One can only chuckle over how many in the cricket world express deep concern over the future of the Test game as though the whole sport is in crisis - a sport that when put side by side with racing, is absolutely thriving on a global basis and whose formats that have unorthodox razzmatazz added will eventually create new fans, many of whom will then gradually be weaned on to appreciating the traditional format.
It's now customary for all the household names of the game to keep to the script about the Test format being in grave danger but some of the suggestions to tackle the so called crisis are workable and could be the solution - such as Geoffrey Boycott's proposal for the five day game to be slotted into four, longer days, with stricter rules to deter slow over rates.There exists no unmovable object that would prevent a mass resurgence in the popularity of the Test game.
From a horse racing point of view it almost makes one jealous of the position cricket is in. For in racing they do not turn back from change. The Grand National In Name Only Chase will never revert back to the real thing, that butterfly in the stomach test of a race it once was. Haydock Park will never rebuild that wonderful old chasing course with drop fences and the second longest run in, in the country. That heart in the mouth second last on the old course at Cheltenham will never revert back to where it was once cited.
It's the problem of animals and sport not going together in the modern world. Even without this angle, there is also the damage created by greed ruining the fixture list. Do we really enjoy the Breeders Cup as much since the extra races and Friday were introduced? And we know too well how the Cheltenham Festival has to a real extent been ruined by the increased number in opportunities for connections to dodge and dive when picking the race for their animals to compete in.
We can only sit back and marvel at the immediate success of the Dublin Festival that has more in common with a 1970's Cheltenham Festival than the present Prestbury Park event does with it's former counterpart.
Curiously, some will be trying to use the marvelous Frodon to forward a view that the Anglo-Irish balance of power in the jumping game is not presently as one sided as the majority righly make it out to be. In reality it's a sad reflection of how threadbare the quality of fields that fill the British mainland programme is when you consider that on paper, the field that lined up for the Down Royal race yesterday could feasibly turn out to be better than the one that lines up in the Kempton Park showcase event on Boxing Day.
It's such a wonderful high quality Christmas programme in Ireland that it's now more likely the King George V1 Chase would be chosen as an opt out from the more competitive Leopardstown race, notwithstanding of course the different nature of the Kempton circuit,
And talking of the increasing pattern whereby the showcase Saturday events in the UK mainland jumping fixture list are producing fields with quality thinner on the ground than in living memory, yesterday's Charlie Hall not surprisingly saw a turn out weaker than what would have been expected in former times. A once exciting animal in Cyrname who had for a spell been officially rated the best chaser in training but who has now truly lost his mojo, up against Shan Blue, a high class novice from last season whose merits were exposed come Festival time.
Ironically, he may end up winning the King George, something which would be a reminder of how ordinary the quality of the British mainland National Hunt programme has now become. While it's true that the high class hurdlers and chasers are campaigned more sparingly nowadays, they do not exist in any sizeable number in the UK to fill the quality races even if more bolder approaches came back into fashion.
Those of us old enough to have got hooked on racing the year that Comedy Of Errors regained his crown from Lanzarote, then to witness the front running hurdler who was arguably the greatest of them all, Night Nurse, come onto the scene, will have given up trying to reason with those who use Istabraq as the benchmark to compare all top class hurdlers with.
With regularity the main protagonists for the hurdling crown would be appearing in one combination or an other with the magnificent array of support players, some such as Bird's Nest having serious claims for the title, others being solid animals worthy of their place in the line ups of such events such as Dramatist, Flash Imp, Tree Tangle, Navigation, along with a former Epsom Derby sixth who after being purchased by Scotsman Pat Muldoon had moved from the Beckhampton stables of Jeremy Tree to G W Richard's, then to Peter Easterby's yard after a fall out. Just Sea Pigeon and yes, at that stage of his hurdling career he was just a support player. What an era!
Back to the present and irrespective of whether or not the inbalance in Anglo-Irish strength is maintained - of which there is no guarantee that it will be beyond the near future - the sport must brace itself as its general profile and popularity declines in comparison to other sports.
It has been revealed that Spotlight Sports, the owners of the Racing Post, are up for sale. The appeal is being branded on the data products it owns with an emphasis of continued expanion into sports other than racing.This is further confirmation that the portion of the betting pie taken up by horse racing will continue to decrease.
And without doubt one of the other sports where eyes go blurred at some of the figures involved in the betting liquidity will be the shorter format cricket competitions - although the amounts involved in tests involving the main teams are also impressive. If only those involved in that sport realised how truly safe and secure it's future really is.
A track from an album released two months before Comedy Of Errors regained his crown, and which would have been in thousands of racing fans households by the end of the year when Night Nurse emerged as a champion in waiting.
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