National Hunt fans missing out on new rivalry for the ages
If you are a fan of top-class two-mile hurdlers, this season has not given you a great deal to cheer about. There is no doubt that Constitution Hill is an enormous talent, but a canter around Kempton against horses who are nearly two stone his inferior is not exactly a substitute for Viagra, unless you are one of those people who watch Formula One only in case there is a massive prang at the first bend.
This is not what true National Hunt fans crave. And due to the watering down of the Cheltenham Festival, you have not got much better to look forward to next month.
The whole point of sport is to create legendary rivalries. Borg v McEnroe, Ali v Frazier, Celtic v Rangers, or Sea Pigeon v Monksfield if you are old enough.
Constitution Hill v Lossiemouth in the Champion Hurdle should have been the beginning of what could be one of those great rivalries. It could have been the race of the season, a moment to spend weeks looking forward to on the first day of the Festival.
But instead, we’ll get to watch both cantering around at long odds-on in separate races, because Lossiemouth can take the “soft option” of the Mares’ Hurdle.
If ever there was a moment when the chickens that created more races to bulk up a fourth day of the Festival have come home to roost, this is it.
Do not get me wrong, if I was owner Rich Ricci or trainer Willie Mullins, I would definitely opt for the soft option this year with Lossiemouth. After all, winners at the Cheltenham Festival do not grow on trees, and the overall attraction of the sport is not their problem.
That is why owners and trainers do not run the sport, because they will always make decisions that are best for their own interests. It is the responsibility of the governing bodies of individual sports to create the right structure to nurture compelling storylines.
With such rivalries and competitive racing in mind, it is obviously a massive headache for the administrators in Ireland and Britain that too many horses are either in too few yards or no longer going hurdling at all.
Let your mind drift back to the halcyon days of 1977 and the best Champion Hurdle ever run. The runners that day had won six Champion Hurdles between them.
Night Nurse, the greatest hurdler of all time and trained by Peter Easterby, who also trained Sea Pigeon (fourth), triumphed over the Dessie McDonogh-trained Monksfield. In third was Dramatist (Fulke Walwyn), while the Bob Turnell-trained Birds Nest was fifth with Beacon Light in sixth.
The luckless Beacon Light, who ran on the Flat for Bernard Van Cutsem, would have won plenty of Champion Hurdles in lesser years.
Between 1978 and 1980, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon fought out the Champion Hurdle. “Monky”, as he was affectionately referred to by the great commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan, won the first two of those battles. But Sea Pigeon, who had been trained on the Flat by Jeremy Tree and finished seventh in the Derby, triumphed in 1980, before following up in 1981 against Pollardstown. Those really were great years for racing fans.
On reflection, what is tragic about the incredible 1977 Champion Hurdle is that four out of six of those horses would not even go hurdling these days.
They would be sold, after running on the Flat as three-year-olds, to race abroad.
One has only to look at the meeting in Qatar on Feb 17 to understand why. The HH Amir Trophy, run over 1m4f, is worth $2.5 million (£1.98 million).
Had that race been run in 1977, around the magnificent racetrack near Doha, with the best equine medical facilities at nearby Al Shaqab that I have ever seen, it would have been well within Sea Pigeon’s grasp.
But even if the Champion Hurdle was now worth £1 million, I am not sure many owners would send their best middle-distance Flat horses hurdling nowadays.
The Maktoum family and their cohorts would still take their 100-plus-rated horses back to Dubai for their Carnival meeting. And the majority of other owners would sell similar talent to Australia, and increasingly Saudi Arabia, where they can win good money.
There is good news, however. Neither Constitution Hill nor Lossiemouth ever ran on the Flat. Maybe National Hunt-bred horses will be the speedy hurdlers of the future.
