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Can anyone tell me why prize money for grade 1 novice races is so poor. For instance, yesterdays Challow novice hurdle at Newbury only had prize money of £38k. The Finale Hurdle at Chepstow had only prize money of £50k and next weeks Tolworth Hurlde at Sandown has similar prize money. All these 3 races are Grade 1’s for god sakes!! Imagine if a 2-y.o.Group 1 race on the flat was only worth £38K the fuddy duddies would be up in arms over that. I think all Grade 1 NH races should carry minimum prize money of £75k irrespective if they are novice chase/hurlde or a championship race.
A very noble aim which cannot be faulted.
However one question for you.
How would you propose to fund the increase in prize money?
I think you will find the question above goes a long way to answering your initial question.
"How would you propose to fund the increase in prize money? "
From the profits that the racecourses make over the bars?!?!
Colin
…and presumably a fair amount of the "profits that racecourses make over the bars" already goes towards prize money anyway.
Of course you could reverse the question and instead of demanding more prize money, ask why races like the Challow Hurdle and the Finale Hurdle have Grade 1 status in the first place.
The Challow has had some good winners, but it rarely attracts a genuinely competitive field (an Irish challenge is a rarity) and you have to think that it would attract exactly the same horses if it was reduced to a Grade 2. Certainly the Grade 2 races at Cheltenham earlier in the season with £20k prize money often feature the same horses that contest the Challow.
The subsequent record of recent Finale Hurdle winners is dire, with the honourable exception of the pair trained by G Macaire, Jair Du Cochet and Tempo D’or and we shoudn’t be relying on French challengers to uphold the standard in a Grade 1. I really can’t see any justification for a Grade 1 race for juveniles before Cheltenham – it’s the equivalent of running a Group 1 for 2-y-olds at Royal Ascot.
AP
Fully agree with ap regarding the downgrading of the Finale. While we’re at it, is it not time Grade 1 status for the Scilly Isles novice chase at Sandown was also removed.
Quite agree with the point made, but if I remember rightly up until the 1990/91 season he top races were as follows:
Championship
Feature
Listed.
From then on they became Grade 1,2,3; the season was divided in 2, so that around December/January there were Grade 1 races across all divisions, with the second half run at Cheltenham/Aintree. I’ve listed them as follows:Long Walk Hurdle Ascot 3m Floyd Stayers Hurdle
Finale Junior Hurdle Chepstow 2m 3yo Triumph Hurdle
King George VI Chase Kempton 3m Desert Orchid Gold Cup
Christmas Hurdle Kempton 2m Fidway Champion Hurdle
Feltham Nov Chase Kempton 3m Sparkling Flame??? Sun Alliance Chase
Castleford Chase Wetherby 2m Waterloo Boy?? QM Champion Chase
Challow Hurdle Newbury 2m4f Tyrone Bridge Sun Alliance Hurdle
Tolworth Hurdle Sandown 2m Change The Act??? Supreme Novices
Haydock Chase 2m4f Sabin Du Loir Melling Chase
Scilly Isles Chase 2m Sandown ???? Arkle Chase
Bishops Cleeve Hurdle Cheltenham 2m4f Crystal Spirit Aintree Hurdle.Even then some of the Novice events prize money was poor, and while I agree at least 45-50,000 should be the least for the winners prize, where does the money come from?
I agree about demoting the Finale/Scilly Isles and I’d also like to see the Independent Nov Chase at the Open meeting upgraded to a Grade 1 with the list of winners that there has been – Best Mate, Azerty, Seebald, Fundamentalist, Accordion Etoile, Thisthatandtother, Fair Along etc…
ive always thought that if a grade one race didnt attract enough top horses it would be downgraded to a grade two. so it suprising that the like of the finale and the scilly isles are still grade one.
even the ascot chase has struggled to justify its grade one status in recent years although this seasons race could attract kauto star.
it will be interesting to see how the new grade one victor chandler chase at ascot in few weeks shapes up given that the champion chaser has never been aimed at it.
prize money has never been an issue in jumping like it is on the flat. a 20,000 race can get a better field than a 100,000 race simply because it fits in better with the build up to cheltenham.
on the whole all the new grade ones races such as the betfair and the tingle creek has helped the mid season out of the shadow of the festival a bit and its interesting to note that the king george was not a grade one race until the 70s i think.
on the down side if the scilly isles was downgraded then it will lessen even further a once great sandown card….remember the gainsborough chase?
also all the new grade ones has ment that the top horses dont tend to run in the big handicaps anymore,much in the same way as in the 70s when the flat pattern came about.I was a bit suprised at the level of money on offer to the winner of Turpin Green’s race yesterday.
Over £25k for a 3 runner race.
KT
Yes, but they didn’t know there would only be 3 runners when the race conditions and prize money were set.
Rob
It used to be a 40k+ handicap chase run midweek in October – the likes of See More Business and Suny Bay used to run in it. With the invention of the Betfair Chase they played around with the conditions of the Tim Molony, Tommy Whittle, The Last Fling and Peter Marsh which where all high grade handicaps/conditions chases at 3m.
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