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“Sport has never been a meritocracy”. Then please explain how the likes of Maradona, the Williams Sisters, Lebron James, George Best to name just a few have succeeded in their chosen fields.
I’d concede that in the individual sports, meritocracy exists, it couldn’t not, but in team sports money is the deciding factor in outcome over the long run.
Le Tissier was great player and won nothing of note. I wonder why.
Ok so along with Willie we will also have to ban Aidan from having runners on the flat over here as well for the same daft reasoning some are advocating on here. A trainer’s job is to simply amass as much prize money as possible for the yard, which is why the title is not decide on number of winners.
The 75 winners quota idea is quite frankly stupid as only 4 trainers would have actually qualified for this season’s NH Title (down from 8 the previous year) and you would end up having a similar issue with the bigger stables numerically only battling it out – Skelton this year has currently had 951 runners (up from 783 the previous season) whilst Nicholls, Fergal O’Brien, Russell, McCain & O’Neil have all had 500+ runners (the last two named have had less than 75 winners).
If we based the Title on total winners, last season Nicholls (132) would have been Champion again and the year before he would also have been Champion regardless of the metric you used (163 winners and £3.6m total prixe money) and yes the year before that he again would have been Champion as he led both lists.
The small trainers at Plumpton are unhappy that their own mini monopoly they have had in recent years in scooping the big pot of money has (for one season anyway) been broken by a bigger yard invading their patch (similar to what they were probably doing to the even smaller yards than them before). Unfortunate but such is life.
I do agree that the National has too much winning prize money on offer when compared to the prize money for winning the Blue Riband of chasing (Gold Cup) – maybe they could halve the winning prize money (£250k) and use it to see prize money extended down beyond the first 10 home it currently is now?
At the end of the day whatever way you want to decide the Trainers Title there will be the same big names dominating it – it has been no different since the time these titles were introduced, the only difference now is that Mullins has taken it to another level with G1 horses.
Fyi – Mullins became just the 5th trainer to win the NH Trainers Title in the last 35 years (15 for Pipe, 14 for Nicholls, 4 for Henderson & 2 for Nicholson) and since 1945-46 season there have been just 19 trainers in total on the list.
Mullins didn’t dominate the Irish National.
Well done to Rebecca Curtis.
British trainer takes horse over to Ireland and wins. It might catch on..
That’s because he has 17 entered for the big chase at Sandown.
The more I know the less I understand.
Zanybody, Meritocracy exists in both individual and team sports. In order for participants to compete in any sport they initially have to have the talent to make the grade. I could have come from a rich background and have pots of money, doesn’t mean I’m going to lead the line at Wembley. Yes money is a factor in all sports but you still have to have the ability first.
And Le God as we refer to him achieved both his goals, to play for Southampton in the Premiership and win England caps.Skelton isn’t complaining , he’s getting winners and pushing as hard as he can , maybe the reason Gordon isn’t even competing with the likes of Skelton is his negative attitude…
Yes, talent dictates if the individual makes the grade, but in team sports it’s cash that dictates the finishing order. The more you spend the greater the chances of success.
Hence Le God has his England caps and no medals.
I support a L2 team, that nearly made the PL when we had an owner with deep pockets. No meritocracy, we just outspent our divisional rivals and obtained the best players. He left, we eventually dropped back to L2.
Why did you start talking about team sports? My whole argument about meritocracy was that every competitor has to have talent to get on in sport. Man City can spend money galore but whoever they buy had to have the initial talent to play the game. Yes, money talks of course it does and it has a bearing on things but my initial argument still stands, namely you need talent and ability to participate in sport, hence meritocracy.
Now this is where I don’t understand this forum any more: 111 (and counting) pages about an slightly overrated horse and 26 pages about being bored by the success the greatest NH time of all time has been celebrating for over 20 years. I don’t get it…. Mullins taking the sport to a new level is what the game needs…..
Was picking up on Oscar’s comment re team sports, and should have added that in my initial response.
We have seen it in so many other sports in that you can be successful and Joe Public will support you while you are but just don’t get too successful because if you do Joe Public will soon go on the turn and try to tear you down.
If other trainers were in Mullins shoes, every single one of them would be doing exactly the same thing – he is not resting on his laurels and continues to ensure that the groundwork he set in place over many many years is continually built upon so that he can not only live up to the standards he has set but raise them even further.
Interestingly on ITV racing today, Chapman pointed out that if he does win his 2nd consecutive trainers title and equals Vincent O’Brien feat there is a good chance that he will be even more determind to go even more out next season to one up the great man by winning a 3rd consecutive trainers title.
Seeing more of his stars coming over to race on a more regular basis I do believe is good for the sport as we could start seeing more of the big guns clashing outside of the Festival as they regularly did back in the dim and distant past, when trainers weren’t dodging rivals.
Am I the only one who couldn’t care less about owners, trainers and jockeys, or their ‘championships’
Said humans are necessary to buy, train and ride racehorses; other than that the horse is everything and the connections an irrelevance
Jolly good sport at Plumpton: a track that seems to be on an upward curve rather than the ever-decreasing circles of the majority
There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night —
Ten to make and the match to win —
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote
“Play up! play up! and play the game!”I wonder how many people apart from entitled Chris Gordon left Plumpton on Sunday thinking “I wish that Willie Mullins hadn’t run four good horses here. It ruined the whole day for me.”
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