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Would a kind person please add Ruby Walsh’s new article? It would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
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If you are looking for the answers to what is going to happen on Saturday, then you are reading the wrong article. The Racing Post approached me to write an opinion piece and I accepted. I do not know what I will write about week to week, but here goes.
I am starting the column at a time of year that ignites anticipation and joy for everyone in racing.
The Arc has just been; Champions Day is on the horizon; the Guineas and Derby favourites are set to clash in the Dewhurst; records tumbled left, right and centre at the Tattersalls Book 1 Sale, where Godolphin showed their enthusiasm for a major rebuild; and Chepstow's three-day fixture, which was once a single six-race card, is under way.
Aidan O'Brien is preparing a squadron for the Breeders' Cup, and his son Joseph is taking an army to the Melbourne Cup. Romeo Coolio is set for Down Royal, and King Rasko Grey could go chasing. The better jumpers are starting to appear just as the better Flat ones are getting ready for their finale, and the search for value will get competitive next week at Book 2 in Newmarket.
Put like that, all would seem rosy in the garden, but is that the reality of the entire racing sector? Absolutely not, and it does not honestly reflect the health of the horseracing industry.
So much has changed since Lake Kariba won the opening novice hurdle on Chepstow’s six-race card in 1996, which was run on good ground on a day Paul Nicholls dominated. Call Equiname won the novice chase under Richard Dunwoody, but I still do not know why he rode him that day and not AP McCoy. After all, AP had ridden him in his previous seven starts and would again three weeks later at Worcester, but 30 years ago he watched him from the weighing room as Paul rounded out a treble, the first two legs of which AP had ridden.
But that is consigned to history, just like Katchit winning the juvenile hurdle in 2006, Cue Card winning the novice chase in 2011 and Altior winning the novice hurdle in 2015, when the meeting extended to two days and 15 races.
My ignorance or arrogance flashes before my eyes as I recall Altior winning the 2016 Supreme and my narrow train of thought at the start as I convinced myself the Henderson horse was no danger to Min because Nicky would not have taken his best novice hurdler to Chepstow the previous October! How wrong was I?
Altior and Nico de Boinville win from Min and Ruby Walsh in the 2016 Supreme Novices' Hurdle
Altior and Nico de Boinville win from Min and Ruby Walsh in the 2016 Supreme Novices' Hurdle
Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)
The chances of the Supreme winner appearing at Chepstow this weekend are highly unlikely. The meeting is a successful event, but the standard of card is worse off since the 70/80/90-rated Flat horses started to change continents instead of changing from Flat to jumps.
On this Saturday in 1996, 567 horses ran at the seven meetings staged in Britain and Ireland. Ten years later, 516 ran at six meetings, including two full divisions of the bumper at Gowran Park, an increase of five runners per meeting. But that is when global production started to falter.
Over the next 19 years, yearly global foal crops fell by 43,842, from 123,467 to 79,625. Active thoroughbred mares fell by 78,678, a 40 per cent decline, and, more concerning, the number of stallions fell by 5,270, a 50 per cent decline.
Fewer stallions equals fewer bloodlines, and that in turn brings the thoroughbred breed closer and closer in the gene pool. In 2025, British and Irish foalings were at their lowest in 20 years, and active broodmares and stallions were even lower.
So we have a smaller stallion gene pool to cross with fewer mares, which equals fewer foals and two years later equates to fewer racehorses. Add in the decline in the Australian breeding numbers and the tiny breeding industry in the Middle East, and you get a sizeable export market to meet their demand. Happy days if that is the export business you are in, but the knock-on effect is the quantity and quality of stock we are left to race with here.
The American breeding sector has taken the biggest hit, but it has seen numerous racecourse closures in the last 20 years; maybe that is purely gambling and real estate-value related, but we are seeing fewer horses yet more races, which is hardly the right mix for a competitive sport.
At some point you have to form an opinion and make a choice, and in the world of horseracing, plenty of people will have to make big decisions sooner rather than later.
The fall in the global production of racehorses has led to small fields being a regular sight
The fall in the production of racehorses has led to small fields being a regular sight
Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)
That is before you even deal with what happened in the Irish budget and what is predicted to happen in the UK one. One should start as one wishes to continue, so I will not pretend I sifted through the Irish budget with a fine-tooth comb; I admit I skipped to the parts that concern me: any changes to my tax rate, any relief I might be entitled to, how much the Horse and Greyhound Fund was allocated and what changes the government were making to the gambling taxes.
