ponies & small fields.

​Ireland, evermore both the nursery and hotbed of National Hunt racing, is presently having to overcome one crisis after another. Having come through, relatively unscathed, an interminable period of government restrictions on human life, the existence of both point-to-pointing and pony racing is threatened by the rising cost of insurance and all the necessary arrangements required to stage equine event.
You may think the threat to point-to-pointing in Ireland is the greater problem, after all it is more than just a sport but an industry all of its own, with the production of Maiden point-to-point winners big business for many horseman in Ireland. No, it is pony racing where the real concern must lie. 
Pony racing is the nursery-ground for practically the whole of Irish racing and it is a disgrace that the H.R.I. does not recognise and embrace it as a recognised sector of the sport. As Alan Sweetman - he sketches out his articles before he actually writes the article. That is professionalism. – wrote in the Racing Post on Thursday, the number of flat and National Hunt jockeys that started their careers in the saddle is long and distinguished, with Colin Keane and Oisin Murphy just two champions to have emerged from these locally-staged meetings.
It is time Horse Racing Ireland stopped treating pony racing as ‘illegal’, ‘flapping’ or ‘unrecognised’ and treated the ponies with the respect they deserve. An annual fund to support its future would be a good place to start, though perhaps it could embrace the sport to greater effect, and help with the insurance costs, if bone-fide racecourses could regularly stage pony racing either before or after a meeting? Yes, this would take away the atmosphere of ‘all the fun of the affair’ that I should think is part and parcel of pony racing staged in a farmer’s field generates. But a mix and match approach to pony racing would at least guarantee its future and having professional jockeys on hand to give advice to young riders can only be of benefit to the Irish jockeys of the future.

Today (Friday November 11th) there is, at least to me, a fascinating three-horse novice chase at Cheltenham. I have looked forward to My Drogo’s debut over fences as he just might be the real deal. Yet there is criticism that this race is being televised, especially by bookmakers who believe a twenty-runner handicap hurdle would generate more betting revenue, which it would. Occasionally, though, length is not better, as quality is always superior to quantity.
Let’s be frank here – My Drogo is no certainty. The Henry de Bromhead mare Gin On Lime is an above average opponent. Back in the summer, on the mare’s first try over fences, Rachel Blackmore had an armchair ride where she literally didn’t have to move a muscle. The mare jumped impeccably and won as easily as I have ever seen a novice chaser win.
As I write this in North Devon it is raining, with this precipitation, to give rain its meteorological due, spreading northwards through the morning. Gin On Lime has thus far only encountered top of the ground and may be less effective on a softened surface and it must always be born in mind that some horses do not take to Cheltenham’s undulations. That said, this three-horse affair is fascinating, with Gordon Elliott providing the other runner and I doubt if Fancy Foundations is coming over simply to run for third prize money.
This race, and others like it, are vital pieces in the jigsaw that comprises the sport’s future. I want to see My Drogo run his race as it happens. I can’t get to the racecourse and mere highlights of the race will not give me an overall picture of how he jumped, travelled or how he was ridden. It is important this race is televised by I.T.V.
Of course, the problem of small fields is self-inflicted. There is, sadly, for the general horse population, too many race meetings per year. There is an upside to the problem in that it is easier for owners to pick up prize-money when only there is only three or four runners, which helps them pay training costs and keep them in the sport. But the archaic method of funding the sport does rely on the revenue generated by big-field handicaps and if we want to reduce the number of three and four-runner races the answer is simple – reduce the number of race-meetings by, I would suggest 10%. After all, after a long period of abandonments, the only problem to present itself is the number of horses balloted out of races.