in racing terms, it should all be about now.

​When I pen whatever you would like to call this stroll through my thoughts and concerns, I try to start with a title that encompasses the topic or topics I intend to cover. More often than not I go off-piste and have to amend or completely change the title, even when I believe it to be either snappy or intriguing. I am not, you must understand, a professional writer and neither do I have an editor sitting at my shoulder and have no training outside of ‘life’s university’ to guide my illiterate way. Today I will endeavour to stay within the topics of the Grand National, the racing calendar and the Mares Hurdle.
The initial entries for Punchestown’s Grand National trial were published in the Racing Post either yesterday or the day before. (Poor memory, can’t be assed to bring-up yesterday’s paper to clarify the facts). I suspect, though it was not my initial thought, it is a trial specifically for the Irish National at Fairyhouse, though the race title does not make this clear, though neither does Haydock’s Grand National trial, also due to be run in the next few weeks. What appalled me about the entries for both races, indeed all races over a distance of ground that in the past would make the race appropriate as a pointer towards Aintree, is how few of those entered have a sporting chance of fulfilling the criteria to be accepted to run in the big race. What is the point of a Grand National trial if it useless as a form-guide for the race it is a trial for? Perhaps the condition of the race that a horse must have run in a 3-mile chase should be amended to a chase over a distance of 3m 4-furlongs or more? Though ‘win and your in’ races through the season would make far more sense.
The B.H.A., and I dare say Horse Racing Ireland, publish their race calendars well in advance of the seasons covered. This was all very well in times of plenty but is it the right approach when the well is running dry? 
In Britain, it seems, it is becoming extremely difficult to find sponsors away from either the bookmaking industry or companies associated with people heavily invested in the sport as owners, though Ireland have no trouble finding sponsors either local or global.
With the pool of horses available slipping year on year, especially at the upper levels, it would make sense for Britain and Ireland to sit down and negotiate their race programmes so they gel with each other to attract the best horses available and the largest number of runners. This would inevitably mean both countries sacrificing or down-grading races of long-standing and eliminating many of the established Grade 1’s in both countries. This would be a ‘for now’ policy and could be changed if and when the pool of top-class horses returns to levels of the distant days when competitiveness was not a subject for debate.
I believe the seeds of this problem were sown when the Cheltenham Festival evolved from 3-days to 4. I approved of the change at the time and would have embraced a 5-day festival if it had come to pass. Not now, though. Over the last couple of years, the dynamic has become one of survival, not growth. Sadly, I believe it is time for the festival to revert to 3-days, with the Ryanair, the 2m- 5 novice hurdle and the Turners in particular directed to other meetings or a specific race-day away from the Festival. The 2-mile Champion Chase, the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup in particular should be ring-fenced, protected against the threat of small fields and long-odds on favourites. If the season was not so cluttered, races culled from the Festival-proper could be run at a ‘satellite’ Festival, though seeded throughout the season might prove more beneficial. The Ryanair at the upcoming Newbury meeting, for instance, and if the sport returns to somewhere close to its ‘glory days’ it could return to March and the Festival.
The B.H.A. and its Irish counterpart should be planning for now, not doing the same over and over again in hope that it’ll all come right on some night long in the future. Premierisation is more, when the current situation seems to demand less.
And that brings me to the mares races at the Festival. To my mind, no matter what ratings tell us, and yes Honeysuckle brought the house down at last year’s Festival, though a great part of that was in light of the tragedy that had befallen the de Bromhead family, the Mares Hurdle is a problem. It is not titled the Mares Champion Hurdle, by the way, even if it is the major races for mares in both Britain and Ireland. I believe the race should be titled the Mares Champion Hurdle, boosted in prize-money and should replace the International/Bula hurdle on Cheltenham’s trials day. This move would be beneficial to both the Champion Hurdle and whatever the race over 2-miles is called at the Dublin Racing Festival as it might galvanise British trainers to support the race and the meeting. If trials day became a 2-day fixture, the other two races for mares, the novice hurdle and the chase could be accommodated, along with the other races dropped from a 3-day Cheltenham Festival.
Given adversity trainers usually pull-through. Yes, Nicky Henderson would pull his hair out if he was arm-twisted into having to run his latest Champion Hurdle candidate in the Kingwell at Wincanton but as with all us, he would just have to suck it up or travel to the kingdom of Willie Mullins.