I guess some would say no news is good news, but you cannot help feeling Horse Racing Ireland was banking on a larger increase than the €2.3 million it got. It sounds positive, but for a company with about 220 employees to pay, with four racecourses to run, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board to fund, carrying the costs of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, the inflation on construction costs of the new all-weather track at Tipperary and the prize-money demands and raceday expenses of the six extra fixtures scheduled for Ireland in 2027, €2.3m extra does not go far.
In fact, given the scale of what HRI has to fund and the pressure it will feel from Irish racecourses as the decline in betting turnover hits media rights payments and valuations, it will need an external revenue stream soon because the immediate pain of what happens in the UK budget is going to be felt by many – and not just in the UK.
The prospect of hundreds of gambling sector employees facing redundancies this side of Christmas is harsh and real as we head into the most expensive time of year.
Whatever way you dress it up, a powerful lobby against gambling will see Darkness Falls v Desert Castle as red or black. They will not see Coolmore v Godolphin, the Camelot colt v the Frankel colt, Aidan v Charlie or Ryan v William. That lobby does not want to see the sport, the industry behind it, or the joy and funding from punters, but somehow it wants to ignore the rapid growth of a black market sucking millions offshore.
That whole argument is an article in itself, yet some big names have said the pain must be felt by all for the sport to go forward. Fair enough, the small owner-breeder fell first, the betting industry staff are about to walk the plank, punters are in straitjackets and prize-money is about as close to keeping pace with inflation as I am to solving the problems. The finger will be pointed at the BHA and HRI to lead the way and solve the whole thing, but they cannot do it alone.
Supply may have met demand at Park Paddocks this week, showing how strong the appetite is for potential quality. Still, for that quality to come out on the track, there has to be a quantity off it, and if you get the quantity, then they have to be rewarded for it. Each generation is only a custodian of the sport, but if the sole aim is commercialism, will we have a sport left to enjoy?
Who knows, but perhaps on Saturday afternoon we will see a new Dawn Rising, and, even if Rome was not built in a day, it had to have started at some point.
I am starting the column at a time of year that ignites anticipation and joy for everyone in racing.
The Arc has just been; Champions Day is on the horizon; the Guineas and Derby favourites are set to clash in the Dewhurst; records tumbled left, right and centre at the Tattersalls Book 1 Sale, where Godolphin showed their enthusiasm for a major rebuild; and Chepstow's three-day fixture, which was once a single six-race card, is under way.
Aidan O'Brien is preparing a squadron for the Breeders' Cup, and his son Joseph is taking an army to the Melbourne Cup. Romeo Coolio is set for Down Royal, and King Rasko Grey could go chasing. The better jumpers are starting to appear just as the better Flat ones are getting ready for their finale, and the search for value will get competitive next week at Book 2 in Newmarket.
Put like that, all would seem rosy in the garden, but is that the reality of the entire racing sector? Absolutely not, and it does not honestly reflect the health of the horseracing industry.
So much has changed since Lake Kariba won the opening novice hurdle on Chepstow’s six-race card in 1996, which was run on good ground on a day Paul Nicholls dominated. Call Equiname won the novice chase under Richard Dunwoody, but I still do not know why he rode him that day and not AP McCoy. After all, AP had ridden him in his previous seven starts and would again three weeks later at Worcester, but 30 years ago he watched him from the weighing room as Paul rounded out a treble, the first two legs of which AP had ridden.
But that is consigned to history, just like Katchit winning the juvenile hurdle in 2006, Cue Card winning the novice chase in 2011 and Altior winning the novice hurdle in 2015, when the meeting extended to two days and 15 races.
My ignorance or arrogance flashes before my eyes as I recall Altior winning the 2016 Supreme and my narrow train of thought at the start as I convinced myself the Henderson horse was no danger to Min because Nicky would not have taken his best novice hurdler to Chepstow the previous October! How wrong was I?
Altior and Nico de Boinville win from Min and Ruby Walsh in the 2016 Supreme Novices' Hurdle
Altior and Nico de Boinville win from Min and Ruby Walsh in the 2016 Supreme Novices' Hurdle
Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)
The chances of the Supreme winner appearing at Chepstow this weekend are highly unlikely. The meeting is a successful event, but the standard of card is worse off since the 70/80/90-rated Flat horses started to change continents instead of changing from Flat to jumps.
