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The Chief Executive of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), Julie Harrington, has today issued the following statement regarding British Jump racing, in the aftermath of the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.
“I would like to offer my congratulations to every winner this week, and everyone connected with those horses. We again tip our hat to the Irish, and in particular Willie Mullins whose achievement in reaching 100+ Festival winners is truly remarkable.
“Congratulations also go to the British trainers who secured winners this week, in particular Dan Skelton for his impressive haul.
“I have no doubt that the men and women who train horses here in Britain are more than a match for their Irish counterparts. However, they need the ammunition and at present the balance of power and the best horses are going to our colleagues in Ireland, and in particular one yard.
“This is not a new issue. The direction of travel has been set for a number of years now. The sport has been alive to this and taken measures to seek to address it, through attempting to tackle funding issues associated with the sport, seeking increased investment, looking at the race programme, and more recently the delivery of the recommendations of the Quality Jump Racing Review.
“However, the Irish domination of the Grade 1 races this week has illustrated that the issue is becoming more pronounced and more damaging for the sport on both sides of the Irish sea.
“Put simply, the rate of decline of Jump racing in Britain at the top end has outstripped the measures that have been put in place to tackle it. We must do more, more quickly, and in a more coordinated and decisive manner if we are going to restore British Jump racing to the standing at which it belongs.
“Central to this is the delivery of the industry strategy. The strategy is all about growth. At the core of this is investment in the top echelons of our sport, with a view to incentivising the best horses to be bred, owned, trained and raced on these shores. An additional £3.8m in prize money has already been earmarked for investment in 2024 across the top end of the sport in both codes.
“The strategy is also about much more than just investing in prize money. We need to grow our fanbase by encouraging new fans and retaining existing fans and owners, improve the experience of ownership and attending and viewing racing, and much more besides.
“To achieve this the sport must work together with urgency and clarity of purpose. The times of being reluctant to embrace change or new ideas, lack of transparency, and focusing on narrow self-interest must be put firmly behind us.
“The very visible deterioration in British racing’s competitiveness with our international colleagues has also been at the heart of our discussions with the betting industry and DCMS around the levy, and our representations to Government around the risk of the damaging impact of affordability checks.
“We have seen great progress in the last 18 months and a spirit of collaboration is clearly developing. I am confident that if the sport and its allies work together around this shared goal then it can flourish once again. Not just across four days in March, but across the whole year. Jump racing’s popularity in Britain is immense and its potential limitless.”
“I would like to offer my congratulations to every winner this week, and everyone connected with those horses. We again tip our hat to the Irish, and in particular Willie Mullins whose achievement in reaching 100+ Festival winners is truly remarkable.
“Congratulations also go to the British trainers who secured winners this week, in particular Dan Skelton for his impressive haul.
“I have no doubt that the men and women who train horses here in Britain are more than a match for their Irish counterparts. However, they need the ammunition and at present the balance of power and the best horses are going to our colleagues in Ireland, and in particular one yard.
“This is not a new issue. The direction of travel has been set for a number of years now. The sport has been alive to this and taken measures to seek to address it, through attempting to tackle funding issues associated with the sport, seeking increased investment, looking at the race programme, and more recently the delivery of the recommendations of the Quality Jump Racing Review.
“However, the Irish domination of the Grade 1 races this week has illustrated that the issue is becoming more pronounced and more damaging for the sport on both sides of the Irish sea.
“Put simply, the rate of decline of Jump racing in Britain at the top end has outstripped the measures that have been put in place to tackle it. We must do more, more quickly, and in a more coordinated and decisive manner if we are going to restore British Jump racing to the standing at which it belongs.
“Central to this is the delivery of the industry strategy. The strategy is all about growth. At the core of this is investment in the top echelons of our sport, with a view to incentivising the best horses to be bred, owned, trained and raced on these shores. An additional £3.8m in prize money has already been earmarked for investment in 2024 across the top end of the sport in both codes.
“The strategy is also about much more than just investing in prize money. We need to grow our fanbase by encouraging new fans and retaining existing fans and owners, improve the experience of ownership and attending and viewing racing, and much more besides.
“To achieve this the sport must work together with urgency and clarity of purpose. The times of being reluctant to embrace change or new ideas, lack of transparency, and focusing on narrow self-interest must be put firmly behind us.
“The very visible deterioration in British racing’s competitiveness with our international colleagues has also been at the heart of our discussions with the betting industry and DCMS around the levy, and our representations to Government around the risk of the damaging impact of affordability checks.
