a step in the right direction.

​Next season, it is reported in today’s Racing Post, there will be a series of Junior National Hunt hurdle races for 3-year-olds, with conditions similar to Bumper races, beginning in mid-October and going through to the end of December, with a similar number of races for 4-year-olds taking place from January to late April. The races will be open to horses that are unraced before October and have not started in a flat race. As with bumpers, horses can run 4-times in a Junior National Hunt hurdle race.
This is good news for breeders and vendors with 2-year-olds to sell, giving them a market that was all but not there for them, and it should, going forward, be good for the sport. These races might be an opportunity to introduce professional riders to ‘Hands and Heels’ races that at the moment are only the province of apprentices and conditionals.
I see this initiative as a step in the right direction. French trainers are not averse to running 3-year-olds over obstacles, even fences, and in Ireland 4-year-old maiden point-to-points are all the rage, with Honeysuckle and Constitution Hill being amongst the most famous graduates. Indeed, the likes of Kauto Star, A Plus Tard, Clan des Obeaux and Frodon are amongst a whole host of jumping stars to have run over obstacles as 3-year-olds.
With a few notable exceptions, English trainers have a ‘stuck in the mud’ mentality towards their training methods. Though the old philosophy of their forebears that 6 to 8 weeks of roadwork at the start of the season is essential for hardening bone and strengthening muscle has long gone out of the window – its just too bloody dangerous to exercise on public roads nowadays – present-day trainers stick to tried and tested methods of getting horses fit and this includes giving ‘as much time as necessary’ to young horses. In the majority of instances, it has to be said, they are 100% correct, even if the French have a different attitude to what is best physically and mentally for a young, strong horse.
A few years ago, in this country 4-year-old novice chases were introduced and quickly abandoned as they attracted small fields due to the small reservoir of horses suitable for steeplechasing. Back in the day there was even a champion 4-year-old chase at the Cheltenham Festival. I would go as far as to suggest that in normal circumstances running a 4-year-old over fences would be of greater benefit to ‘the chasing type’ than the lickerty-spit, ping, ping, ping of a 16-runner novice hurdle.
Which brings me neatly to the traditional hurdle used almost exclusively in this country and similarly in Ireland. I am opposed to hurdles in their present form, though my opinion might change once we have a season under our belts of white replacing orange on the padding of top bars. Any obstacle that has the propensity to swing down and then up again is a tragedy waiting to happen. A horse can receive a fatal injury through no fault of its own from coming into contact with a hurdle swinging back to upright after being hit by a horse in front. To my limited experience, the sort of ‘hurdle’ that I have seen used in Ireland, something similar to the brush hurdle, something akin to a baby fence, used at Haydock before this season, is far fairer and less likely to attract fallers and should be adopted at all racecourses. I am sure fatalities in races would be less if we replaced 8-flights with the one solid ‘brush’ obstacle.
It has to be admitted that the reputation French horses have for being great jumpers is well-founded. The Junior National Hunt hurdle races are a major step forward and must be applauded. I hope owners and trainers respond by patronising this great initiative. But we must extend our thinking on the matter by also copying the Irish 4-year-old chases and taking away the pot-luck of the present-day 8-flights of hurdles, though it can be as few as 6 on some courses.
If the French system was the founding of Kauto Star’s greatness and Ireland’s 4-year-old point-to-point maidens were the making of Constitution Hill, surely we should be adopting a system that all too clearly fit for purpose.