THE eligibility and qualification criteria for the Cheltenham Foxhunter can prove to be something of a minefield that has thrown up some unexpected and unwanted surprises for the connections of many fancied Irish hopes in the past. This year has proven to be no different.

Just under three weeks ago, Shark Hanlon declared his intention to run Mighty Stowaway in the Cheltenham Foxhunter following his third open success of the season at Tinahely, having been bought days earlier by Philip Reynolds.

Ten days later, and having been introduced as a 20/1 shot in the ante-post betting for the blue riband prize in the hunter chase division, there was a post on Twitter with confirmation from the BHA that the horse was ineligible to be entered for the Foxhunter.

A six-length success in a 0-140 handicap chase at Punchestown on November 18th 2018 was put forward as the reason for his ineligibility.

In order to be eligible to run in a British hunter chase this season, “a horse cannot have won a Class 1 or 2 Chase in Great Britain which was not confined to Amateur Riders, or any other steeple chase run outside Grade Britain which was not confined to Amateur Riders, and which in the opinion of the Authority is the equivalent of a Class 1 or Class 2 steeple chase,” within a 15-month window preceding the start of the British hunter chase season in January 2020.

It is the line “which in the opinion of the Authority is the equivalent of a Class 1 or Class 2 steeple chase” within those BHA’s eligibility rules which created the confusion, on account of there being no comparable class-based system between the two racing jurisdictions.

When Hanlon was planning a campaign for the Stowaway gelding, he consulted the BHA rulebook and their classification of National Hunt races in Great Britain which listed 0-140 handicaps as being classified as Class 3 races.

Classification

However, the BHA have since clarified that when classifying races that are run outside of Britain, due to the absence of a comparable class-based system elsewhere, the agreed international system of classification is to use the penalty value to the winner: i.e the prize money that the winner picks up for the success, rather than the rating band of the race.

?

In the case of Mighty Stowaway, the penalty value that he incurred at Punchestown in November 2018 was £14,150.44, aligning to the Class 2 penalty value category, resulting in the horse being deemed ineligible for 2020.

Inequality

Aside from the obvious frustration that the connections of Mighty Stowaway have encountered, this exposes an inequality in terms of the eligibility for Irish-trained horses when competing against their British-trained counterparts across the Irish Sea.

If that Punchestown race had been run with the exact same conditions and value at a British racecourse, such as Cheltenham or Ascot, Mighty Stowaway would have been eligible to run in the Foxhunter, as the race would have been deemed to be a Class 3 race. This is due to the BHA classifying British races by rating band.

Because the BHA is not comparing like for like, it has created an obvious imbalance.

This week alone, a 0-140 handicap chase took place at Wincanton on Thursday afternoon and was classified as a Class 3 race. Not only did it have the same rating band as the Punchestown race in question, but if the BHA’s own metric for assessing Irish races was being used, it would have instead been deemed to be a Class 2 race.

This is because the Wincanton contest carried a penalty value of £16,245, some £2,000 greater than the 2018 race won by Mighty Stowaway at Punchestown.

Such examples are undoubtedly a very bitter pill to swallow for the connections involved.

Typically, it has been the conditions surrounding graded successes which have been responsible for precluding horses that were eligible from contesting hunter chases here from crossing the Irish Sea.

The Gordon Elliott-trained Backstage is one notable exception. He was the then ante-post favourite for the 2012 Cheltenham Foxhunter but was found to be ineligible a month before Cheltenham following a previous Class 2 success at Ffos Las.

On that occasion, the Ffos Las race was at least classified as Class 2 in the conditions due to the rating band of the race in accordance with the British rules, unlike the unsatisfactory classification of an Irish race in this situation.

The BHA is set to review the race values of the classification system to see if any changes are required against 2020 race values, however this will not affect the eligibility of Mighty Stowaway, and the classification of his 2018 success.

It does serve to highlight for other trainers, a rule which could easily catch future victims.