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Will be interesting to hear peoples views on this. Certainly think it is worth exploring if it encourages connections to race their horses a bit more.
Not sure it’d help. Cheltenham is the be-all and end-all for most of the richer owners. The raison d’etre for their involvement in the first place.
Jump racing has created a monster, in a way.
Didn’t they try something like this a few years ago? Using existing races iirc, but calling them a championship. Some good horses won it, but not any of the big names of the time because the owners still didn’t want to run them that often.
I was actually thinking the other day about something similar.
Take the 2m Hurdlers for example, you would have a series of the Top 2m races for the Hurdling Championship:
Fighting Fifth – Newcastle, Countrywide Flame
Bula – Cheltenham, Zarkandar
Christmas – Kempton, Darlan
Kingwell – Wincanton, Zarkandar
Champion – Cheltenham, Hurricane FlyUsing the F1 Grand Prix points; 25, 18, 15, etc
The horse with the most points takes the title of ‘Champion 2m Hurdler’
You could include the top Irish 2m races……
Why should one performance give you a Title……??? Not in my book it doesn’t, too small sample size. Neither should not being able to act around a certain course stop a horse from the Title.
As much as I/we all love the Festival – being the be all and end all is hurting the rest of the season – and we all know the sport is quite conservative.
Given the chance I’d do the following
1.starting with the victor chandler I’d move ascot,Cheltenham,sandown,Newbury,ascot Saturday meetings all a week earlier thus moving super Saturday and ascot chase a week further away from the festival and giving Cheltenham an extra week to prepare for festival plus it would jazz up 2nd January Saturday.
2.make Denman chase a 150,000 grade one,Newbury deserves a grade one chase.
3.upgrade the ascot hurdle and amlin chase to grade one,why should the 2 1/2mile horses wait so long for a grade one?
4.downgrade the fighting fifth and upgrade the international
5.make aintree 4days and make the Sunday jumps finale day as sandown can’t seemed be arsed to provide safe jumping ground at end of April.
6.move Cheltenham April meeting to weekend.
7.take the bet fair chase away from that dog track at hay dock and move it to Doncaster thus making it a galloping grade one,something it was ment to be in the first place.Didn’t they try something like this a few years ago? Using existing races iirc, but calling them a championship. Some good horses won it, but not any of the big names of the time because the owners still didn’t want to run them that often.
Order of Merit?
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Didn’t they try something like this a few years ago? Using existing races iirc, but calling them a championship. Some good horses won it, but not any of the big names of the time because the owners still didn’t want to run them that often.
Order of Merit?
Yes, that was what I was thinking of. Iirc it was partly instigated to encourage owners to run their horses more often, wasn’t it? Not necessarily just the big name stars, but encouraging all racehorses to be run more often. Lasted a few years and then faded away.
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