invited its readers to vote on who they consider the best hurdler in history was, with the likeable but as champions go, run of the mill, Rooster Booster ahead of the old legends.

The image that this vote conjured up is one of vocal here for today twenty-something racegoers wearing designer clothes, taking designer drugs, and having racing as a second or third sport in a list headed by the God that is football, and who themselves probably support one of the in vogue teams in a location they have no connection to and live many miles from.

If such a survey had been held in the 1970's, I would be sure that the young fans then, despite it dawning on them that they were in a vintage period, would have possessed the enthusiasm and respect for the history of the sport to have considered and put the likes of Persian War and Hatton's Grace high up on the list.

To the middle of that decade we had Fred Rimmell's outstanding champion Comedy of Errors who took the title in 1973, lost it to his great adversary Lanzarote in 1974, then regained it in the 1975 mudbath. Peter O'Sullivan once referred to Comedy of Errors as "one of the post-war greats of winter racing."

Both horses had been winners on the flat, Comedy of Errors a very useful handicapper who had finished fourth in the 1971 Magnet Cup when trained by Tom Corrie. There would have been a strong probability that nowadays he'd have been snapped up to continue his career on the flat in another continent. What a loss that would have been.

To appreciate the strength and depth of the hurdling ranks at the time, consider the beginning of the 1975/76 season. This was the season that a changing of the guard would take place headed by Night Nurse, who to many remains the greatest hurdler of all time, a statement supported by him having highest Timeform rating for one in that sphere in the organisations history.

During the season Night Nurse won all of his eight starts. Comedy of Errors ran eight times winning on three occasions, the last of which was in the Templegate Hurdle at Aintree where he beat Grand Canyon narowly, the latter a high class hurdler who ran eleven times during the season.

Lanzarote made seven appearances, showing his versatility in winning the Long Walk Hurdle, while the emerging one time Epsom Derby sixth Sea Pigeon, who was now with Gordon Richards, ran six times.

The odd one out was the runner up in the Champion Hurdle, Bird's Nest. A legend in his own right. Bob Turnell gave him an in line with modern times three outings.

As an example of how spirited connections were up for it week in week out, consider Comedy of Errors seven runs before his Templegate success.

Beginning in the Kirk and Kirk Hurdle at Ascot in November, he finished runner-up to Lanzarote. He then finished in the same position in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle attempting to give Night Nurse 9 lb on their first encounter. Sea Pigeon finished back in third.

In the Trial Hurdle at Cheltenham in December he finished third to Sea Pigeon and Navigation, conceding 10 lb to both. Then over to Leopardstown at Christmas for the Sweeps Hurdle where he passed the post in fourth position, the race won by Night Nurse.

He quickly reappeared at Windsor in the New Years Day Hurdle where he prevailed by a head in a tussle with Sea Pigeon. Next to the Wolverhampton Trial Hurdle, failing by two and a half lengths to give weight away to Bird's Nest.

Comedy Of Errors then returned to the winner's enclosure when decisively beating Bird's Nest stable companion Tree Tangle in the National Spirit Challenge Trophy at Fontwell.

In his attempt to take the Champion Hurdle for a third time, he finished fourth behind Night Nurse, Bird's Nest and Fulke Walwyn's Dramatist, with Lanzarote one place behind him in fifth.

This fear nothing, heavy campaigning, horses are for racing approach was not unusual during this era. It was the norm and to be expected, and sadly exemplifies a period when the sport was at its very best. In fact, compared to how rigorously another outstanding champion Monksfield campaigned a few years later, Fred Rimmell gave his charge a relatively easy time.

It is unlikely we will ever return to such an impassioned period and equally unlikely that racing over timber will ever enjoy such a competitive span ever again. And the powers that be are misguidedly going off on a wacky tangent to try and pull in new interest in the sport instead of going back to basics and accepting that high-class horses competing against each other regularly is the main door opener to the sport and should be their prime focus.

image from authors scrapbook

SINISTER FORCES AT WORK

The rumour that plans are afoot to abolish the whip from racing in the UK will come as no surprise to those us who became highly sceptical of that piece done on ITV racing twelve months back involving John Francome and Tony McCoy.

What was an attempted impression of a couple of national hunt legends engaging in offhand, often light-hearted chit chat while having a casual stroll stunk then of an attempt to tinker with the details of their own established beliefs. This to cater for these imaginary, potential young racing fans that those holding influence are ingenious enough to have come up with their overall character portrayals of.

It only lasted a few minutes but anyone paying attention who is a lifelong follower of the sport could not have failed to have been baffled by both former riders assertions that they never really needed the whip and would have been fine without it.

What had happened to the ' this is horseman's domain keep your nose out of what you know nowt about'  method of dealing with those critical of some areas of jockeyship?

