Handicappers to meet in bid to sort out row
The move comes following last week’s row after the announcement of the weights for the Totesport Trophy were published and ante post-favourite No Where To Hyde was assessed 8lb higher than his Irish mark.
Trainer Christy Roche said that the Pierse Hurdle runner-up would “almost certainly not run” and asked: “Why go when you’re not welcome?“
The BHB handicappers’ treatment of Irish jumpers in Britain has long been a concern to Ireland’s trainers and most believe that they respond to Irish successes by upping the weights across the board, often to appease British trainers. O’Brien takes much the same view.
He said: “Last September Irish ratings were raised, mainly to help ease the balloting problem but also to bring them to parity with Britain. But this parity only lasted for six weeks during which time many lower-rated Irish horses ran well in Britain. Then a rating differential was introduced at the discretion of the UK handicappers.
“I would have preferred parity to remain until after Cheltenham and then we could have made a judgement with all the evidence of the Festival available to us.
“At the moment if an Irish trainer comes to me and says he is considering running a horse in Britain but wants to know what sort of weight the horse would have, I can only tell him to within 13lb.
“This is hardly an ideal situation and the way the system is being worked is not exactly user-friendly. It’s only right that the UK handicappers have discretion but the sooner we have clarity the better.”
O’Brien added that the main problem lies with the two-mile hurdlers whose ratings are the responsibility of David Dickinson. He said that chasers are still roughly on parity, as are the longer distance handicap hurdlers.
He said: “I am due to go to Newbury for the Aon meeting and I intend having discussions with the UK handicappers to see whether we can get this sorted out.”
There have been similar concerns in the build-up to Cheltenham in two of the last three years. While they did not stop the Irish winning four of the handicaps last season, only one of these was in a two-mile hurdle race. There was not an Irish horse in the first nine in the County Hurdle.
Tony McCoy, who rode No Where To Hyde in the Pierse Hurdle, added to his voice to the debate at the weekend. The champion jockey told the Daily Telegraph: “His [No Where To Hyde] British handicap mark is wrong and the British Horseracing Board need to look into the matter - urgently.”
