IT seemed a rather strange decision when the news broke this week that Paul and Clare Rooney, who own a huge number of horses on both the flat and over jumps, had advised their trainers not to make further entries at Cheltenham.

They had already enjoyed success there with Willoughby Court but endured tragedy when Starchitect suffered a fatal injury when looking like he was about to win the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup Handicap Chase in December 2017.

With no comment from the owners themselves, the exact reasons for the decision is still unclear, with ‘safety concerns’ the reported issue.

It’s not the first time that the dangers of jump racing became too much to accept. Some time ago trainer David Elsworth said that he had fallen out of love with jump racing through seeing horses fatally injured in falls. But in the case of the Rooneys, and the number of horses they have competing, falls and injuries are going to be inevitable. It seems strange to single out Cheltenham as a no-go area for their runners.

Owners can race their horses at whatever track they wish, but what was also worrying was that some commentators broke the news as though some fault lay with Cheltenham. Headlines refering to leading owners order their trainers not to run at Cheltenham on safety grounds is not a good line when there was little Cheltenham could do to prevent an injury like Starchitect’s. It shouldn’t be tagged as a ‘welfare’ issue.

Owner Simon Hunt, whose distinctive colours enjoyed success with The Giant Bolster and responsible for the interestingly named new recruit running today Fukuto – (it’s Fu-Koo-To), summed it up best this week when he said: “We got to Cheltenham 15 times with The Bolster.

“You get the best of everything there and although a lot has been said about the track of late with the Rooneys story, my view is that they do everything they can for horse welfare.”