the domination of closutton.

​If sport was included in the remit of the Monopolies Commission, horse racing would be in its sights. There was a commotion in the sport recently when Gordon Elliott saddled 13 (14?) runners out of 22 in a single race and the B.H.A. walked on to the dance-floor to suggest it might limit trainers to 4-runners per race. They have since back-tracked on the idea. Yet Gordon Elliott would not attract the attention of the Monopolies Commission, nor would de Bromhead, Henderson or Nicholls.
Over the two-days of the Dublin Racing Festival this weekend, the master of Closutton has entered in the non-handicap races a total of 52-horses. Of course, 52 is not exactly correct as many of horses have two or three entries and will only run the once and I will refrain from naming the races as these days race titles can be longer than the races they represent. But he has 6 out of 9 entries, 8/13, 4/8, 2/5, 5/13, 8/13, 8/14, 4/6, 3 out of 5 and 4 out of 16 entries in the Bumper that brings an end to what looks like on a paper an epic meeting.
He will have the favourite in most of these races, as well, of course, in a couple of the handicaps as he seems to have one or two well-handicapped if they should prove up to the task.
Anyone who has read Henrietta Knight’s book ‘The Jumping Game’, and especially the chapter on Willie Mullins, will realise his training facilities are no better than many of his main rivals in the training ranks, if indeed he has any real rivals. He has a top-class staff and some of the best riding talent in Ireland to aid him and it is not as if he was not successful before the double green team hooked-up with him or even before Rich Richie turned up at the gates with his ambitions, his wealth and charisma. I suspect the two reasons Mullins is the dominant force at present is because a) obviously, he has owners willing to pay top dollar (or Euro) for the best young stock that is on the market, and he most probably either makes the least number of mistakes or the most correct decisions regarding the races his horses should compete in. And it must be remembered he started from scratch. What he has, he has earned through the same blood, sweat and tears every trainer must overcome to become even moderately successful.
His domination can be regarded as either humorous or worrying, though no one disputes he is where is through hard work and not a small stroke of genius. And is it ethical to tether a man at the top of his profession by disallowing him the number of horses he wants to run in one race simply because he is too successful? It certainly would not be sporting to bring into place a rule for Mullins and not apply that rule to his rivals.
My view on this problem, if indeed it is a problem, is this. Decisions should be made by the governing authorities that are to the benefit of the whole sport as the sport is at the present. A rule could be adopted for now that can be changed in the future if the sport would benefit for the change.
I doubt if Willie Mullins employs a single lame duck in his roster of employees. If he has, say, 200-horses in training, he would have at his disposal, perhaps, 50 top-class employees at a time when the shortage of staff is one of the major problems affecting horse racing in both Ireland and Britain. If a cap of 150-horses (or any number from 100-upwards) is imposed, he would have to lay-off a small percentage of his staff, all of whom would very quickly be snapped-up by trainers presently stifled by not having top-class staff in their yards. I believe, at this moment in time, a cap on the number of horses any one trainer can train in any one season would benefit the sport as a whole.
Yes, a cap might be difficult to police as horses get injured or owners transfer horses to other trainers and trainers would always be having young stock come into the yard that might not necessarily run that season. And then there is the potential problem of trainers’ having pre-training yards or secondary stables where injured and resting horses are kept.
A cap might though twist the arm of owners with a large strings to their bow to send, no doubt their lesser horses when it comes to Mullins, to other trainers, giving them a leg-up and allowing many of them to have a little jam on their bread. Of course, trainers could get around the cap by setting-up their sons or daughters as trainers to benefit from the spread of owners and horses, thereby keeping owners in-house, as it were. But as of now, even if a cap could be construed as a restraint of trade, a limitation on the number any one-trainer could have at his/her disposal would benefit the sport to better effect than restricting trainers to 4 or 5-runners per race.
Tough economic times require tough decisions to be made by those in position of power and influence. Long-term, the sport will wither on the vine if only a few people mine all of the riches all-of-the-time.