On this Saturday in 1996, 567 horses ran at the seven meetings staged in Britain and Ireland. Ten years later, 516 ran at six meetings, including two full divisions of the bumper at Gowran Park, an increase of five runners per meeting. But that is when global production started to falter.
Over the next 19 years, yearly global foal crops fell by 43,842, from 123,467 to 79,625. Active thoroughbred mares fell by 78,678, a 40 per cent decline, and, more concerning, the number of stallions fell by 5,270, a 50 per cent decline.
Fewer stallions equals fewer bloodlines, and that in turn brings the thoroughbred breed closer and closer in the gene pool. In 2025, British and Irish foalings were at their lowest in 20 years, and active broodmares and stallions were even lower.
So we have a smaller stallion gene pool to cross with fewer mares, which equals fewer foals and two years later equates to fewer racehorses. Add in the decline in the Australian breeding numbers and the tiny breeding industry in the Middle East, and you get a sizeable export market to meet their demand. Happy days if that is the export business you are in, but the knock-on effect is the quantity and quality of stock we are left to race with here.
The American breeding sector has taken the biggest hit, but it has seen numerous racecourse closures in the last 20 years; maybe that is purely gambling and real estate-value related, but we are seeing fewer horses yet more races, which is hardly the right mix for a competitive sport.
At some point you have to form an opinion and make a choice, and in the world of horseracing, plenty of people will have to make big decisions sooner rather than later.
The fall in the global production of racehorses has led to small fields being a regular sight
The fall in the production of racehorses has led to small fields being a regular sight
Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)
That is before you even deal with what happened in the Irish budget and what is predicted to happen in the UK one. One should start as one wishes to continue, so I will not pretend I sifted through the Irish budget with a fine-tooth comb; I admit I skipped to the parts that concern me: any changes to my tax rate, any relief I might be entitled to, how much the Horse and Greyhound Fund was allocated and what changes the government were making to the gambling taxes.
I guess some would say no news is good news, but you cannot help feeling Horse Racing Ireland was banking on a larger increase than the €2.3 million it got. It sounds positive, but for a company with about 220 employees to pay, with four racecourses to run, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board to fund, carrying the costs of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, the inflation on construction costs of the new all-weather track at Tipperary and the prize-money demands and raceday expenses of the six extra fixtures scheduled for Ireland in 2027, €2.3m extra does not go far.
In fact, given the scale of what HRI has to fund and the pressure it will feel from Irish racecourses as the decline in betting turnover hits media rights payments and valuations, it will need an external revenue stream soon because the immediate pain of what happens in the UK budget is going to be felt by many – and not just in the UK.
The prospect of hundreds of gambling sector employees facing redundancies this side of Christmas is harsh and real as we head into the most expensive time of year.
Whatever way you dress it up, a powerful lobby against gambling will see Darkness Falls v Desert Castle as red or black. They will not see Coolmore v Godolphin, the Camelot colt v the Frankel colt, Aidan v Charlie or Ryan v William. That lobby does not want to see the sport, the industry behind it, or the joy and funding from punters, but somehow it wants to ignore the rapid growth of a black market sucking millions offshore.
That whole argument is an article in itself, yet some big names have said the pain must be felt by all for the sport to go forward. Fair enough, the small owner-breeder fell first, the betting industry staff are about to walk the plank, punters are in straitjackets and prize-money is about as close to keeping pace with inflation as I am to solving the problems. The finger will be pointed at the BHA and HRI to lead the way and solve the whole thing, but they cannot do it alone.
Supply may have met demand at Park Paddocks this week, showing how strong the appetite is for potential quality. Still, for that quality to come out on the track, there has to be a quantity off it, and if you get the quantity, then they have to be rewarded for it. Each generation is only a custodian of the sport, but if the sole aim is commercialism, will we have a sport left to enjoy?
Who knows, but perhaps on Saturday afternoon we will see a new Dawn Rising, and, even if Rome was not built in a day, it had to have started at some point.
Silly me, I thought he was going to be slagging off the current weighing room. Haven't they got someone on the bloodstock desk who could have produced something better than that?
indeed, a pretty drab piece......easing himself in gently maybe...
Turgid,anodyne stuff..to think fatboy Jennings died to make room for this..
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