“We have seen great progress in the last 18 months and a spirit of collaboration is clearly developing. I am confident that if the sport and its allies work together around this shared goal then it can flourish once again. Not just across four days in March, but across the whole year. Jump racing’s popularity in Britain is immense and its potential limitless.”
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A whole lot of nothing much, increased prize money for one thing won't get better horses trained in England it will just encourage the Irish to come over more often and plunder said prize money with the best horses which will make things even tougher for the English trainers. I also don't think it is a right thing to reference Mullins directly.
If owners are to be tempted away from Mullins ,two of the things that could do that are, either an owner will be impressed enough by achievement by an English trainer, so Skelton's success this week wouldn't have done him any harm in that regard or if an owner starts to believe that the environment is becoming too crowded and if they start to feel that their horses are too far down the pecking order. Mullins seems to be able to keep everyone happy all of the time though so that won't be easy.
If owners are to be tempted away from Mullins ,two of the things that could do that are, either an owner will be impressed enough by achievement by an English trainer, so Skelton's success this week wouldn't have done him any harm in that regard or if an owner starts to believe that the environment is becoming too crowded and if they start to feel that their horses are too far down the pecking order. Mullins seems to be able to keep everyone happy all of the time though so that won't be easy.
i've just read again that bha statement . unbelievable . i can't think she wrote that herself . jump racing in the uk is at alarm bell status . ptp is on its knees ...grass roots stuff nowhere near where it was even 10 years ago . top class , so called , fields dwindling in numbers . you will see a difference in summer . its called flat racing . i take no pleasure from this vision but the statement is utter , pr driven gush .
sounds like some claptrap a PR numpty would have thrown together in 5 minutes...
complete and utter garbage imv...
increased prize money will have absolutely NO affect on how GB trained horses do in 2025 at Cheltenham...
what the BHA needs to do is incentivise the top owners to have their horses trained in GB...
simple as that...
and you won't do that by increasing prize money.
complete and utter garbage imv...
increased prize money will have absolutely NO affect on how GB trained horses do in 2025 at Cheltenham...
what the BHA needs to do is incentivise the top owners to have their horses trained in GB...
simple as that...
and you won't do that by increasing prize money.
we read all last week and said on lucky on sunday,that lots of horses are sold to mullins without anyone else seeing/getting a chance to bid for horses
1,as channing said why would a seller not put a horse out there to highest bidder
and
2,if owners no the ones offered to them are the mullins rejected,next level down why are owners paying £500,000 + for them without knowing what mullins is paying the best ones ?
1,as channing said why would a seller not put a horse out there to highest bidder
and
2,if owners no the ones offered to them are the mullins rejected,next level down why are owners paying £500,000 + for them without knowing what mullins is paying the best ones ?
Is there the same concern about too many top grade flat horses being trained in the south of England? No. The BHA "concern" is simply that the horses are trained in Ireland. You can solve this "issue" easily: by recognising that it is not an issue at all. It is just the way things are given the importance of breeding NH horses in Ireland compared with the UK. 18 of the winners were Irish trained but 15 of these were Irish bred. Of the 15 Irish bred winners no less than 12 were available for sale at auction in Ireland. They could have been purchased by UK owners and brought to the UK to be trained: but they weren't. End of story.
It's as simple as; NH breeding and racing is a much bigger thing in Ireland than in the UK. The dominance in flat racing is not nearly so marked.
As to “I have no doubt that the men and women who train horses here in Britain are more than a match for their Irish counterparts." More than a match? : what planet?
It's as simple as; NH breeding and racing is a much bigger thing in Ireland than in the UK. The dominance in flat racing is not nearly so marked.
As to “I have no doubt that the men and women who train horses here in Britain are more than a match for their Irish counterparts." More than a match? : what planet?
if the best ones are going to mullins,sold privately with in most cases no price tag given,how can any uk owners even bid for them,yet alone buy them ?
