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Having the trainer’s championship decided by prize money works better on the Flat, as the prize money is fairly evenly distributed throughout the whole season.
This is not the case for NH – as this season has proven; 6 weeks ago Mullins was nowhere in the title race – he then had a successful Cheltenham plus wins in the Grand & Scottish Nationals, and is leading…..
It makes no sense. It basically renders the first 3/4 of the season irrelevant……There needs to be a more even spread of prize money throughout the season, or another way of deciding titles.
“It basically renders the first 3/4 of the season irrelevant.”
It could be argued it already is.
Exactly – and there you have the problems with the NH season…….
I’m trying to think of other sports where we see something similar…..There aren’t many. Even sports with end of season ‘Play Offs’ require teams to complete the regular season.
This kind of relentless domination by one yard might not upset the cognoscenti on here too much, but don’t underestimate its deleterious effect on the casual watcher. I used to go to quite a few meetings every year and bet quite regularly. I now do neither but until fairly recently was still an avid viewer of televised jump racing.
Things like the Mullins hegemony, the emasculation of Aintree and pitiful fields at Cheltenham are really conspiring to turn me off the sport, sadly.Totally agree with you Mighty Marine. A behemoth stable dominating nearly all the top races both sides of the Irish Sea is going to have serious consequences for those at the lower end of the food chain as more and more trainers will be chasing lower grade races that they can compete in which in turn will increase the number of trainers leaving the industry.
Just look at the entries for the Grade 1 KPMG Champion Novice at Punchestown on Tuesday. 17 entries of which W P Mullins has 13! And it’s much of the same for the other Grade 1s. You really must have your head buried deep into the sand to think that is good for the sport of racing.
Instead of fiddling about with and gerrymandering the trainers’ title rules to “STOP MULLINS”, they could just declare the British trainers’ title for British trainers only- much as Rachael Blackmore couldn’t be nominated for the main SPOTY award. No need to find other ways to hack down the tallest poppy in the field.
Gordon Elliott was 5th I think without even trying and having a virus from Christmas to March and losing Caldwell Potter and some of the other Andrew+Gemma Brown horses.
Oh Green’.
In the British Sports Personality OF The Year it stands to reason you have to be British or at least living in Britain. Sadly Rachael Blackmore is neither, although she could still win the overseas award or whatever they call it now. Like Mohammed Ali won.If a British jockey crossed the Irish Sea several times and won a few races, am sure he / she would not be “Irish Sports Personality” or whatever it is called there.
You can be Champion Trainer in Britain without being British or living in Britain, by winning more pounds in British races. It would be daft to rule out an Irish trainer just because he isn’t living here.
However, there has been talk for many years – before Mullins’ victory – whether the current Trainers Championship has basically been turned into a two month shoot out – not a year’s or season’s competition. It’s just how the money is divided up these days.
The suggestion of different points won depending on the class of race strikes me a much fairer way to decide the title because the whole season should matter… Keeping a link to quality counts more, yes. But with every winner also counting. I’d make it solely about winners too. If Mullins wanted to run his horses in British races every day of the week he would still win.
It is not about stopping an Irish trainer from winning the Trainer’s Championship. It’s about whether ANY trainer should win the Trainer’s Championship with so few victories.
Value Is EverythingAm I right in thinking that he said in TRP that he was up for defending his title next year?
“It’s about whether ANY trainer should win the Trainer’s Championship with so few victories.”
When those victories include the Champion Hurdle, the Gold Cup, the Grand National, the Bula, the Scottish National, the Whitbread and a hatful of other good races; and are supplemented by some good place money including 3rd in the King George with the erstwhile highest rated jumps horse in training then- hell yeah he should win.
Was there this amount of bitching and moaning when Vincent O’Brien won? I don’t think summer jumps tiddlywinks even existed then.
In fact, if Nicholls put together a brilliant team of horses by dint of canny buying (not spending three quarters of a million quid on a novice hurdle gelding for example) and developing a range of horses including hurdlers proper rather than just big lanky “surgerize its throat, slap a cross noseband on it and tell everyone that the Challow is just a bonus, its main target is the King George 2027”, came over and nicked some place money in the Lexus, came back and looted the DRF, won the Irish National and a couple of other things at Fairyhouse, then ransacked Punchestown and won the Irish trainers’ championship..
…then I’d say well done him.Mind you, there is something in the prize money season spread aspect. Maybe GB needs a Galway Festival pf their own. I think there would be calendar space, horses and interest to develop one.
“Was there this amount of bitching and moaning when Vincent O’Brien won? I don’t think summer jumps tiddlywinks even existed then”.
—————————————–In Vincent O’Brien’s time nobody had any opinion on it because nobody could express an opinion.
I am not “bitching and moaning”. Just saying that the season’s title should imo be more than about who won comparatively few valuable races in the Spring. Why can you not just see that as a serious point and not bitching and moaning about it?
What Mullins has done this last two months is a great achievement and should be recognised as such. I’ve said that more than once on other threads.
Value Is EverythingI did see that as a serious point- see the end of my post. GB only has the Swinton hurdle the Summer Cup + Summer Plate between now and the Persian War in October. Ireland has its richest hurdle race – won this season the by subsequent Champion Hurdle 4th- and the Galway Plate worth the same €162k- recent editions have been won by horses who went on to win the Ryanair and the King George.
GB could do with a similar meeting if climate allows.Although I can see that (in particular) running novice chasers more often throughout the season does get them ready for a handicap campaign in the latter stages of the season. The down side to that is they tend to reach their pinnacle in form earlier too, so effectiveness later on in their careers is affected. If I had a good jumper I would not want it trained on firmer ground in the Summer either. Unless it had an action to go with the surface. Encouraging more Summer jumping is imo not good for horses welfare in general anyway.
Value Is Everythingmrwjones wrote,
“Genuine question. Does anyone care about the trainers championship ? I know I don’t.”
Good point mrwjones and one I largely agree with but for those who do get excited by championships, jumps racing have got it right. Trainers should be decided on prize money and jockeys on winners. The trainers job should be to maximise the return for owners while jockeys should be to ride winners.
Meanwhile the flat championships are a bit of a mess and lack credibility. While the trainers one lasts the whole calendar year the jockeys one doesn’t even include several weeks at the beginning and end of the flat turf season.
Which might work were it not or the fact the trainers title can be won or lost on 7 days worth of racing! The jockeys title you can’t. You need to be winning for much of the season. Paul Townend ain’t going to win the UK jockeys title so why should Mullins on such limited days racing?
I go back to a very simple scoring system. 1 point for a win in a Class 5, 2 points in a Class 4 etc etc. Perhaps someone can explain why that wouldn’t work and wouldn’t be fairer to all participants both trainers and jockeys rather than rubbish it with no explanation as to why? It’s hardly nuclear physics to introduce that type of scoring system.
Well the best scoring system could be one similar to the one used in Major League Baseball to determine the batting title. Not the player with the highest average wins the batting title, but the one with at least 3.1 plate appearances for every game his team has played.
That is a total of 162 games x 3.1 = 502.2This means players with at least 503 plate appearances during a regular season are eligible to qualify for the batting crown.
In terms of NH Racing for instance, I’d say whoever (trainers) has a minimum of 25 runners a month or 300 during a season and wins the most prize-money shall be declared the winner.
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