WITH Cheltenham now over, a disappointing one for the five Irish qualified horses that ran in the Foxhunters, the new year section of the point-to-point season has reached its half-way point. While weather conditions have made for trying conditions for everyone involved in the sport at least things have kept going.

Unfortunately, the bad news story to come out of Cheltenham has not, luckily, met with as much publicity as it might.

It involved the previous Sunday’s Ballyarthur meeting at which the novice riders maiden race proved somewhat of a debacle with the remaining three of five runners all refused the last fence with just one succeeding to negotiate the obstacle at the second attempt. The video of the race had been downloaded onto the social media and went viral among those attending Cheltenham’s Festival.

As one might expect, it was met with a mixture of ridicule and laughter and also disgust and severe criticism as the riders involved were all perceived to be abusing the whip regulation.

It has to be said that, although the local stewards on the day took immediate and appropriate action against the offending riders, there were those who felt their reaction did not go far enough.

SUCCESS STORIES

To my mind the novice riders’ maidens usually for six-year-olds and upwards, have been one of the success stories of the 2017/18 season so far providing, on the whole good competitive racing and more often than not a decent number of runners.

Indeed Sean O’Keeffe from the well-known Wexford racing family has used these races well to be the leading claiming rider at this stage of the season and is level with Shane Fitzgerald in the chase for the leading young rider.

The problem however at Ballyarthur arose in a small field with no horse with obvious recent form to take into the race. In many previous years the race would have been seen as an unfortunate and quickly forgotten episode but with the modern social media there is not a hiding place when things like this happen.

In the past few days we see how a multitude of CCTV, personal mobile phones and tablets have caught Australia cricketers cheating which had never previously been seen.

It is extremely unlikely that this was the first time such an event had ever happened but now modern technology makes it much more easier to pick-up and there are people with time on their hands who love to look for any sign of wrong doing.

So while we tend to see ours as a somewhat minority sport everyone participating should be aware that as George Orwell put it: “Big Brother is watching you”.

British hunter rules

Eoghain Ward has highlighted more than once how the British authorities by revising their qualification rules seem to have dug themselves into a new hole. No one in Ireland that I have spoken to can understand how a horse (Grand Vision) that has won a race under rules in February is able to run in the Foxhunters; luckily he did not win though he “earned” £520 for finishing sixth which otherwise might have gone to Balnaslow.

That was bad enough, but now there has been a new almost farce taking place involving one of our own. The David Christie-trained Marinero which had been running here in point-to-points ran in the Kim Muir Amateur Riders Chase at Cheltenham which meant that under Irish rules he lost his hunter’s certificate for this season. So goodbye to all that! Not a bit of it.

Having not run in a hunter chase previously this year, his British-based owner/rider goes to the British authorities and takes out a British hunter certificate and then proceeds to run in and win a hunter chase at Ascot.

Under the British rules, the horse is now confined to running in hunter chases for the rest of the season. What I want to know is would Grand Vision or Marinero have their entries accepted were they to choose to enter Punchestowns’ Champion Hunter Chase?

As a by-note, Marinero’s hunter chase win in England means that he is now eligible for next year’s Foxhunters having failed in his quest to qualify for this year’s race via point-to-points over here.

It seems to me that the British have rather muddied the waters with the system they brought in at the beginning of this season and it is not really operating in the best interests of the sport.

The Irish system is simple to operate and could easily be made a one suit fits all policy for both British and Ireland especially if, as with our cross-country races at Punchestown, some races were given specific exemptions.

Dancer gains mares’ final honours

It was good to see Noel Kelly, Noel McParlan and the mare Milan Dancer travel to Ballynoe to contest the Gain Mares’ Final race.

As it was, the mare’s previous form was on a different level to the other contestants and resulted in a somewhat bloodless victory for her and her connections. Even so, with the bonus paid to the winning owner the win was worth more than most run-of-the-mill British hunter chases and indeed many track race there.

The racecard listed the previous winners of this series final which dates back to 1988 and at first glance they would all seem to have hailed from Munster.

While I know the substantial winner’s bonus has only been available in recent years, it still seems strange to me that owners and handlers from the rest of the country have been reluctant to enter and run for what is a prestigious prize. Perhaps they do not realise that they meet the qualification criteria.

Milan Dancer may yet head for a hunter chase a sphere in which numbers of runners have been in decline this year. Whether the wet conditions have been a major factor we should learn as the ground, hopefully, gets better for the latter stages of the season.

Numbers have also been very poor in Britain where there are many more of these races run. That we need more hunter chasers is evident from looking at the Cheltenham Foxhunters.

There were 24 runners in this. Three were seven-year-olds, four, nine and all the rest 10-year-olds. At least one of our five, Burning Ambition was one of the youngest but we do need more hunter chasers coming through.