It is an issue and it involves how racing is treated by Governments. Ireland recognise racing as an important part of their economy although even that is waning while the UK Government is getting ever more hostile. I see that Ben Pauling says that the problem is confined to one Irish yard but without Mullins runners, Elliott would have won 7 races so the issue would still be there. It is not just the number of Irish winners, it is the number of runners, more than half of the total. There are not enough horses in training in UK to challenge them any more. Hence the pathetic field sizes in novice chases.
if you believe what so called experts/pundits tell us,in last week alone
isish best horses,trainer,s buyers,jocks,
irish fences are stiffer than uk fences
irish races more competitive
irish races run far slower
better ground in uk than ire
put it all together rather than chelt been the olympics of horseracing for irish horses everything is easier than its been for rest of the winter in ireland
isish best horses,trainer,s buyers,jocks,
irish fences are stiffer than uk fences
irish races more competitive
irish races run far slower
better ground in uk than ire
put it all together rather than chelt been the olympics of horseracing for irish horses everything is easier than its been for rest of the winter in ireland
1st time poster • March 18, 2024 8:25 AM GMT
we read all last week and said on lucky on sunday,that lots of horses are sold to mullins without anyone else seeing/getting a chance to bid for horses
1,as channing said why would a seller not put a horse out there to highest bidder
and
2,if owners no the ones offered to them are the mullins rejected,next level down why are owners paying £500,000 + for them without knowing what mullins is paying the best ones ?
You would have to guess that Mullins is:
A) Paying the owners / trainers and agents finding the horses more money then they think they would get at the sales.
B) Mullins agents scouts are that good they can see a horses quality that the current owner and trainer can't and are astonished by the offer and sell them without risking the uncertain price at the sales.
the other option is of course:
C) Mullins is just that good he is improving the horses significantly.
we read all last week and said on lucky on sunday,that lots of horses are sold to mullins without anyone else seeing/getting a chance to bid for horses
1,as channing said why would a seller not put a horse out there to highest bidder
and
2,if owners no the ones offered to them are the mullins rejected,next level down why are owners paying £500,000 + for them without knowing what mullins is paying the best ones ?
You would have to guess that Mullins is:
A) Paying the owners / trainers and agents finding the horses more money then they think they would get at the sales.
B) Mullins agents scouts are that good they can see a horses quality that the current owner and trainer can't and are astonished by the offer and sell them without risking the uncertain price at the sales.
the other option is of course:
C) Mullins is just that good he is improving the horses significantly.
i,d imagine their bought as a job lot/flat fee, probably paying under going rate for the really good ones but over pay for the obviously dozens we dont hear about it that dont make the grade, £650,000 for fully exposed pied piper etc in public auction,millions spent on this dispersal sale but think i,m right in saying non bought by mullins or his owners
To be fair he's placed 3rd at Cheltenham off 156 in a handicap.
I would imagine you could quite easily go buy 5 store horses for £80k as 3 year old, spend a hell of a lot more in training fees and still not get the same result. They were obviously looking for a horse for Cheltenham.
Obviously £650k to get a 3rd place and £10k doesn't look shrewd business but when you get to that level of wealth they want winners at Cheltenham...
Mullins gets them and that is why the wealthy owners are knocking on his door and Gigginstown came back.
I would imagine you could quite easily go buy 5 store horses for £80k as 3 year old, spend a hell of a lot more in training fees and still not get the same result. They were obviously looking for a horse for Cheltenham.
Obviously £650k to get a 3rd place and £10k doesn't look shrewd business but when you get to that level of wealth they want winners at Cheltenham...
Mullins gets them and that is why the wealthy owners are knocking on his door and Gigginstown came back.
surely you arnt trying to tell us that giggy are sending mullins better horses than their sending to elliott,and presumably for 20 yrs theyve thought elliott was the equal of mullins at training horses,maybe everyone is thinking like bolger theres more at play than just training the horses so if you cant beat them,join them
Agree that the BHA statement was meaningless.
When Gigginstown removed a fair number of decent horses it didn't affect Willies dominance one iota.
When Gigginstown removed a fair number of decent horses it didn't affect Willies dominance one iota.
No Gigginstown saw like Kevo mentioned it didn't effect Mullins.
They thought they would pressure Mullins into accepting reduced fees or whatever it was they wanted.
Mullins didn't accept their terms and they pulled their horses but have now sent them back to Mullins... I very much doubt O'Leary has preferential reduced training fees as he wanted. So my guess is they came back because Mullins gets the winners at Cheltenham year in year out.
They thought they would pressure Mullins into accepting reduced fees or whatever it was they wanted.
