FRANK McNally of The Irish Times summed up our sporting culture this week after the All-Ireland Football Final.

“It’s like the thing Richard Nixon said about himself and JFK. When Irish people look at hurling, they see what they want to be. When they look at football they see what they are.”

You could apply it to Irish racing too. We know where we are in flat racing. Ireland breeds many of the top champions of the world. Coolmore are a dominant force and many other breeding power houses also keep their stock on Irish soil, to avail of our soil, skills and expertise. It’s very exclusive at the top, but that’s how it is.

Jump racing is in our blood to a much greater degree. The anticipation of the coming jumps season increases each year. It’s not just for the Grade 1 races, we yearn for the familiar, popular, even veteran horses to return.

It’s where the small man rubs shoulders with the rich. And the allure of the National Hunt game has brought the new money owners here too, to chase the dream. It’s becoming a sport where everyone suddenly wants to be.

However, the new ‘recruits’ are, by and large, only interested in success at the top level.

It’s in danger of becoming like Gaelic football, for Dublin’s dominance replace with the top three or four owners and trainers.

Only Joseph O’Brien, Henry de Bromhead and Noel Meade won Grade 1s last year over fences in this country outside of Willie, Gordon and Jessica. Three of those horses were in the J.P and Gigginstown colours.

You don’t want to rain on Limerick’s parade, but does Irish racing, in the current climate, need another Grade 1 chase? Especially given that such a race will also need a decent prize fund.

It’s great for the regional tracks to get extra recognition, but it this the way to do it? Will the winning owner and trainer be at the races?

Having Douvan in Cork for the Hilly Way Chase was a great pull for that track and the sport’s regional fans – you want to see the top horses up close and jump racing’s heart and soul is in the provinces.

If it meant seeing better horses, and pulled in bigger crowds, it might be justified, but the better class of past winners of the Grade 2 Greenmount Park Chase, Sir Des Champs (4/7), Gilgamboa (7/4), Outlander (1/2) and Bellshill (4/9), were all representative of the top owners.

The Paparrazi Kid also won it as a Grade 2. And Dounikos (last three runs PPP) led home Tombstone last year after Al Boum Photo had fallen.

There was no ‘vacancy’ in the calendar at Christmas for another Grade 1 chase over the intermediate distance.

It just promotes the avoidance culture that has increased with the amount of top horses in the one stable.

It’s not likely to add anything to the race, to the attendance, or to the holiday racing experience. Creating new Grade 1 races should mean more than a ticking box.