beginners' chases, national & winter millions.

​At Punchestown today there is a Beginners’ Chase, the condition of which are – ‘for horses that have not won a chase and which at entering are rated 110 or less over hurdles’. I realise we are not comparing apples with apples when dealing with novices in Ireland and Britain and to do what they do in Ireland in Britain might not be the correct answer to many of our problems but …..
Novice chases are far from competitive in Britain, even those with five-figure prize-funds at Ascot or Cheltenham, for example. Novice handicap chases fare better and Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls have started to give them more love than in the past, due no doubt to a situation that can be dubbed Hobson’s Choice. In Britain we need more horses running in chases per se and something needs to be done hasty-fashion to encourage owners and trainers to run horses over fences. As far as I am aware there are no races in Britain that replicate the conditions of the Punchestown race today and novice chases that cater solely for the lower rated hurdler, and by definition allowing the smaller owner/trainers an opportunity where the big boys are unlikely to be in opposition, kills two birds with one storm, as it gives the lesser novice a race in which to be competitive and allows the smaller owner and the smaller trainer the chance to win a race.
To my mind, the better novice chasers should be directed, as Nicky Henderson would agree, to the novice conditions chases around the big tracks, with Beginners Chases kept, in the main, to the lower rated horses. I always have it in the back of my mind that there are good horses lurking in the background that do not get the opportunity to learn the art of jumping a steeplechase fence as they must forever take on speedier and higher-rated horses, even round places like Fontwell Plumpton or Warwick.
The racing calendar should cater for the novice chaser in the same way bumper horses are catered for. Every horse deserves the opportunity of progression through the ranks and copying Ireland in this respect might be the right road to travel. 
I refer you to the embarrassing yet wholly understandable 5 British-trained entries for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The Irish programme of races produces a whole raft of good novice chasers every year, yet in Britain we choose not to follow suit. Perhaps we should. We cannot expect 16-runner novice chases as is regularly the case in Ireland, but from green shoots and all that …

I dislike the term ‘National’ applied to races that display no similarity to real ‘Nationals’. The worst case, of course, is the American Grand National’ which is a hurdle races over a distance so far short of a ‘National’ distance to make the race laughable. Then there is the ‘Amateur National’ at Punchestown today run over 2-mile 6-furlongs.
Clearly the word ‘National’ in respect to horse racing needs to be more clearly defined. Here goes: ‘National’, a steeplechase run over a distance of no less than 3-mile 4-furlongs.
And while I am in full moan, how about the term ‘Marathon’ when applied to flat racing. If a race over 2-miles is termed a marathon, then a race of 2-miles 4-furlongs must be an ultra-marathon, which is daft as there are two flat races in the calendar over further, which might make them ‘Iron-Horse’ races. I might add the term ‘Long Distance’ to this rant as 1-mile 6-furlongs is far from a long distance for a thoroughbred to run over.
Why, for instance, the Long Distance Cup cannot be called the 2-Mile Cup is beyond me. Even the term ‘Stayers’ irks me as in some countries, the U.S. for instance, any race above 10-furlongs is thought-of as a race for stayers, not speed horses.
The word ‘marathon’, when applied to flat racing, should be scrapped, as should the term ‘long distance’ as they are without a definition that could possibly be associated with horse racing. I prefer a ‘2-mile horse’ or 2-miler or a horse with the stamina for 2-miles +.

Is the ‘Winter Millions’ a good idea? Do you not think the valuable races run this week at Windsor and Ascot can only dilute further the classier races between now and the Cheltenham Festival? I applaud the good intention involved and the reopening as a National Hunt course of Windsor needs a chorus of ‘he’s a jolly good fellow’ for whoever first came up with the idea. Yet is it not the problem that there are too many ‘class races’ at a time when the pool of ‘class’ horses in training at the present time is limited, which is exactly why some big prize races have so few runners? I cannot see that outside of a period when there a string of big meetings abandoned, that any of the races to be run at Windsor this Friday and Sunday are strictly necessary.