Your worst gr1 (NH)

Christmas Hurdle has deteriorated badly over the years, often get just 4 to 6 runners and only a couple of serious contenders

sad demise

yep,good call.
Remember the days of Night Nurse and co,some classics then.

Cheers Budd

It would be the Finale Hurdle for me. The Henry VIII has only been run as a G1 once but it was (oddly) upgraded after being won by quite a few donkeys.

You could also add almost every G1 hurdle run in Ireland (far too many 4-5 runner races for my taste).

yeh,loads of G1's in ireland,even the novice hurdlers have a few.Most of which are poor imo.

Apart from the festival, many Grade 1 races attract poor fields if the current top rated horse is a certain runner. Who wants to take on Sprinter Sacre or Big Bucks at level weights?

that 3yo hurdle at chepstow just after xmas

fair point sage,but at least you have good horses winning those races,and getting placed.

Take a look at the Tolworth winners,not many of those go on to be top notch.

Digressing but isn't the lack of runners in Gp1 races a terrible indictment of Racing UK?

We've had the risible Horseman's Group (and loads of whingeing owners) banging on about the prizemoney in British Racing. Put on races with a decent pot and it's all 'Ooh we don't want to blow our handicap marks by finishing too close to Big Bucks'

Why? So you can pull off a major coup in a Seller at Market Rasen?

roger, the result of finishing 10 lengths behind Big Bucks could be a rating of 160 but the handicapper should rate horses by reference to what they beat, not what beats them. One way to overcome the problem would be a different distribution of prize money in Group races. For instance, second prize could be 50% of the win prize, not as little as 35% as now.

I'd agree with that. Prize money too big between first place and the rest imo.

Most of the grade ones are won by good horses but nowadays many of them are not competitive. The trainers of the top class horses make it known publicly that their good one has suchandsuch as its next race and the rest back off. Most of the gr 1 hurdle races especially are like this. If the race turns out to be competitive there is a good chance that the winner is nothing special. Of course the festival is different. It will be interesting to see what happens with Sprinter Sacre and Sanctuaire. It would appear that they may be on an early collision course. But no doubt come the day and it will be too soft or too firm or too something. I suppose it is understandable in many ways. Ideally we need about 3 SSs and 3 Sanctuaires. And will Sir Des Champs and Flemenstar take each other on in their next outing.

Well SS has already been taken out cos of the ground,the way its going at the moment,could happen again
.

Not a grade 1 but the first at Haydock is worth £25k to the winner. 4yo only, a small penalty for winning a class 2 so only 3 effective runners and a debut hurdler who gets £1848 for having a school round (it will probably win now) Who thought that one up? A limited handicap might have been more competitive.