Run Wild Fred© Photo Healy Racing
Irish racing's rising tide has lifted races like Thursday's Thyestes Chase, with N.H. Handicapper Andrew 'Sandy' Shaw pointing to several factors, including the importation of quality French-bred horses, for a ratings rise.
Martin Brassil bridged a 17-year gap between Thyestes Chase wins with Longhouse Poet on Thursday but on ratings, the race was different from the 2005 renewal won by the trainer's subsequent Irish and Aintree Grand National hero Numbersixvalverde.
Catalpa Cargo carried top weight in the 2005 Thyestes when rated 135, but that same mark was bottom-weight for Thursday's race, with Numbersixvalverde landing the 2005 renewal rated just 117.
Gowran's showpiece is the latest big handicap to be elevated in recent years and Shaw recalls “in Hear The Echo's 2008 Irish Grand National win, nine horses were between 2lb and 36lb out of the handicap and the lowest one to get in, was rated 96.”
“People always ask me what the minimum rating is likely to be in certain graded handicaps so I keep my lists updated every year.
“In 2016, the minimum rating for the Irish National was 122 but when the big prizemoney came (from sponsors Boylesports), it jumped to 136 the following year and has continued at that level. We are talking about a much higher standard of horse taking part in these races now.”
Handicap ratings are occasionally tweaked due to inflationary reasons and Shaw added “I won't say ratings haven't inflated a certain amount but I wouldn't want to say that's the reason.
“The prizemoney has changed everything and the spread of wealthy owners has increased over the years with the arrival on the scene of people like Rich Ricci and Gigginstown. This has resulted in the likes of JP (McManus) and others investing more, and the quality of horse coming in from France has had a huge effect.
“These French horses are driving up the level of our ratings and you'll notice this, over time, by looking at the Irish Steeplechase Classifications.
“From 2014 until this year, every single leading Irish-trained two-mile chaser is French-bred and it is the same in the two-mile novice lists since 2014/15, with Un De Sceaux, Douvan, Great Field, Footpad, Chacun Pour Soi, Fakir D'Oudairies and Energumene topping the list for the past seven years.
“The whole dynamic has changed and, like in any sport, they have pushed up the level through competition and, naturally, ratings will follow. It is now easier to get into a handicap at Cheltenham than the Galway Plate or Hurdle.”
He added “volume is another thing. When I look at the size of the form-book when I started doing this job in 1995, there is nothing in it. When you look at it now, you can barely tie it with a lace from one end to another, with the amount of racing we now have.
“With more volume and better horses, ratings are pushed up. Ratings can get inflated but I definitely think the French end has an awful lot to do with it and the resulting competition.
“We are bringing in the best from France, with one horse better than the next.
“As in all sports, training methods have evolved and gone are the days when your store horse wouldn’t appear until it was a five-year-old at the back end of the year. There are races for three-year-old chasers in France before we even run three-year-old hurdles in Ireland.”
Shaw will also closely watch last season's Irish Grand National runner-up Run Wild Fred contest Naas' opening novice chase this weekend, saying “it is maybe unusual for a novice, like Run Wild Fred, to be rated 158 at this stage of the season and it may point toward an anomaly in the handicap system.
“Yes he was second in the Thyestes and second in the Irish National but, more interestingly, he wins the Troytown by seven-and-a-half lengths off 145 so it is hard to say that his rating is too high.
“Maybe it could be that our top-end novices are not rated high enough and it can be argued that the cream maybe should be higher but let’s see what happens between now and the end of the season.”