If suspicions are true then it is a dire state of affairs in which there exists a small number of self-righteous individuals behind the scenes who hold an amount of influence and power that far ouutweighs their level of intelligence.

On these mini televised pieces these stakeholders are able to set the scene, the gist of the word spoken, how they perceive it will be received, and the desired outcome.

And for those looking even deeper into this and to try and work out how it will all pan out if the hold is not put on the self destruct button, there is an inkling that shortly after the ludicrous clamping down and removal altogether of the whip, the unique, unmatched in its offering, sport of national hunt racing will be at best neutered and at worst sacrificed.

If this sounds far-fetched then muse over the willingness to push this cold, soulless, All Weather game into our everyday lives. And the time window could be smaller than we think. Some are sprouting rumours that they have it on good authority that plans are afoot to remove the whip in as little as three years from now.

We are on the eve of a chaotic, exciting mid-season jumping bonanza with the King George Chase to top it all yet racing and Sky Sports News, are eager to inform us of the announcement made that a horse called General Tufto has been retired.

The New One retiring, that was worthy news, so too if it was shortly announced that the likes of Faugheen or Coneygree had encountered setbacks that hastened an end to their terrific careers.

But General Tufto?  The amount of publicity given to his retirement would make a casual viewer think that he had been a rag to riches star. We had a recording of an emotional trainer being interviewed by an almost equally emotional Simon Mapletoft, which was repeatedly shown on the Sky Sports News loop.

Without being miserable and unjustly picky for a horse who won seventeen times in a long stretched out career, the reality is we are talking of an animal who raced off a highest rating of 75.

Operating from the basement, trainer Charles Smith has a handful of moderate animals. He reached double figures once, training eleven winners back in 2000. This year he looks to be emulating 2007 and 2008 where he failed to train a single winner.

Put it this way, when racing feels the pinch of the wholly correct decision to drastically cut the minimum stakes on the FOBTS, the arena for horses of General Tufto's quality will be smaller with fewer pickings up for grabs.

If would have been justified if we had been praising the nurturing of an animal from raw bottom of the basement beginnings into a high-class animal, as for example the fondly remembered Soba, bred for buttons by a dam bought for buttons.

In her juvenile career Soba managed a single place from nine starts. Then on to the following year, opening up winning her first six starts, which ended up eleven from fourteen, including a scintillating all the way success in the Stewards Cup, in which she lowered the course record.

On her previous outing she had trapped a nerve when well beaten at odds on which prompted John Garnsey to write in the Daily Express the day after the Goodwood victory, that her win ''heralded the return of the disabled'', and noted that ''she went down to the start bucking like a rodeo horse'', which led David Chapman to express concerns beforehand that her back was playing up.

On to the following year, 1983, it was only one of the outstanding female racehorses of all time, Habibti, that barred the way to sucess for Soba in the July Cup, William Hill Sprint Championship, and the Vernons Sprint Cup.

If  All Weather racing had been in existence when Chapman was guiding Soba up through the ranks then she too would no doubt have been a regular on these surfaces in her early days. And there would have reached a time when she deservedly would have been covered on Sky Sports News loops.

In allowing General Tufto's retirement to receive an unwarranted amount of press coverage, it is taking time and space away from what would ideally suit a stable visit to one of the many true stars who will be running over the Christmas period.

It's akin to being back in the days when footage of your favourite bands were not available on tap on YouTube, or the numerous non-stop music channels, and you discovered Lieutenant Pigeon taking up the airspace that could have been afforded to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen or The Rolling Stones

If you want small stable stars they should remind us of Sam Spinner, who is now going through a chapter of his story where a spanner has been thrown in. For longevity, there is the teenager Raz De Maree lining up for another crack at the Welsh National. But then again, that's probably a little too delicate. Old horses, obstacles, the concern over the viewers that won't approve.

Horses performing at the top end of the tree with humble backgrounds are commonplace in the winter game and while such as the Dream Alliance story deservedly was the subject of a documentary, there are many others that go untold.

Ashley Brook (in picture), for example, a thrilling top class two-mile chaser at his best from a small set up. Or Sunset Cristo, who finished third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup from Ray Hawkey's Stockton yard that in some editions of Horses In Training had one other animal in training, while sometimes it was Sunset Cristo alone.

Unfortunately, the willingness to broadcast the General Tufto story contains the dabs of yet another propaganda exercise. A sort of look at how happy and safe this horse has been racing for so long and with a happy retirement ahead. They are telling the casual viewer that this is the norm. They are standing on dangerous ground.

image taken by author

A SPORT THAT HAS TOOK THE WRONG TURN

For those holding out hope that horse racing in the UK will play a prominent role in the years ahead by utilising its unique, rich and treasured history, the past couple of weeks will have been truly demoralising. It may have even tempted some to wash their hands of it altogether.

