Is the Poniros Rule Really About Safety or Targeting Willie Mullins? The so-called ‘Poniros rule’ is specifically targeted at Willie Mullins and shows the “insecurity at the heart of British jumps racing”. That is the verdict of Johnny Ward and Emma Nagle, speaking this week on the Irish Angle, after the BHA announced horses need to have at least one run and a rating of 110 before taking part in Grade One novice and juvenile hurdles as part of a raft of new changes ahead of the upcoming National Hunt season. If it had been in place last season, it would have meant Willie Mullins’ 100-1 Triumph Hurdle winner would not have been eligible for the race after debuting at the Cheltenham feature. The BHA justified the decision by claiming it will increase the quality of racing and “support the long-term future of British jumps racing” while welfare concerns were also cited. Timing Is No Coincidence However, speaking on irishracing.com’s Irish Angle show Emma Nagle explained Poniros was the exception and there were other reasons behind the rule change. “I think, with the timing of it, it's hard not to say that it's very targeted at Willie Mullins. “The fact that Willie had three unraced over hurdle horses going into the Triumph Hurdle this year. One of them happened to win it. He had another horse who had only run in France. So he mightn't have been allowed to run either. “I went through the last 10 years of Triumph Hurdles and there's only been a handful of unraced horses running in it. “I think if you go back to the 1950s a few horses having their first run over hurdles might have won it back then but it's the exception to the rule to have a horse running in [the Triumph Hurdle as] a first time over hurdles. “I think the cases being made were firstly a welfare aspect, making sure that a horse has the ability to run in a race like that to jump hurdles at a pace like that. “They put in a minimum rating of 110 over hurdles. Is 110 a good enough rating to run in a Grade One hurdle? I'd say it's miles off the mark. A 110 horse should not be running in a Grade One hurdle in the first place. “Then when you think of it a horse might run in a maiden hurdle in Ireland or in the UK, they might finish second or third. How can you rate that form? There's a reason that there's a minimum number of runs for a handicap mark in both Ireland and in the UK. “Giving the handicapper the power to assess the horse after one run? It doesn't make a whole load of sense to me. “You're trying to rate French form against Irish form and English form, it's going to be very difficult. “It's probably not going to be something that happens too often because it's not a common occurrence. It’s just the fact that Willie Mullins seemed to do it a few times last year. Parallels to State Man Rule The Irish Angle team also cited the ‘State Man’ rule introduced after Willie Mullins’ charge won the 2022 County Hurdle at Cheltenham on just his third run. The rule change required horses to have four runs before competing in a Class 1 or Class 2 handicap hurdle race. “It’s going back to the State Man rule, it feels like it might be targeted,” Emma Nagle explained. “It was part of a host of different rules and initiatives brought in over the last few weeks by the BHA. It's just thrown in among them as a way of improving British racing and giving British trainers and breeders the best chance possible going forward. “Ruby [Walsh] made a point on the Nick Luck Daily podcast, he was strongly against the whole thing and I can see where he's coming from. “It does give a bit of a sense of us against them. The British trainers are trying to protect their sport and maybe stop Willie Mullins from running these potential Grade One horses first time out when they haven't got a chance to assess them.” Punters Could Miss Out With New Rule Another justification for the rule change is that it will protect punters from betting on a big race when they have not seen the horse previously. But Emma Nagle felt the opposite was true and the likes of Poniros offer a unique betting opportunity. She said: “Look, you can see punters won't be too happy seeing a horse that they've never seen running before in a Grade One hurdle. “But if you just take the flip side of that as well. I didn’t back Poniros last year, but I remember backing Concertista in the Mares’ Novice Hurdle a few years ago. “It just caught my eye that Willie Mullins was running a horse for the first time out in a graded event at Cheltenham. “I had a few quid on at 33-1 and I'm sure plenty of people did that with Poniros as well at Cheltenham. “You don't see Willie Mullins running a horse in an event like that unless they have the ability and maybe it gives punters a chance to back a Willie Mullins horse at a massive price which you wouldn't otherwise have gotten. “You'd imagine if Poniros had won in Ireland beforehand he