SINCE last month’s Galway Plate the Irish reserve system has been a hot topic and another leading fancy for a major race crept in as a reserve this week when Rogue Angel, the eventual second favourite, got into the Kerry National as the first reserve.

In this instance it was known in excess of 24 hours before the Kerry National that Rogue Angel would be lining up in place of Wounded Warrior and that he was going to be ridden by this season’s leading jockey Rachael Blackmore.

By contrast the long time Plate favourite Patricks Park only got into the race an hour and a half before the first race on Plate day and so the line up for one of the biggest handicap chases of the season wasn’t finalised until less than four hours before the race was run.

Such a scenario is far from ideal and has prompted plenty of disquiet concerning how the Irish reserve system falls short in catering for the wider racing public when it comes to high profile handicaps.

RESERVE SYSTEM

In the aftermath of the Galway Plate it was announced that the reserve system was going to be reviewed and perhaps there is a relatively straightforward solution to ironing out various reservations about how this system functions.

Perhaps the situation regarding reserves would work better if there was a 10am deadline on the day of the race for reserves to get a run. After this time the race would be closed and there would be no further additions to the field.

In the case of races like the Galway Plate the final field would be known in good time and it would avoid a repeat of this year’s events.

In terms of a 10am cut-off point questions will be asked as to how this impacts on those punters who are inclined to bet the evening before each day’s racing. Different bookmakers treat the reserve system differently and some price up all the runners, reserves included, which means that when reserves don’t get a run there are occasions when punters would be hit with what could be deemed an unnecessary Rule 4 deduction.

The argument against this proposed solution would be that in some cases punters betting the night before will still be subjected to a Rule 4 deduction prior to 10am on the day of the race but at least by going down this route everyone will know where they stand.

This may well preclude some overnight betting activity in some cases but this is hardly a major negative considering the relatively small liabilities that bookmakers are willing to absorb on overnight prices. All this may seem as an imperfect solution to the long running debate on reserves but it may well be a workable option.

LISTOWEL

As ever, the highlight of this week’s Listowel Festival was the Kerry National which is one of the richest chases in the Irish racing calendar. Given the prizemoney on offer and its position, alongside the Paddy Power Chase, as the most valuable chase to be run in Ireland between Galway and Christmas it seems a little strange that the entries for the Kerry National were only unveiled at the start of last week.

It is hard to fathom the reasoning behind this.

Only two of this year’s 18 Kerry National hopefuls ran over fences between Galway and Listowel so the chances of a leniently treated horse creeping into the line up by virtue of it being an early closing race look somewhat remote.

A race of this value and stature deserves to close early and a timely release of the entries would facilitate some sort of build and interest surrounding what is the centrepiece of one of the biggest racing festivals in the country.

A look at the current early closing races in Ireland shows that the entries for the Group 3 Concorde Stakes, which is run at Tipperary on October 7th, have been available to view since late August.

Thus it seems a little strange that the initial acceptors for one of the country’s most valuable chases aren’t unveiled until a week beforehand. Similarly, the entries for the Galway Plate and Hurdle weren’t unveiled until a week before the Galway Festival.

This is a situation that requires some attention.

FOAL CROP FEARS

IT was very interesting to note that this week’s Tattersalls Ireland Ascot Yearling Sale was able to better last year’s returns in several key areas despite a catalogue that was 29% bigger than in 2017.

Admittedly the clearance rate for the one-day auction did drop by two points to 73%.

One of the main fears heading into this year’s round of yearling sales was that expanded catalogues could lead to a notable drop in clearance rates.

This hasn’t been the case so far which is encouraging but the industry most take heed of the levels of ownership in Britain and Ireland which have to show meaningful signs of recovery since the economic downturn that began towards the end of the last decade.

It is worth noting that there were 9551 owners with horses in training in Britain. Back in 2008 but that number had fallen to 7947 by 2016.

Similarly, there were 1000 fewer horses in training in Ireland through the first six months of this year than was the case in 2011.

Thus, as we look to the future, the industry needs to consider how and where increasing foal crop numbers are going to be absorbed because the answer doesn’t spring immediately to mind.