A scheme to provide a £20,000 credit to winning owners of British Grade 1 chase and hurdle races, to be used towards training fees of a new British-trained horse, is unlikely to lead to a change plans for Rich and Susannah Ricci, their racing manager Joe Chambers says.

Designed to encourage the ownership and training of jump horses in Britain and “to seek to arrest the decline in the number of highly-rated jumps horses in training”, the Horserace Betting Levy Board has recently put £760,000 on the table for all Grade 1 hurdles and chases in Britain across March and April. A £10,000 credit is also awarded to the owners of the runner-up in the same races.

When asked at the unveiling of the Anglo-Irish National Hunt Classification about how, and if, the Riccis would spend their bonuses accrued in Britain through the spring of 2026, Chambers said: “I’ll choose my words carefully. We have horses in training in England with Venetia Williams and Nicky Henderson over jumps. We’ve got a nice flat horse with Alan King who’s coming back from an injury, so having runners in England is not new.

“I’ve lived here for 20-odd years. Rich has lived here for a long, long time, Susannah is British. Whether we would choose to have more horses in training in the UK would not be influenced by the training scheme credit that the BHA have brought in.

“I understand the merits and what they are trying to achieve, and this is purely a personal opinion – I’m not speaking for either Rich or Susannah – but it doesn’t sit well with me that other trainers could benefit off of the success of Willie Mullins and the horses that he trained to victory.

“It’s one thing if it’s an owner that puts a horse with that trainer, who is UK based – who delivered that success. It doesn’t sit very well with me in terms of whether it would be utilised or not, nor do I think that it would sway Rich’s view of having another National Hunt horse in training in the UK.”

Aintree conditions

It was also noted at the launch, arranged by the BHA and IHRB, that it is unlikely we will see any relaxation of Randox Grand National conditions to allow younger or less experienced horses run in the Aintree feature.

None of the first four home in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National would have been eligible for Aintree as they hadn’t met the quota of previous chase starts, while the first and third from the Coral Scottish Grand National were aged six; therefore not qualified for Liverpool due to a stipulation requiring a minimum age of seven.

BHA handicapper Martin Greenwood, who devises the race’s ratings, effectively poured cold water over any easing and said: “If anything, the opposite. The National is the highest quality handicap chase of the season, with horses winning off 168 and things like that.

“A mark of 146 has got you in the last two years, 145 the year before that. If anything, trainers need to be aware that you’ve got to get your horses well above 145 to get a run. I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.

“Soldier In Milan, for instance, wouldn’t have got in this year’s National. Trainers need to be getting their horses up the ratings as quickly as possible if they want to guarantee a run.”