would have been probably a single figure price. “I don't agree with the whole thing to be honest. Simply because I don't think it's anyone's first choice to go straight to a Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham. It's obviously just the way the situation has worked out with the horse; they haven't been able to get him out beforehand. “Just taking Poniros, he was owned by Tony Bloom who quite publicly punts on his horses and this horse went off at 100-1. It wasn't as if it was this big plot job that was tearing down the gallops at home. I’d imagine they just didn't have time to get them out before the Cheltenham race. “Talking about improving the quality of fields - you're taking out last year's winner. Would that improve the quality of the field of the Triumph Hurdle? I don't know. “People have different opinions about it but I don't agree with it. It feels very targeted against Willie Mullins in particular. I don't think you can target one trainer with a rule like that.” Safety Concerns Very Real Racing journalist Johnny Ward added that safety concerns are valid but may have been a bigger issue in the past and agreed with Nagle’s overall verdict. “If you're a trainer you run horses in races that are not not schooled very much or not schooled at all, there is a duty of care to the jockey as well,” he said. “We don't need to talk about the last few years to know that it's a dangerous game and three-year-old hurdles can be pretty much car crash stuff. “Maybe it's just me, but I feel in recent years, the horses just seem to jump better in the three-year-old hurdles than they used to over the last maybe 20 years “I don't see as much mayhem in the early season juvenile hurdles. “Rosscommon used to be the first one and watching them jump the first, it was like what the hell's going to happen here? Fifteen horses and they could basically career across each other going to the first and they wouldn't even jump it and that's part of the spectacle. “The problem I have with this rule is that it is here with no other intention or no other reasoning other than to stop Willie Mullins doing what he did last year. It's literally nothing other than that. If any other trainer had trained Poniros, I don't think they would have done it. “ Emma makes a good point here because you could have backed Willie Mullins’ horse at 100-1. “Why would Tony Bloom, who was one of the shrewdest people in racing, run this horse in this race unless he'd some sort of chance? And if Pomiros hadn't been in the race, it would have been a weaker Triumph Hurdle in hindsight. “Funnily enough, he's run twice since at much shorter odds, finished second and then tailed off on the flat. So racing is a funny game. “The problem I have with this rule is that even though it kind of makes sense, it's the exact same as the State Man stuff. It's to stop Willie Mullins. “That, to me, just strikes back at the insecurity that is at the heart of British racing, jumps racing particularly.” Finegan Backs Rule Change irishracing.com editor Vincent Finegan agrees with the rule change, simply because it will increase the safety of races. “I would say there is a safety element to this. I can definitely see that point of it. “Okay, it looks like it possibly is targeted against Wille Mullins, but realistically when there's a safety element in it, I think it needs to be brought in. So, I think it's not a bad rule. “I don't think it's going to make much difference to Willie Mullins’ longer term anyway. “All he has to do is get one run into these things beforehand, which okay, he didn't do with Poniros and two others that ran in the Triumph, but the vast majority of horses he runs at Cheltenham have run over hurdles before they get there. “Some of them have run in France over hurdles before he even gets them.” Finegan also explained that adding a practice hurdle before horses line up for the start could allow officials to give the once over to horses before their first rules race. Emma Nagle agreed and said it would be similar to the process for Flat racing. She explained: "That's something that I'd imagine most people would be very open to. I’d imagine jockeys and trainers would like to see that being implemented. They have it in France as well. "It's obviously not going to happen, but they have a stall sort for the Flat where they have an IHRB official coming out to assess a horse going into a stall, make sure they're calm and doing it. “Maybe they could have something like that over hurdles as well. If it came to it for Grade One events, if a horse happened to be going first time over hurdles, they could send someone down to have a look at it jumping at pace over hurdles.” “I just feel like it's targeted at Willie Mullins and there's a whole pile of other reasons thrown in there to make it sound a bit better.” Watch The Irish Angle In Full Or Listen On Spotify
