NOT AS DUMB AS I LOOK, PERHAPS.

The National Trainers Federation have a plan, or perhaps it is a suggestion, which, perhaps, the B.H.A. and its stakeholders will take into consideration when next they declare their latest cunning plans for the sport.

Of course, I am in favour of the proposals of the N.T.F.'s proposals as they chime to a great extent with the bell I have tolled over the past few years, which is heartening for me as I am fixed to the belief that the few who read my ramblings must think me extraordinarily naive for someone of my age.

The N.T.F. suggest that race-planning should be organised around a bottom-up strategy rather than the elitist position of top-down. This suggestion makes so much sense that it beggar's belief that the people at the top cannot see its merits. There are far more lower-grade horses in training than graded horses and for growing the sport this should be seen as a strength not a weakness. Without grassroots there can be no substantial new growth. The tallest trees tend to die-off from either a lack of water or too much sun that wither the uppermost branches. The number of small-time owners is also larger than those who can afford to breed their own from the very best stallions and mares or who compete in Grade 1's or Group 1's and classic races. The sport should have every incentive to feed these lower-tier owners in order to ensure they live long and prosper and if successful beyond their wildest dreams go on to become the next generation of Juddmontes or even Coolmores.

There are far more trainers barely breaking even than there are who can be almost guaranteed to train a hundred-winners, train winners at Royal Ascot, to have classic or Cheltenham Festival horses aplenty and who are patronised by the richest owners in the sport. The same can be said for jockeys, with far more journeyman jockeys currently riding than those attached to the most succesful stables. Botton-up makes far more sense than top-down. Water the roots; do not feed Miracle-Grow to the elite.

The N.T.F. have identified the all-weather as racing's problem-child. As I have said many times, since the introduction of all-weather racing, the number of horses transferring from the flat to jumps has decreased, and with it the competitiveness of hurdle racing has been hit. The N.T.F. has proposed that the all-weather be restricted to classes 4-6 and with 85 being the maximum rated. I would go further, restricting all-weather racing in the summer months to 2 or 3-fixtures per week. The all-weather was originally intended as a safety-net for betting turnover, ensuring there is racing when jumps meetings are being regularly postponed or abandoned due to adverse weather conditions. It is a fact too easily washed-down the sink by those who wish to encourage more rather than fewer all-weather racecourses.

Where I slightly disagree with the N.T.F. is that racing should be returned to the confines of the past when there was no summer jumping. This is wrong, especially if all-weather racecourses are allowed to be busy during the summer and autumn months when there is no likelihood of abandoned fixtures. I have always been of the opinion that there should be fewer jumps meetings in the months of June, July and August, with local events or traditions supporting two or three-day fixtures, with a stand-out race as they do in Ireland. Trainers and jockeys have as much right to earn a living in the summer as flat trainers do through the winter.

I also believe that instead of a radical pruning of fixtures, racecards should be restricted to six races per day, as it was in the past, with only the major meetings allowed seven or eight races per day. Our racecourses must be able to survive; where cuts will come it will not be at Ascot, Cheltenham or York but at our country racecourses, racecourses that are at the very heart of that grassroot network where lies the very foundation of our sport; indeed from whence our sport was born.