Mullins didn't accept their terms and they pulled their horses but have now sent them back to Mullins... I very much doubt O'Leary has preferential reduced training fees as he wanted. So my guess is they came back because Mullins gets the winners at Cheltenham year in year out.
but giggy will still be sending their best horses to elliott,they wont be buying million £ horses to send to mullins, elliot won stayers was 2nd in gold cup,ch hu ,so they no whats required to win the big races at chelt,do you think mullins will be winning graded races at chelt for giggy ?. i,d say giggy are 5th/6th in in the mullins owners list
1st Time Poster - Storm Heart went off 7-2F for the G1 Triumph hurdle (Novice Hurdle) and Predators Gold was only 7-1 5th in the 2m5f G1 Novice Hurdle for Mullins.
Elliot had the bumper fav for them and the mares novice second as well as winning the Albert Bartlett. I'd say they are both getting decent young horses and to be honest if they are sending a lot of stores they won't know just how good they are until they start racing.
I'd say given Mullins record with the best horses can't be questioned, so makes sense for Giggy to send him some of the best as well as Elliot as he is brilliant too.
Not sure how many horses Cromwell has in training but he is operating very well, and could see a few more owners sending a few his way.
Elliot had the bumper fav for them and the mares novice second as well as winning the Albert Bartlett. I'd say they are both getting decent young horses and to be honest if they are sending a lot of stores they won't know just how good they are until they start racing.
I'd say given Mullins record with the best horses can't be questioned, so makes sense for Giggy to send him some of the best as well as Elliot as he is brilliant too.
Not sure how many horses Cromwell has in training but he is operating very well, and could see a few more owners sending a few his way.
The best way to get younger people involved is getting them to go to the racecourses. A major issue is the ridiculous of entrance and food/drinks (I'm not talking of Cheltenham and other big neetings but ordinary meetings), the industry needs to get together to work this out. What is the long term point of having meetings with scarce crowds. Need some radical thinking which seems in short supply.
A lot of the people in charge seem to be in it for the short term and have no long term outlook.
Use to go to kelso quite regularly. Great course. Not easy to get to from the central belt. Closest train station Tweedbank from edinburgh about an hour on train then probably the same on one of the local buses from there. The course put on a shuttle bus from there that took about 30 mins and 5 years ago it was a very reasonably £6 return. This year it's £15.
At least wait until punters are at the track before ripping them off.
Use to go to kelso quite regularly. Great course. Not easy to get to from the central belt. Closest train station Tweedbank from edinburgh about an hour on train then probably the same on one of the local buses from there. The course put on a shuttle bus from there that took about 30 mins and 5 years ago it was a very reasonably £6 return. This year it's £15.
At least wait until punters are at the track before ripping them off.
Managed decline is the strategy and if you expect NH to be banned in UK in 10 years, why invest any money in it?
Still baffles me how cheveley park have horses with Elliot and Mullins and none with the UK trainers? Did the BHA miss a trick here and not ask them why they couldn't support home trainers
All starts with the bloodstock agents and who is searching for the horses as these UK nags they keep buying aren't cheap.
Need to source better horses, simple as that and then train the ones they have better
Need to source better horses, simple as that and then train the ones they have better
They also need to address the huge problem - those that were the most interested in racing are now effectively unable to bet with any high street bookmaker.
If you know you can't get a price , you don't even look , so you then don't care who wins >>>> you do something else.
If you know you can't get a price , you don't even look , so you then don't care who wins >>>> you do something else.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/racing/arid-41355904.html
Forgetting about the Mullins domination. One of the biggest mistakes imho in racing is not nailing down a list of races in the calendar by a permanent recognisable names.
When I started watching racing you knew what someone was talking about when they asked what you backing in the Hennessy....etc
Now that was an outlier as the sponsorship was so long but there is so much bookie sponsorship these days people are struggling to tell races apart.
If someone asked me now what I'm backing in the Coral Gold Cup, I wouldn't have a clue what race they were on about even if it was flat or jumps ffs. Constant changing of race names and new sponsors is a perfect example of racing shooting itself in the foot.
I remember attending Guineas day years ago and on the road up to the course out of the town, there was basically an avenue of champions with past winners pictures shown on big displays. It showed the history of the sport. The history of the sport is imho its biggest asset. The BHA do little to protect or even promote it. I remember wanting to rewatch War of Attritions gold cup win about 10 years ago and couldn't because Racing UK or its ilk had it copyrighted and youtube were pulling and copies put up.
When I started watching racing you knew what someone was talking about when they asked what you backing in the Hennessy....etc
Now that was an outlier as the sponsorship was so long but there is so much bookie sponsorship these days people are struggling to tell races apart.
