A Rock & A Hard Place

Racing faces major questions right now, questions that cut to the existential core of the sport even, like the possible existence or otherwise of equine free-will. More prosaic concerns continue about horseboxes queuing up at Dublin port because of a dumb crisis of English nationalism. Disturbing news from Australia raises ethical dilemmas over animal welfare. Despite all that though the question on the lips of most racing fans at the weekend was about Michael O'Leary allowing Apple's Jade line up in next month's Champion Hurdle.

Maybe that's short-sighted and selfish in the overall. But it's also reflective of the pull a wonderful equine talent can exert on the public imagination. That's what racing is rooted in and it's what sporting competition is all about. It's why as soon as Apple's Jade passed the post at Leopardstown on Saturday she had to get a green light to run in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

That she has now been basically given that green light - subject to the usual terms and conditions over ground, health and all the rest - is a tribute to Michael O'Leary's sporting sense. Having said that though, if the Ryanair boss hadn't given that green light he would never have been allowed forget it.

It's always easy to be brave with someone else's horse. And it is the privilege of any owner paying the bills to run their horse wherever they damn well want, especially if it runs counter to the shrill demands of blowhards who'd previously insisted she shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a Champion Hurdle.

But Saturday's performance in the Leopardstown version changed things. Any horse able to run 3.44.6 over two miles on near good ground, and beat Supasundae by 16 lengths, is outstanding at the trip. Maybe she really is even better at two and a half miles, or three. But that first start at two miles in over two years proves Apple's Jade is a genuine Champion Hurdle contender.

For what it's worth I still don't think she'll win it. She's unlikely to get a solo in front and that habit of edging right at her hurdles is a negative that will count for double at true championship level. But she gets that crucial 7lb sex allowance and a mistake by either Buveur D'Air or Laurina, or a piece of interference, could make those considerations irrelevant.

The central point though is that Apple's Jade is a genuine contender and if championship racing means anything she had to get a chance to shoot for the Champion Hurdle crown.

That immediately after Saturday's race the inclination of O'Leary's Gigginstown Stud team still appeared to be to concentrate on the Mares Hurdle probably reflected a widespread inclination within racing to plump for the easiest option. Targeting the race you're most likely to win is always perceived to be the shrewd move.

Willie Mullins is famous for it. O'Leary himself has always highlighted the difficulties of winning any race at Cheltenham and any success at the festival still represents the pinnacle of achievement in National Hunt racing. Professionally it's not hard to see the sense of it. No one wants to be perceived as some romantic mug and a four day festival only facilitates such conservative hard-headedness.

However National Hunt racing's idea of itself is essentially sporting. It prides itself on being different to the hard-headed instincts of the flat. Of course reality is often different to the ideal and there were many who probably felt O'Leary's famous capacity for intransigence would prevent Apple's Jade being switched from the Mares to the Champion.

It's important she is being allowed a shot at the biggest prize rather than the easiest one. It's important because it restores faith in jump racing's capacity to take a sporting shot. If one of the richest men in the country can't afford to take such a shot, and accommodate the competitive instincts of the rest of us into the bargain, then the game really would be in a fraught place.

It feels pretty overwrought anyway. O'Leary himself picked up on an element of it on Sunday when describing the state of the Leopardstown ground at the Dublin Racing Festival as almost a horse welfare issue.

That feeds into current anxious times, with the BHA in Britain getting itself into perhaps an unnecessary twist over an equine fatality rate which in reality can be argued does it credit given the essential vulnerability of the beast, not to mention that unfortunate self-inflicted PR injury involving Henry Oliver and the mulish autonomous entity he was waving his arms at.

But O'Leary is correct to point to horse welfare when it comes to ground conditions for National Hunt horses. The Ryanair boss was speaking in the context of some of the best jumpers in the country being taken out of Grade One races because ground conditions were good to firm in places on the steeplechase track and the potential impact of that just six weeks from Cheltenham.

O'Leary argued that Leopardstown should have watered to ensure safe ground for these good horses. In fact a welfare argument can be made that the world 'firm' shouldn't appear in any going description for National Hunt horse anywhere, even during the height of summer when there is logistical pressure on smaller tracks in terms of actual ground to race on.

It must be a long time since the word 'firm' appeared in an Irish going description at the start of February if indeed it has ever happened at all. And in the circumstances having a go at the track is always the easiest option. But it's just as easy to argue that Leopardstown's authorities were caught between a freezing rock and wet hard place during the run up to the Dublin Racing Festival.

At the start of the week there was enough precipitation in the forecast to make watering seem unnecessary. Then later in the week the idea of pouring water onto frosty ground after freezing overnight temperatures must have seemed counter-intuitive. It certainly would have been a bull-headed official who poured water onto a course that had to pass a morning inspection due to frost.

Ultimately it all went pear-shaped. A decimated €1.8 million festival weekend showpiece became the most graphic example of this weird winter. That's real Sod's law. Leopardstown's famed drainage used to be a plus point. Now that officials are prepared to examine if winter watering should be considered in future, even in sub-zero conditions, it's starting to look a rather expensive luxury.

Having pitched the question last week as to what would constitute success for the second Dublin Racing Festival, it's fair to say that having 26 non-runners from almost one hundred declarations on Sunday's card hardly represented a victory. It's certainly hard to paint success out of 22 runners being taken out due to the ground no matter how heavy the PR brush.

Other figures hardly indicate an event with upward momentum either. The weekend crowd total of 24,256 was almost two thousand down on last year. Sunday's 11,712 attendance was the lowest Dublin Racing Festival crowd to date. It makes those confident ambitions towards filling the place seem very hopeful indeed.

Not surprisingly betting turnover was down too. That isn't surprising judged by the overall pattern of the 2018 statistical results released by HRI last week. Tote on course betting dropped 7.7 per cent to just €10.7 million last year. On course bookmakers bet only €54.8 million in 2018, a drop of 11 per cent on 2017. This slide in track betting appears remorseless and irreversible.