Ruby Walsh: Why doesn't the home team want to play?

WAITING FOR HONEY: Racegoers flock around the Leopardstown parade ring to welcome back Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore after the Irish Champion Hurdle last Sunday. The noise and the atmosphere at the Dublin Racing Festival was special, writes Ruby Walsh. Picture: Healy Racing

Last Saturday, the cheer that greeted the horses as they broke through the tape for the opening race at the Dublin Racing Festival made me smile. I don’t know why, but it did. The noise, the atmosphere, possibly a rush of adrenaline, but something just felt so cool about being on that grandstand, absorbing it all.

And the racing certainly didn’t fail to deliver in what was always going to be the Willie versus Gordon show.

Closutton outdid Cullentra, as it has always done here, but that was round one, and whilst round two is an away fixture in Gloucester, it is starting to resemble a home game.

Fourteen winners each at Cheltenham would give the bragging rights to the home team — though it’s not a team — an achievement they claimed in 2019. The last time the locals trained more winners than the visitors was in 2015, and 2021 saw a record number of races exported across the Irish sea.

It is a trend that seemed unimaginable, and the cup doesn’t count, but one that only highlights the gap between the strength of a sport in two countries that nobody could have foreseen 20 years ago. Perhaps Cheltenham only highlights the gulf between British and Irish horse racing.

All sorts of theories have been thrashed around about the ‘why?’ and ‘how?’, but now it seems more English or British trainers are willing to sidestep the biggest event National Hunt racing has.

Why are they simply leaving it to the Irish to plunder? The prestige, prize money, crowds, publicity and glory are all on their doorstep, yet all I seem to read is ‘it’s not all about Cheltenham’.

It never was, but Cheltenham has, in my lifetime, always mattered most. Many great days lead to the Cotswolds and follow it, but the horses that win in March are always the champions. It can’t be as simple as Ireland having all the best horses, so why doesn’t the home team want to play?

At one time, the Schweppes Hurdle was a highlight of the season, but it fell from grace like a burst balloon. Perhaps it is the fear of losing, but this afternoon, for the second most valuable handicap hurdle prize in Europe and with no Irish horse travelling to Newbury, only 14 British horses are turning up for the Betfair Hurdle.

Over 300 horses have contested a race like today’s in the UK this season, mainly for a fraction of today’s purse. So, where are they today? I mean why would you consider trying to win 80-odd thousand on a Saturday when you could win three thousand on a Monday? Complaining about low prize money levels is futile if you don’t support the races with prize money.

But perhaps the answer is obvious. The British fixture list is bloated beyond a limit that could countenance competitiveness. It suits the racecourses because their business models require them to be open and racing to generate income.

Allegedly, it works for the bookmakers, but oversupply in any market dilutes interest, and the repetition of similar races at every level creates a weaker product for punters to find value in.

So, perhaps it serves the participants most of all. Not in a ‘divide and conquer’ way but in a sharing method. Spread out all the races and they can all win a little, which also helps the breeders and the pedigrees because more races equal more winners.

The exportation of British and Irish horses to other racing industries has also impacted the numbers competing in Britain and the fall in the number of foals born there. Yet the number of races is ever increasing. Small fields will always exist at the very top because only a tiny few will ever be good enough to compete, but it is the numbers from the middle down that are worrying.

It will be a tricky trend to rectify because those willing to make the hard decisions in Britain don’t have enough power to implement them.

The BHA doesn’t have the same clout as HRI, but if British racing wants to turn the tide, it must make significant changes. Their fixtures need to dwindle, and their races need to stop clashing to maximize the interest in each race and increase the levy.

That would maintain or grow the pot for the prize money, divided in fewer ways. A boost in prize money and competition makes winning more worthwhile and dragging some big investors back into their sport can give them the firepower they need to compete.

Horse racing is a sport played in many countries. British and Irish racing needs to be seen as one product in this part of the world. It will forever be run as two sports, as it should, but one needs the other for competition. Right now, the National Hunt section of British racing is in decline, which needs to be rectified, and the changes suggested need to be carried into the Flat too.