If someone asked me now what I'm backing in the Coral Gold Cup, I wouldn't have a clue what race they were on about even if it was flat or jumps ffs. Constant changing of race names and new sponsors is a perfect example of racing shooting itself in the foot.
I remember attending Guineas day years ago and on the road up to the course out of the town, there was basically an avenue of champions with past winners pictures shown on big displays. It showed the history of the sport. The history of the sport is imho its biggest asset. The BHA do little to protect or even promote it. I remember wanting to rewatch War of Attritions gold cup win about 10 years ago and couldn't because Racing UK or its ilk had it copyrighted and youtube were pulling and copies put up.
Racingqueen that avenue of champions ( Guineas winners ) is still there thankfully.
It has always been the case, well as long as I can remember that the race sponsor supersedes the actual race title, The Neptune, The Ballymore, the only reason why lots of people know now that it's actually called the Baring Bingham is because it never had a sponsor so began to be referred to by its proper name, even then though many of us still called it by previous long term sponsor names.
Even if there was a real push to attach the registered names to these races, "The Gallagher Baring Bingham" the average punter would still call it the Neptune or Ballymore, incidentally, I bet there are lots and lots of punters who still don't know what races The Golden Miller or Broadway are, if it wasn't for people like Rory Delargy frequently name checking them I wouldn't have learned them myself.
Even if there was a real push to attach the registered names to these races, "The Gallagher Baring Bingham" the average punter would still call it the Neptune or Ballymore, incidentally, I bet there are lots and lots of punters who still don't know what races The Golden Miller or Broadway are, if it wasn't for people like Rory Delargy frequently name checking them I wouldn't have learned them myself.
And we've all got Baring Bingham to thank for the festival existing, because he bought the racecourse in 1898 and the first festival was run in 1902.
All about him and the embryonic days of the festival.
https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/features/cheltenham-festival-history-737293
All about him and the embryonic days of the festival.
https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/features/cheltenham-festival-history-737293
we read all last week and said on lucky on sunday,that lots of horses are sold to mullins without anyone else seeing/getting a chance to bid for horses
1,as channing said why would a seller not put a horse out there to highest bidder
and
2,if owners no the ones offered to them are the mullins rejected,next level down why are owners paying £500,000 + for them without knowing what mullins is paying the best ones ?
Think he does the same with French novice winners, too,
1,as channing said why would a seller not put a horse out there to highest bidder
and
2,if owners no the ones offered to them are the mullins rejected,next level down why are owners paying £500,000 + for them without knowing what mullins is paying the best ones ?
Think he does the same with French novice winners, too,
It's an element of 'scratched backs', presumably. If you sell a good one to Mullins that doesn't go public then that is cementing an ongoing relationship, and playing the long game. Presumably these people rely on rep and repeat business.
I have no idea if it happens but I've often thought the ptp scene is ripe for collusion. Knowing the prices some go for, and end up average poor under rules. Arrange to get the worst ones in the same event and some mug buys the the runner up in an Irish point for 300k or whatever. I'd be thinking the same, how does this horse become available in the first place to an outsider, when a lot of of trading occurs well under the radar.
I have no idea if it happens but I've often thought the ptp scene is ripe for collusion. Knowing the prices some go for, and end up average poor under rules. Arrange to get the worst ones in the same event and some mug buys the the runner up in an Irish point for 300k or whatever. I'd be thinking the same, how does this horse become available in the first place to an outsider, when a lot of of trading occurs well under the radar.
surprised JP hasnt tried to or bought the french feltham kemp winner, 8,s for next yrts gold cup
And Mcmanus hasn't had a King George winner which this one looks well placed to achieve also.
Probably couldn't be bought. Owned and bred by Haras De Saint Voir then Richard Kelwyn Hughes bought half of it. As he is extremely rich anyway and owns a huge estate in Scotland presumably would never/doesn't need to sell it.
you could say the same for 90% of owners out there but vast maj of horses have their price,disappointment.injury awaits 90% of them , getting the right price at the right time is what matters to most of them
But Kelvin Hughes is exceedingly rich (in the UK's top 50 landowners), nearly 70 years old, and he has said he is desperate to win a Cheltenham gold cup. Having the horse presumably means more to him that having a little bit more money.
That's for sure and I've always thought of him as a somewhat unlucky owner amongst the extremely wealthy (Santini etc) so hope this one does him well. No doubt buying his half cost a fair penny also.
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