Stupid innovations planned by stupid people who have no feel for the sport and are therefore unable to grasp what makes the sport so fascinating. These are characters wearing business caps who have other sports as their true favourites, who would walk away from it all without looking back but who are set to  unleash festivals of nonsense that will serve to only confuse the onlooker.

City racing? What the hell is this term supposed to mean? We have plenty of locations within city boundaries or bordering them, or are in large catchment areas where those residing in the close by cities and towns can gain easy access too.

But some seem to think that bringing a makeshift, traveling racecourse to the streets as though it is some sort of circus, with low-grade animals displaying the sport in its most unappealing form, is a concept that will endear the sport to a fresh new audience. And having Peter Phillips at the helm is, putting it mildly, hardly likely to be a positive point

The only blessing with this idea, said to be close to fruition following  'successful' trial races when the 'mats' or whatever they are, were 'rolled out' at Aintree recently, is that it is destined for a short lifespan and certain failure that will be masked over by statements full of lies about how enjoyable, worthwhile and beneficial to the sport the whole exercise has been.

The other planned innovation, also close to becoming reality as early next year, is far more disturbing. It's the plan to have a mid Summer team competition which appears something of a cross between football and Grand Prix racing.

Let's get this straight. People with a feel for the sport will loom back through old copies of Horses In Training and reminisce about the time Fred Winter had Bula, Pendil and Lanzarote in training at the same time and compare the strength to the Dickinson's strong teams. Or to when Peter Easterby had Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Alverton, Little Owl and Major Thompson in the yard together, and discuss and measure with the Willy Mullins team of the present.

How about comparing the 1985 Cecil string showcased by Oh So Sharp and Slip Anchor, and weighing it up against Dick Hern's 1979 string containing Troy, with Henbit and Bireme amongst the juveniles. Or John Gosden's star-studded 2018 team put aside M V O'Brien's 1977 team which boasted The Minstrel, Alleged, Be My Guest, Artaius, with Try My Best amongst the juveniles, and a young Gosden as the assistant trainer.

A stable, variable fortunes, owners whose support cannot be taken for granted. Something that has existed for a couple of whole centuries. Who is on the up, who is on his way down? Something to natter over with a fellow racing fan for hours. There is nothing that needs fixing bar the tampering that is chipping away at the fabric of the sport.

Grand Prix racing and football thrive by their sports being broadcasted out in a comprehensive, in-depth style. Analysed from every statistical and visual angle, and in a way that tickles the interest buds of boffins, these are sports which have in a way been complicated rather than simplified and have grown to levels not previously imagined.

So why do these retards who scarily are able to control many of the power switches believe that simplification of horse racing will pull in a fresh, vibrant audience?

Teams of horses who race at their own 'home course' with a manager and who compete in races where a Grand Prix points style system is used. This stinks of racing throwing in the towel, a lost sport looking for inspiration from rival sports who are in a healthier state. It clearly shows that racing has developed an inferiority complex.

The concept of team competitions in racing was used in this country in 1980 when a team of North American riders came over to take on those based in the UK.

It was insightful but did not promise to be an addition to the calendar that would be permanent. The most memorable clash, and arguably the most memorable of any of these competitions to have taken place, came about at Ascot in 1982 under the sponsorship of Long John Whiskey.

This was when the wondrous Bill Shoemaker (in picture) won two of the races, a finely judged front-running ride on the Harry Thompson Jones trained Prince's Gate to beat the Lester Piggott ridden Spanish Pool, followed by a masterful hold-up ride on Jeremy Hindley's Rose Du Soir.

It was a day that the British audiences became a little less inward looking. Up to then Shoemaker may have had legendary status back in his homeland but was best known here for costing Hawaiin Sound the Epsom Derby by drifting off the rail and letting Greville Starkey up his inner on Shirley Heights.

On this day at Ascot, he wowed us.

Still, the team thing was still not something that was looked upon as suitable or viable for the sport. The Timeform organisation were overall not impressed. They commented in Racehorses of 1982 that, "it is difficult to measure the success on ventures on these lines in Great Britain ". They pointed to the fact that an identical event at Sandown failed to find a sponsor in 1982 and that its future looked in some doubt. They also added that the contests, "engendered publicity but neither provided much excitement ".

This latest proposal is far down the road from a novelty day where we at least got to see the big names from abroad. That was OK for a one-off but as a standing dish in the calendar does not justify its own day in the spotlight, as shown by the tepid Shergar Cup.

We can lambaste that for being a day that gets in the way. A lost Saturday for the sport. But this new competion is disturbing in that it appears as though it is taking itself seriously. Rather than just a one-off that some are indifferent to, some hate and one or two don't mind, this looks to be an attempt to add a whole new angle to the game.

We should be talking about the race taking place this weekend which many of us still refer fondly to as the 'Massey Ferguson'. Instead, we are left wondering what in God's name is happening to the sport.

image photograph by Mike Powell used under Fair Use