A TERRIFIC Punchestown meeting ended a brilliant National Hunt season. While the Mullins and de Bromhead yards dominated the three big Festivals (DRF, Cheltenham and Punchestown) there were many successes for the smaller yards and cheaper horses.

Anticipation is there already for next season with a group of extremely talented novices ready to take on this year’s older Grade 1 stars.

However one thought struck in the aftermath of last week, and it’s one unfortunate factor in jumps racing at the moment - how short a time the good horses stay at the top.

With the news that Buveur D’air and Altior are to race on, the sad thing is, where are the races they are likely to win? Santini, Lostintranslation? It looks a similar situation here. Where are the races for Grade 1 winners the likes of Kemboy, Melon, Samcro, or Delta Work when he comes back? None will be older than 10, perhaps even Al Boum Photo will find it hard to win in Tramore! Monalee will be 11 years old, it’ll be tough finding him a race to win.

National Hunt racing was built on horses returning year after year and still finding opportunities to win.

With the predominance of Grade 1 races both here and across the water, there are fewer and fewer opportunities.

Perhaps it’s worth looking at inserting a few high grade handicaps, restricted to horses of a higher rating, into the calendar? It would surely be to the benefit of racing to see horses race competitively for four or five seasons?

ONE thing that struck over the four hours watching the NBC broadcast of the Kentucky Derby last Saturday, was the lack of presenters. We had three in a studio booth and a few more on the walk over but generally, despite long breaks between races, we got the colour, the history and the background to big day and it was all the better for that.

Okay, it’s unfair to compare a full colour, biggest race event like this with a ‘normal’ Saturday here but we do seem to be moving towards having more and more people giving their opinions to camera on the track.

Perhaps in post-Covid land, it might be a good idea to remember the ‘show, don’t tell’ guide for broadcasting.