ALL ONE SPORT.

Writing in the Racing Post today, Sam Hendry makes the point that whether you are a flat, jumps or point-to-point, enthusiast, we should all agree that we are all one sport. Granted, Hendry was making the wish that horses should be more regularly campaigned as both hurdlers and flat performers, citing, obviously, the success of Constitution Hill winning on the all-weather recently. 

I am an advocate of horses being able to swap between National Hunt and Point-to-Points, abling trainers to give a horse lacking confidence the easier option of racing against horses of a lesser ability and for connections of promising young point-to-pointers and hunter chasers to try their luck against the professionals without having to forfeit their right to return to pointing during that season. Cross-overs can occur at the start and end of a National Hunt season, with trainers looking for a pipe-opener to put an edge on fitness before a first hurdle race of the season and at the end of the season when there is opportunity to take advantage of a fully-fit horse when taking on half-fit flat horses with a long season ahead of them.

Hendry is right, though. It was a wonderful thing when Sea Pigeon mixed the flat and hurdling, being successful in both, winning Ebors and Chester Cups on the flat and Champion Hurdles over jumps. And in the distant past it raised no eyebrows when flat horses tried their luck over hurdles while remaining primarily flat horses. Indeed, in the 1947 Champion Hurdle, Le Paillon, ridden by no less a person than Alec Head, finished 2nd, beaten a length, by National Spirit, who went on to become a dual winner of the race the following year. Le Paillon, though, outdid his conqueror at Cheltenham by first winning the French Champion Hurdle and a few months later winning no less a race than the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. These days if a horse considered a hurdler wins, say, a Breeders Cup race, it is thought too valuable to risk back over hurdles. Mind you, back in the 1930's, after winning for the first time at Royal Ascot, after winning a Champion Hurdle, Brown Jack was also thought too valuable to run again over hurdles. So nothing new in the garden of paradise, it seems.

We are one sport, and somebody should remind those who are members of 'Project Pace' that we are all one sport, as they seem intent of protecting the sport for the benefit of the elite at the expense of those who prop-up the sport with their never say die hopefulness, enthusiasm and dedication. As we are regularly warned, foal crop numbers are down 32% and the proponents of Project Pace, the object of which is to basically sell the sport to the highest bidder - flat racing only -  global shareholders with only profit for motivation, and for the sport to morph into a smaller version of Premier League football.

I cannot understand why the suited and booted behind 'Project Pace' believe that a horse racing version of the Premier League would kick-start a revival in foal crop numbers. The largest foal producers, Coolmore, Juddmonte, Godolphin, etc, are not going to have more mares at stud than they have at present as the races that would encompass this bright new future will be exactly the same as now. Vast sums of money will be shovelled into the coffers of these premier races, while no doubt races outside of this protective shield will be left to rot on the vine. To increase the foal yield what is required are more owner-breeders and to achieve this there has tobe profit at the lower levels as well as at the top, otherwise foal crop numbers will continue to plummet as producers will only be incentivised to breed with a view on the 'Premier' division of the sport. The danger of 'Project Pace', if successful, is that our sport will become 'their' sport and the phrase 'we are all one sport' will become defunct.

One of the issues that stifle interest in our sport is that so few owners, trainers and jockeys have a hope of winning the classics and Group 1's on the flat. Competition has become a fiefdom for the sport's elite. The Premier League may generate great interest around the world but that has not yielded great profit for the clubs involved. Chelsea, for instance, is in debt to the tune of 200-million+. The Premier League title can only be won by the biggest clubs, clubs that seemingly survive on credit. To my mind, horse racing would be more popular with the outside public if it were more akin to point-to-pointing than the Premier League. The more the sport, both flat and jumping - it is one sport after all - becomes to be seen as a sport for the elite and less of a working-class endeavour, the harder it will become to sell and market the sport. What made the Grand National the institution it used to be was that it's history suggested that any result was possible, that the winning owner might be a nobody, the trainer might be down on his luck and the jockey just a journeyman dazzled by a first experience of being a somebody.

Project Pace should set up a stall at a point-to-point to try to sell its idea of the future of the sport and to market research amongst spectators and competitors; the data they go home with might open their eyes, illuminate their imagination.