is she one of the greats?

​When a horse is undefeated after 14-races, the majority Grade 1’s, the question of greatness is only one of degrees. Honeysuckle is, obviously, a mare of outstanding ability, her 3 Irish Champion Hurdle victories attest to that. She has, though, only won 1 Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and I believe she needs to win 2-more to be talked about alongside the likes of Bula, Sir Ken, Istabraq, Sea Pigeon, Monksfield, Night Nurse and others. I do not include Dawn Run in the list of great Champion Hurdlers, and she certainly does not qualify as one of the great steeplechasers. Her claim to fame, a claim that will live as long as the history of the sport is discussed, is her achievement in being the first horse to win both of Cheltenham’s Blue Riband races.
The fly in the ointment as far as judging Honeysuckle, or indeed any female winner of the Champion Hurdle, is the 7Ib allowance that mares receive from the geldings. I doubt if an extra 7Ib would have prevented Honeysuckle from winning the 2021 Champion Hurdle but that is beside the point. Dawn Run received 5Ib when she won in 1984, beating a very ordinary field, even if a certain Desert Orchid was in the race.
The introduction of the 7Ib allowance for mares in condition races was a splendid and much needed initiative and I in no way wish to suggest that per se it should be reassessed. Yet I question if there is any scientific data that proves that mares are not as strong as geldings. The 7Ib allowance was introduced to encourage owners and breeders of mares to buy or to keep them in training. As I admit, it is an initiative that has proved successful, with mares hurdles and chases as competitive, or more so, than many novice hurdles and chases.
My problem with the 7Ib is this: Honeysuckle (Appreciate It, perhaps will prove differently) is head and shoulders above every other hurdler in Ireland and Britain, so how can the 7Ib allowance be defended? If she is already 7Ib better than all the others and you then add the allowance, she becomes a stone superior to her opposition. This situation can only weaken the Champion Hurdle, unless it should be stacked with other mares, which is unlikely now there is a race at the Festival confined to mares.
In my opinion the 7Ib was justified in 2021as we had no absolute evidence that Honeysuckle was the best hurdler and, by the way she streaked up the Cheltenham hill, superior by some distance. But if only to allow the statisticians of the following decades to provide accurate judgment, the allowance should be diminished the more Grade 1’s she wins. And the same for mares who win Grade 1’s in the future.
To my mind, as soon as a mare wins a championship race, the allowance should reduce by 2Ibs until she is running off level weights with the geldings and colts. Of course, difficult decisions would have to be made regarding which Grade 1 hurdles are true championship races. Would the Irish Champion Hurdle qualify or is the allowance only reduced through winning at the Cheltenham Festival?
I am not knocking Honeysuckle. She is a wonderful racehorse and alongside Rachael Blackmore she is a story that will endure. I simply want to know where she will reside in the pantheon once she is retired to the paddocks. Is she as good as Istabraq? Can she be compared to Night Nurse, quite possibly the greatest hurdler of all-time? (Don’t argue with me; I am quoting the Racing Post’s historian John Randall). The 7Ib allowance muddies the water and turns form and informed debate into strictly a matter of opinion or bias.
Of course, we can never know with certainly if Night Nurse would have beaten Istabraq at level weights. Or if Sir Ken would have beaten Monksfield or Hatton’s Grace. It is part of why this sport is so intriguing. Many of those previous Champions, though, might have been capable of giving Honeysuckle 7Ib. What we do not know, is whether Honeysuckle could beat the present generation of hurdlers at Cheltenham off level weights.
In ordinary races, the 7Ib allowance, though generous, is acceptable and unarguable. But in championship races, when the defending champion is a mare, the 7Ib allowance is unjust and perhaps even detrimental to the competitiveness of the race itself.