- This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 6 months ago by
.
- Posts
Well done to Paul Nicholls and Robert Alner for running Taranis and The Listener respectly at the James Nicholson chase a few weeks back. Its a shame we dont not we dont see too many british owners or trainers take their horses to Ireland unlike irish trainers who always run their horses in big english hurdle races or chases. Why dont we hardly see too many top uk trained hurdlers and chaser run in a big races in Ireland outside of the Punchestown Festival or even Lepordstown at christmas? For instance, there was not a single british trained runner in the big chase at Clomel today nor is there a single uk-trained runner at the Morangia Hurdle on sunday. How many uk-trained horses will we see running when they are 3 Grade 1 races at Fairyhouse in December when the Hattons Grace Hurdle is run? Probarbly zero. If those races where a group 1/2/3 or a listed race on the flat in Ireland there would be at least 3 or 4 uk-trained runners in them all the time. What are british jumps scared of??? The whole jumps season does not just happen for only 4 days every March thats what some people in NH racing think. When will Kauto Star/My Way de Solzen will run in Ireland or will they never cross the irish sea again? I like to see Kachit run in the AIG in January before running in the champion hurdle will we see that happen. There is a lot more to jump racing then the Cheltenham Festival.
The problem, if you can call it that, is that there are invariably suitable targets in the UK at or around the same time as the races in Ireland you mention.
Why would a UK trainer go to the trouble of travelling a horse over for something like the Morgiana Hurdle, when they could target the Fighting Fifth just a couple of weeks later? Same goes for the Festival Hurdle/Christmas Hurdle and Lexus Chase/King George.
I’d like to see more cross-water raids in both directions, but I don’t think it has anything to do with UK trainers being ‘scared’ of going to ireland – more likely that they don’t want to run horses un unsuitably soft/heavy ground, and there are ample targets at home, which provide for less of a logistical challenge and lower costs to boot.
Got it in one, Grasshopper, and the obverse is true of the Irish’s targetting, or rather not, of certain high-profile British contests.
The ready availability of Championship class 2m-2m4f hurdles such as the aforementioned Morgiana goes a long way to explain why just three Irish horses have contested the "Fighting Fifth" in the last 20 years. Further, those three horses – Harchibald, Native-Darrig and Space Trucker – all took their chances in good ground renewals.
The Morgiana and "Fighting Fifth" were both worth £45,000 to the winner last year, and have been closely matched prizemoney-wise for some time, I think, so unless this dry spell endures for a few weeks more I don’t see any Irish raiders lining up for the Newcastle feature this time around.
Those that do turn up have made it worth their while, though, with the three runners listed above landing two wins and a third between them.
Anyone would think I was just in the process of writing a piece on the race when this thread popped up…
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I don’t think we have too much to complain about actually. It would be nice to see more top UK horses run here and they do well when they do but our top national hunt horses haven’t run in the UK outside of Cheltenham, Aintree and the King George much either.
You cant blame connections given the logistics and similar levels of prize money.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.