RTB – winning G1’s over hurdles is a whole different kettle of fish to G1’s on the flat, this season’s G1 Fighting Fith was worth £69k to the winner, whilst last season’s G3 John Porter was worth £48k to the winner and last season’s G2 Yorkshire Cup was worth £108k to the winner.
Those races are perfect stepping stones to see where he actually stacks up against graded flat horses and should he win those races then connections would be looking at G1 races as the next logical step.
Ruby – forgot to add the Grosser Preis von Bayern to the list, last year’s winner was George Scott’s 3 yr old Bay City Roller (his first win since the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster as a 2yr old) but the prize money for winning that was £82k, he was officially rated 117 and before that he was getting beat in G2/3 races.
The Willie Mullins trained Absurde is an 8 yr old who mixes hurdling and flat races and is officially rated 107 (as high as 110) and he won the Ebor in 2023 (in the low 100s) and was 7th, 5th and 8th in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 Melbourne Cups along with finishing 3rd in last season’s Irish St Leger.
The 6yr old Ethical Diamond also won the Ebor off the low 100s and is now at 121 following his BC Turf win and we can easily say that CH was a much better hurdler than both of them and he is just as unexposed as both of them were when they started out on the flat – yes he is older but he has far less career starts than Absurde has and the same exact number of career starts as Ethical Diamond has.
At this point we simply don’t know where CH flat ceiling could end up at until they test him. His total career earning over hurdles sits at just over £900k, Absurde and Ethical Diamond both took home a £300k for winning the Ebor! CH won £253k for his Champion Hurdle which is almost £25k less than what you earn for finishing 3rd in last season’s Melbourne Cup……hell Absurde won £79k for finishing 8th!
Not only is the flat option the far less riskier option for the horse it is also potentially the most lucrative………..again a no brainer of a decision for me. At this point, is it really bad of me to hope that the schooling doesn’t go well enough to convince them that Cheltenham is the route to go?