Dr Richard Newland: Jumps racing in Britain is in crisis

National Hunt racing in Britain is in crisis. The BHA are recognising the rapid decline in British Jumps racing and the Irish dominance that is exacerbating this. 

Last season, there were almost 1000 Irish Jumps runners in the UK that won 128 races and took home over £6.5m of UK prize money. 

In the same time, UK-trained horses managed only one win in Ireland and landed a total of 121,000 euros in prize money. 

There seems to be an advantage in horses being trained in Ireland. It is not clear what the cause of this advantage is but the knock-on effect on the British jump racing industry is huge, 

This season already, there have been 110 Irish wins in UK Jump races with over eighty Irish trainers competing in the UK and they are on course for well over 1000 runners this season. 

More and more UK owners are using Irish trainers instead of UK trainers because they perceive they have an advantage by doing so, and the BHA recognises there are now fewer owners and fewer jump horses in the UK. 

Simon Munir and Isaac Souede have less than ten jump horses left in the UK but have 40 with Willie Mullins. Their store horses are with Stuart Crawford in Nothern Ireland. 

Cheveley Park Stud in Newmarket, who have multiple flat horses all trained in the UK, have their jump horses trained in Ireland. 

For context, what the BHA has been worried about is prize money. The bookmakers make less money and contribute less revenue to racing when there are fewer than eight runners. So, the BHA’s justification for allowing the Irish jump horses to race in the UK has been that if we lose them, we will have smaller fields with less revenue contributed by the bookmakers. 

How concerned am I about the very existence of National Hunt racing in Britain? Very. There are a lot of good trainers who are stuck with horses they can’t sell and find new owners for. There is a real shortage of people who want to own jumps horses in the UK. Part of the reason for that is people who might be interested feel they cannot compete at the top level. 

The Cheltenham Festival is utterly dominated by the Irish horses and this year proved it again as Irish horses won 13 of the 16 graded races. 

Tellingly, in 12 of those graded wins, it was an Irish one-two, as they came in second as well. The last time the UK won the Prestbury Cup was nine years ago and it is 12 years since a UK trainer was the top trainer at the Festival. 

For the second time in three years, Willie Mullins had the same number of winners as the whole of the UK combined. 

There has been a staggering 45% drop in Cheltenham entries by UK trainers over the past four years. That is damning. This year, for the first time, Irish Cheltenham entries outnumbered British ones. 

I am sure all the UK Jump trainers share the same frustrations as me. We do need action. I just hope the BHA are brave enough to take decisive action to make the changes required. 

It is a very clear and unprecedented statement from the BHA chief executive (click the link above to read it in full) with a recognition of the challenges facing UK Jumps racing. 

It was also interesting to hear the earlier BHA statement that they had embarked on a new equine anti-doping initiative where 120 Irish horses had out of competition testing carried out for the first time jointly with the BHA, rather than by the Irish Regulatory authority alone. 

This suggests to me a lack of trust in the Irish anti-doping approach, and maybe this reflects the ‘lack of transparency’ that Julie refers to in her statement. 

Has the dream and the romance of National Hunt racing gone? Yes. People can accept the low prize money if you can dream one day of winning perhaps a Grand National, like I did. When that dream is taken away or is not open to you, why should UK owners and trainers just struggle on at the bottom. 

I am now leaning towards the Flat and going dual purpose. It is essential that I do this for my business to remain viable. But for the good of the sport of National Hunt racing this issue must be addressed - the powers that be cannot run away from it. 

As Julie Harrington has indicated, it is essential we address this Irish dominance and we may have to take a step back to facilitate this. 

When the BHA suggested they would consider limiting the Grand National entries to four runners per trainer, I was the first person to jump up and down in support of this initiative. 

I felt this was the best thing that they had done in a long time, but we knew it would never come to pass. 

Gordon Elliot could run 14 horses in the National this year and 28 of the field of 34 runners could be Irish. Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott have more entries in our Grand National combined than the whole of the UK. 

While we are on the subject, why not limit owners to a maximum of four runners in the race? 

The bottom line is, as Julie has said, we have to sort this problem out. 

One option would be to not allow Irish trained runners in the UK and make them non-eligible for the majority of our races. 

For a while we might have to reduce the number of races in the UK so that the field sizes go up. 

If they make Irish trained horses ineligible, the bigger UK owners would return to having their horses trained by UK trainers and the trend would start reversing. 

Personally, I would have that blanket for all races. But if we are to allow them to race in the UK once a year, maybe let that be at the Cheltenham Festival with perhaps one runner allowed per trainer in each race- not coming over every Saturday and winning everything. 

In the old days it was like that, with leading Irish and UK horses generally meeting only once a year for a showdown at the Cheltenham Festival. 

Julie is rightly preoccupied with the lack of prize money for UK owners and trainers. Perhaps it is time for Horse Racing Ireland to contribute £10million to UK horse racing prize money as that is the amount connections of Irish horses are likely to receive from UK jump races this year? 

All the BHA can do is control its own racing. They can do that by saying the Irish are not eligible to run in UK jump races or charge much higher entry fees for international horses to address the funding issue.  

These are only ideas and will not be popular with everyone. But we clearly need to discuss amongst UK racing professionals how the Irish dominance in UK National Hunt racing can be redressed and I welcome the BHA leading that debate. 

In Flat racing, the Irish are not allowed to compete in our lower grade races because there is already too much domestic demand. So, it is in the BHA’s control to change things. But they have previously taken the view in jump racing that it is a benefit for the Irish to come over to the UK, but it isn’t really and it is great that they are now recognising this. 

People sometimes try to say it’s all cyclical (that one side dominates for a while then others come to the fore). But that’s not the case, and I don’t believe anyone really believes this anymore. It won’t change in Britain without proper intervention. 

UK Jumps racing will continue to go backwards and dwindle. What is currently happening will speed this up. What we will see is a lot of consolidation in the marketplace and small jumps trainers with, say, around 15 horses must be very worried for their future. 

I wish we all had Willie’s magic wand. Paul (Nicholls) is an outstanding trainer and just as good, but for some reason, owners send their horses to Willie because he gets such good results. 

British racing can’t hide from this. We have a problem and we have got to do something about it. 

This Irish ‘advantage’ is killing National Hunt racing in the UK and must be addressed, and I am delighted that Julie Harrington has made clear the BHA’s intentions to tackle this.