Is the Academy Hurdle series a step forward or a costly mistake?

Paddy Flood has warned the newly-introduced Academy Hurdle series could cost Horse Racing Ireland if it does not retain popularity.

On irishracing.com’s Irish Angle show this week the panel discussed the initiative after the first race at Cork on Sunday.

The new series is open only to three years old who have not run on the Flat or in National Hunt hurdles. Winners will not be able to enter another academy hurdle but retain their maiden status for future bumpers and hurdles and are credited with a win for pedigree purposes.

The new races are aimed at encouraging the earlier training of young jump horses and will also offer bonuses and sales incentives.

Notable critics include Noel Meade and Willie Mullins with the latter describing it as a “sales ploy”.

Asked for his opinion, Paddy Flood admitted he was somewhere in the middle.

He explained: “I’m kind of still a bit on the fence.

“I think there is something to it, but I’d nearly agree with Willie Mullins’s quotes that it is to sell a horse.

“You know, is there any reason why you’d take a horse and leave it a maiden unless you’re going to sell it? It has value to become a racehorse for somebody else, with not a penalty but prize money.

“I spent time in Australia where there are official trials, and if we were going down a selling route for younger horses, could we not have gone that way instead of dipping into the prize money pot?

“From what I gather, the fewer runners in the field, the more money HRI has to stump up with entry fees and so on.

“I’d be worried that in the next six or seven races, if there’s a drop-off, it’ll start costing a few quid.

“The winner had a flat campaign and looked sharp. I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see. I’m not trying to knock it, but I’m not overly positive either. I’m on the fence.”

An Alternative Solution

Flood also explained a potential alternative where horses are videotaped rather than raced in official trials.

He said: “I just wonder did they look at having official trials that are videotaped and sent to irishracing.com, where you can review them and see horses having a school around. There’s no prize money at the end of it, but the jockeys get paid, like in Australia.

“The race itself was fine. Gordon’s horse was disappointing — he ran off the track, very unusual for one of his. The winner was very professional, but the six or seven behind weren’t. You could see the jockeys were minding them till they got to the last.

“I just hope there are enough horses out there to fill these races going forward and it’s not the same horses all the time without the winner being in it.”

‘There’s Something Different About It’

Johnny Ward was at Cork for the opening academy hurdle race on Sunday which was won by the Jessica Harrington-trained Quinta Do Lago.

He said: “I was quite taken with how busy Mallow was yesterday for what was really a run-of-the-mill card with a decent handicap chase but smaller fields for the classier races. This race may have been the biggest entry for a National Hunt race over the weekend.

“I’m a bit like Paddy — on the fence about it — but it’s been brought in with a positive intention and for the right reasons to address serious issues in National Hunt racing, particularly the dominance of a small number of horses from the point-to-point sphere and French-breds at the top of the game. This is meant to encourage younger horses in Ireland to reach the track earlier.

“Richard Pugh’s remarks on irishracing.com are worth reading for perspective.

“I can see where Willie Mullins is coming from, but I actually like the old-school element — going into the betting ring with a bit of intuition about the pedigree and what the horse looks like. How are you supposed to back a horse who’s never run before in a maiden hurdle against 18 others who’ve never run before?

“There’s something different about it. But I’d be alarmed by the direction Irish racing is going in — how dominant point-to-point four-year-old maidens are. I don’t know if it’s good for the game overall.

“Even yesterday, David Fitzgerald had a winner — he hadn’t had a winner in ages. He used to have the likes of Pearly Jack, Mister Top Notch, and Operation Houdini.

“It seems fanciful that a trainer like him could have horses like that now because the National Hunt game is sewn up by a small number of owners. That’s my problem with it — the spirit has gone out of it in some respects. To get it back, we need more of a spread of riches, and maybe this helps a bit.

“I see where Willie’s coming from, but in general, I think this isn’t a bad idea. I found the race very interesting to watch.”

HRI’s Head of Racing, Richard Pugh, explained that data shows “we need horses to start earlier to be maximised and reach their peak for as long as they possibly can”.

Time Will Tell

Host Emma Nagle admitted it was too early to see whether the initiative will be a success.

She explained: “Willie’s comments — like Paddy said — are fair enough. It does seem aimed at selling horses, and the fact that they’re still maidens after winning one of these races is probably one of the rules people are questioning.

“We’ll judge it down the line. You mentioned tackling the issue of French horses dominating Irish racing — it’s probably ironic that a French-bred horse won the first one. But we’ll see how it goes.

“It’s good to hear it had a strong entry — that gives a bit of hope that it’ll be well supported. I’m sure plenty of trainers, when they heard about it, said, ‘Right, we’ll get these horses ready earlier.’ Hopefully we’ll see that down the line.”

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