Ruby Walsh: It's vital the HRI maintain control of fixtures list
SMART PROSPECT: Ile Atlantique cruises to victory at Gowran Park in November. He steps up to Grade One company in Naas on Sunday. Picture: Healy Racing
A new year signalled a new dawn for Irish racing, but it will take considered minds to make it work, and knee-jerk reactions from those without the sport’s best interest in mind could see us follow the UK in becoming the easiest place to win rather than the best place.
Last Monday, the landscape changed forever for Irish racecourses when the new performance-related media rights deal kicked into action. The golden goose that was payment-per-race is gone forever, and now how much is bet on each race, driven by the streaming market, will determine the income each racecourse receives.
It is hardly an ideal situation with a new gambling bill on the way, but it is even more proof that horse racing’s value as a sport is at its most when valued as a betting product.
How many runners a race attracts and what the attendance is to drive on-course turnover will start to become factors. We are led to believe small fields are not good betting races, and a minimum of eight runners is required to make a race attractive.
The finger will be pointed at those who many believe are the most significant drivers behind the change in the payment system: The big bookmakers, who ultimately pay 80% of the money for media rights. The pictures are worth most to those who use them as a gambling product, but our racecourses saw this opportunity too, and it is one which they believe will increase profit for the tracks that are performing best.
So, Ireland is about to embark on the road the UK is treading. This media rights payment system has been in place there for years. Only the racecourses have control of the fixture list in the UK, and this system is most profitable if you race more often.
On the one hand, more races create more opportunities for people to win, and the spread of success widens. Still, in a sport where you only have a limited number of competitors — horses — the wider the net is spread, the lower the standard of success. It becomes easier to win, and slowly but surely the standard of your product starts to fall and gets to where the UK is now.
It is a programme reliant on handicaps which can’t even attract eight runners because there are so many options. It was a system that started well but ultimately was going to run aground because the profit of each track was put in front of the sport’s long-term health.
Irish racecourses will soon realise that big-field handicaps are the most profitable races they will run, and they will join the chorus of the people looking to restructure the Irish National Hunt programme.
The trench warfare over fixture allocation and fixture numbers will soon raise its head again when some Irish tracks who gave away Mondays for Friday fixtures and took Saturday afternoons realise the Irish betting product is most valuable when English racing is not a competitor.
We know that’s not the case in terms of quality, but for this model to work, Irish racing needs British punters. British punters bet British first, but HRI has to stand its ground and keep control of the fixture allocation. It also has to ensure we keep the vast droves of quality horses we have, and tearing up the programme book won’t drive owners to other Irish trainers; it will just drive the British ones back to the UK or off to France.
Cork Racecourse could fly the flag for National Hunt racing across the British Isles on Saturday afternoon with Sandown card already abandoned due to waterlogging, and Wincanton inspecting this morning for the same issue.
It is a competitive-looking card on the banks of the Blackwater, and only Largy Hill in the third race stands out to me. Still, a word of caution to those planning on investing in today’s action: Remember last Monday and some obscure results heavy ground can throw up.
On Saturday night, Naas Racecourse will host a celebration dinner in honour of its centenary race year, and tomorrow it will stage its feature race day of the year. Over 5,500 people, which must be close to capacity, crammed into Woodlands Park last year and Sunday could and should attract a similar number. Regardless of abandonments, it is the standout card this weekend, and even after the Christmas racing, its programme has attracted a high standard of fare.
Brandy Love will appreciate being right-handed in the opener, which will kick off a good day for Paul Townend and Willie Mullins. Mr Policeman is next up, and I hope he can deliver on his potential and put himself in line for a clash with Found A Fifty and Marine Nationale at the Dublin Racing Festival.
The feature event is the fourth, the Lawlor’s Hotel Novice Hurdle, and as usual, it is a cracker. Firefox, Ile Atlantique, Chapeau De Soleil, Mystical Power, Lecky Watson, Croke Park, An Tobar, and Readin Tommy Wrong make up a proper bunch of exciting horses, who should give us a thrilling contest.
The losers will only be losers on Sunday because the talent assembled here will be winners in the long run. My tentative choice is Ile Atlantique, but none of them will surprise me if they win, and the timing of this race meeting concerning the DRF will mean we will see most of them again next month.
Maybe I am blinkered in my vision, but Sunday excites me, as did the Christmas racing, and it was all made by the options created in October, November, and early December. The results of the last three weeks will create the DRF and shape the spring festivals.
We are living in a glorious period of Irish National Hunt dominance. It won’t last forever, but nobody ripped up the script in the ‘60s, ‘70s and early ‘80s, but the wheel turned to the UK. I don’t remember that, but plenty of people I listen to do. This wheel will turn, too, and I just hope we haven’t altered the product too much for it to turn back.
