Ruby Walsh: British racing likes to believe it's a world leader. In fact it's being dragged down

Baaeed should be out on the road, showing the racing world how good British horses may well be. But Champions' Day holds it all back

SMALL POND: Baaeed ridden by Ricky Hall on the Newmarket gallops during the Henry Cecil Open Weekend. Pic: Mike Egerton/PA Wire.

British Champions’ Day is billed as the season finale for the Flat season in the UK, with four Group 1 races and millions on offer in prize money that will ultimately decide the British trainers’ championship when it ends at the turn of the year.

It is British Champions’ Day, and the home team has 61 of the 78 runners this afternoon, while 10 Irish trainers have sent 14 horses to battle for the money, but only one French trainer, Francis Graffard, is involved, with three runners in two races.

It’s the end of the season, but one gets the feeling Paris has become the favored choice, over Ascot, for the Irish. The sporadic international involvement saves this meeting from being a national championship, but, if the betting is to be believed, only two international horses look like being competitive.

Of the Irish runners, only Waterville is in the top four in the betting in his race, and he is only the second-string stayer, behind Kyprios, in his yard.

The Revenant is France’s best chance, but a race meeting of this stature, carrying so much relevant black type for the breeding world, can’t have been designed in the hope of a hometown whitewash.

The international markets matter more to Flat racing than to National Hunt racing because Flat racing is more popular globally. By creating this event in 2011, British racing made a game for itself instead of forcing its best to travel the world, representing and promoting British Racing.

If – or, more likely, when – Baaeed wins this afternoon’s Champion Stakes, the argument will rage about where he stands in world rankings. Many will say he is the best horse in the world right now, but what if Baaeed’s choices had been different and we actually knew? Or what if he had to prove it!

If British racing decided they own the summer, he would have ruled at Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and York, but if today didn’t exist he would most likely have come to Dublin for the Irish Champion Stakes. I accept, as do most people who understand the importance of racing surfaces to these athletes, that Paris on soft ground was worth skipping.

Still, instead of Ascot today, he could be bound for next week’s Breeders’ Cup Turf to take on the Americans, with a trip to Hong Kong or Japan to follow if his well-being allowed. So, too, could Inspiral and Emily Up John, where they could join Sir Mark Prescott’s Arc-winning mare Alpinista and John Quinn’s Highfield Princess, who are taking on international competition to show where the quality of the British ranks in the world. That’s not their intention - they are there for themselves - but it is how each jurisdiction is matched against the other.

British horses won three Breeders Cup races last year, and plenty have plundered North American turf races through the summer. They enjoyed success at the Arc meeting but today hinders the globalization of the sport. The Japanese have showcased the strength of their product via big wins in the Middle East and the USA, and the Irish are always on the road or in the air, but to say you have the best product, you need to prove it.

British racing likes to believe it’s a world leader, but the standard of prize money and the small field sizes are slowly dragging it down.

Baaeed, Inspiral and co. will likely triumph to glowing reports of their ability and stature within the sport, but we all saw them do that already at Ascot in June. Now they should be on the road showing the racing world how good the British product is and encouraging return games in June, July, and August.

Hewick’s rise up the chasing ranks has been the stuff of dreams, and tonight he will line up in the American Grand National at Far Hills in New Jersey. It is a hybrid event - a cross between a hurdle and a chase - but were he to win it, it would be ample compensation for his Kerry National misfortune, where he departed the scene at the last while looking the likeliest winner.

Far Hills only races on this day each year, and some 45,000 fans will fill this temporary venue to make it a buzzing hive of activity. Most will be in the infield, but they know how to party, and I am sure John “Shark” Hanlon will fit right in.

Hewick is a classy horse, but this is a different ball game, and the sharp track is more a test of speed than stamina, so how he fares in the early exchanges will ultimately determine how he gets on.

Emmet Mullins’s Grand National hero, Noble Yeats, is also back in action today, in France. It is a strange place to start a horse’s season, but obviously there is a bigger plan in motion here, and one expects next May’s Grand Steeplechase De Paris is the ultimate aim.