Keep On Truckin'

Willie Mullins sometimes uses pre-Cheltenham media invasions to outline broader concerns than just running plans. Last year he talked about inadequate prizemoney levels at the festival. In 2014 it was racecourse security. This time the champion gloomily forecast problems a couple of generations down the line, and how jump racing could disappear should greater internationalisation of the sport not take place. He is confident this can happen. His confidence looks misplaced.

It wasn’t the first time Mullins has outlined his thoughts on this issue. As well as wanting to promote the sport on its own merits, his argument is that greater expansion of jump racing outside of Ireland, Britain and France, will create new opportunities for those selling horses from the old heartlands, potentially creating a global market similar to the situation for flat horses. The theory is commercially sound. In practise it’s another matter.

Mullins’s ambition is for a world series along the lines of what happens on the flat with the Breeders Cup, Japan Cup, Hong Kong and Melbourne. Wins for Blackstairmountain in Japan’s Nakayama Grand Jump, plus raids in the last year to France and Italy, as well as stated ambitions to take horses to the USA, testify to Mullins’s global vision. On the flat he has tried to win the Melbourne Cup on three occasions and noted the enthusiastic reception Ruby Walsh got down under when winning their Grand National.

However rather than expansion the pattern with jump racing outside of Ireland, Britain and France has been towards constriction, including in Europe. In Germany and Scandinavia activity is either gone or is negligible. Efforts are being made to grow the sport in Italy but off a very low base in terms of actual races and meetings. The Czech Republic has the Pardubicka but little else that strikes a note in the wider context.

Jump racing is still a tiny part of the massive overall racing package in Japan, a comment that also applies to the USA and New Zealand.

But it is in Australia where the realities of promoting the sport are most evident with a spotlight focussed on welfare and ethical debates which mean jump racing is sanctioned in just Victoria and South Australia. In January a bill to ban it was introduced to the South Australian parliament and the SA Jockey Club has stated it wishes to phase out jump racing at the Morphettville track.

If successful it would leave just Victoria to host a relatively tiny programme of jump races and Karen Ruse, a researcher at the University of Tasmania, who published a report examining the 2012-2014 period for jumps racing there, was quoted in local reports as saying: “We believe the pressure from animal welfare groups to end jump racing, and related media coverage, will continue and may continue to gain momentum.”

She added that despite investment from the Victorian government, there had been no significant growth, or, it must be noted, decline, in jump racing between 2012 and 2014.

In the circumstances stagnation might be regarded as no bad result since there’s no escaping the image problems jump racing has, and will continue to have, in many countries and not just Australia. The rights and wrongs of that are another subject but it is a reality, one that, closer to home, lies at the heart of racing’s anxiety about the broad public’s reaction to the Aintree Grand National whenever there are equine casualties.

So while Mullins’s ambitions are laudable, as are the motivations, it’s difficult not to suspect in a couple of generations that rather than expansion it will be consolidation and maybe even preservation that will be jump racing’s priority.

The immediate future of Ireland’s racecourses looks a lot more rosie after reports of a new €200 million deal with SIS for the international distribution of live pictures and data. The deal has to be passed by the HRI board and go through the AIR membership, some of whom are apparently less than thrilled about the bigger tracks getting more money, and also that HRI’s media rights committee gets to do deals without full racecourse agreement.

No doubt it’s all very complicated but with this kind of money floating around any cribbing sounds a bit like complaining that your wallet is too small for your fifties. The new deal goes up to 2023 which provides tracks with the sort of financial safety net most businesses can only dream of. And those complaining about a bloated fixture list are likely to increasingly sound like they’re whistling in the dark with this new motivation to keep on truckin’.

As are those who reckons there are far more useful and long-term uses for €250,000 than throwing it on top of the Irish Derby prize-fund. Will it sway the minds of those with a Derby horse into running at the Curragh? Possibly, although the ‘Win and You’re In’ measures might have more of an impact. But throw the hike on top of the racecourse news and certain racing sectors are starting to look prosperous again.

Clearly the Champion Hurdle betting has been thrown wide open through the absence of Faugheen but considering she’s a best-priced 2-1 favourite already it’s hard not to think Annie Power is one that bookmakers will be more than happy to lay on the day.

Yes two and a half mile horses have a good record in the race but mostly on the back of rather more than one glorified school around. It seems the theory is if she’s ever going to be able to win a Champion Hurdle then this is the year. And maybe that’s true to an extent, but surely not to the extent of her being as low as 6-4.