why can't we be more like the irish?

​Nicky Henderson does have a point, you know, when he says, as he so often does, ‘where else can we go’, as he did after supplementing Santini for the King George, and will doubtless say again when confirming his plan to get Altior back to Cheltenham in a bid to regain his 2-mile championship crown.
There is a nightmare scenario gaining momentum in the media, fuelled by official or unofficial briefings by the government or its black ops division of official ‘moles’, that sooner or later, based on flawed or corrupted testing data – the rogue virus is out-of-control, it’s mutated, our hospitals have seen nothing like it since 2018 (it’s seasonal, it’s what happens in winter, I.C.U.’s get overstretched by respiratory conditions brought-on in older people by the combination of wintry weather and on-going health problems) – the country will be thrust back into a lockdown (even though over twenty scientific studies and papers have concluded that lockdowns do not ‘slow the spread’ but actually accelerate or maintain the spread – but what has science had to do with what has been going on over the past nine-months?) resulting in all sport being prohibited.
But to return to my point. Today, January 1st, 2021, the country racecourse at Tramore stage a significant Cheltenham Gold Cup trial. For the third year in succession Al Boum Photo will turn-up, no doubt win in a common canter, harden as Gold Cup favourite, and all racing eyes will be on Tramore. If it wasn’t for Ireland wanting to be ‘best boys in class’ when it comes to the c-scam, this day would draw Tramore’s largest crowd of the year.
But if Tramore should be postponed and it proves impossible to run the race at another venue, Willie Mullins would still have a multitude of options for Al Boum Photo in the weeks and months leading up to Cheltenham. The Irish race programme caters for its top horses in a way we do not over here. Santini really only has two races he can run in between now and the Festival, the Cotswold and the Denman. But Henderson also has to find a race or races for Champ and though we live in unprecedented times, this is winter, even if the climate is warming at an equally unprecedented rate of knots, and it is possible we could suffer a long period of frost, snow or more likely rain, causing a large scar to appear in the race programme between now and the Festival.
Once upon a time there was a Gold Cup trial at Wincanton, the John Bull, was it, run the same day as the Kingswell Hurdle? To my mind the smaller racecourses should be allowed or encouraged to stage condition chases and hurdles for all divisions of the sport to increase the opportunities for a) trainers to get a run into their horses prior to the Festival and to incentivise them into running their top horses more often and b) to give the smaller racecourses the financial boost of a large crowd.
But it is not only the second half of the season that requires more condition chases and hurdles. I am no admirer of the Betfair Chase, especially as it is normally run in a quagmire that can bottom a horse for the rest of the season. But it is what it is, at least until the sponsors or the B.H.A. see sense and move the race to a racecourse more befitting one of the main steeplechases of the season. Yes, trainers these days since the advent of all-weather gallops, can get a horse win-fit on their seasonal debuts, but wouldn’t it make the job slightly easier for them and more interesting for the public if there were races for the championship horses leading up to the Betfair?
Just for arguments sake and using the most popular horse currently in training as an example: if Paul Nicholls wanted to aim Frodon at the Betfair next season, or any of his top chasers, would it not make life easier for him, more interesting for the public and a financial boost to a local course if he could give Frodon a prep run at Taunton, Wincanton or Exeter? It wouldn’t matter if there were only three runners as Frodon and Frost are a big enough draw to attract the crowds on their own.
Willie Mullins farms such races in Ireland, sending his good horses to any country course that puts on a conditions chase with half-decent prize-money. And this type of race exists throughout the season in Ireland, giving owners and trainers good pots to aim at and greater opportunity to make the game pay.
We cannot criticise Nicky Henderson for the light campaigns he gives his best horses prior to Cheltenham, for prioritising the Festival over the rest of the season, if the race-programme gives him no incentive to run his horses more often.
Whether we have a Festival or Gold Cup to look forward to this season is in the lap of corrupt science. I suspect they will happen but not necessary on their allotted dates in the calendar. What is more likely is that many horses will take up their entries on a limited preparation, with some, like Champ, I suspect, making their seasonal debuts in championship races, which will be unsatisfactory all-round. That will not be the fault of the B.H.A. Even I, a year-round of critic of their performance in running the sport, cannot lay the unfairness and stupidity of lockdowns at their door.
But they could be more proactive in ensuring trainers have no excuse for keeping their best horses wrapped-up in cotton wool throughout the main part of the season. The B.H.A. could also be more proactive in incentivising trainers into running their best horses in suitable races at the smaller racecourses and thus by boosting attendance and profit and brightening up Sunday or week-day racing. Win, win, I’d say.