By Gary McDaniel
Maybe it is my punting or the small fields that dominate the cards during this national hunt season, but I miss the regular key festivals that dominate the flat season. The cold and wet weather doesn't help but I do find that I don't attend as many meetings during the winter than I do at other times of the year. I enjoy getting stuck into an evening card at Hamilton Park whereas my heart now sinks when I preview a card for the likes of Uttoxeter.
One issue that has regularly come up this jumps season is that of small fields. We see it often at low grade meetings throughout the week and also with some of the graded novice races. Not that flat racing doesn't suffer from it but as a punter this winter, my eyes keep get drawn to the all weather racing. I seem to get a better grasp of the form, but with low grade jump racing? It's been like a graveyard shift for me. This likely isn't a problem for everyone but this feeling has been building over recent years.
I got into racing as a kid, like most people did, by the attraction and thrills of the Grand National. I only followed racing over the timber. Flat racing didn't grab my attention, possibly due to spending long summers out playing football. I had my favourite horses such as Imperial Black, Beau Ranger, Panto Prince and The Fellow. When March and April came around and we had Cheltenham, Aintree and Ayr, it was like an extended springtime Christmas for me.
Following coverage on both the BBC and Channel 4 was how I spent a Saturday afternoon during the autumn and winter. Back then the Cheltenham Festival was way off in the distance and there seemed to be less focus on it. Nowadays the four day racing spectacular dominates over the whole season that every other grade one race is just a stepping stone to March. At the Showcase meeting at Cheltenham in October, horses are already being spoken about for the Festival. You even find that the racing channels are doing Cheltenham Festival previews in November. To me it is only the Christmas Festival at Kempton that can hold it's own prior to Cheltenham.
Even more this season most of the big guns are tending to avoid each other until they clash at Prestbury Park in spring. I find it frustrating that the national hunt season is so lopsided compared to the flat. Don't get me wrong but when March comes around I will be bubbling with excitement but that enthusiasm hasn't been there for most of the NH season.
The flat the season begins with the trials for the first two classics and the anticipation for the big meetings that lie ahead. When the first weekend in May is upon us we have the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas. Then your attention turns to Epsom and the trials for the Derby. During the month of May we also have the excellent meeting at Chester. Then when June comes around we have the next two classics and of course the mouthwatering prospect that is Royal Ascot. The flat season has a nice progression to it. Have the three year-olds wintered well? When mid-summer comes around we see them take on the older horses and then at the end of the season we look to the two year olds and of course Longchamp.
The season has so many great meetings that they jump out at you month after month. The Guineas meeting, Chester, Dante meeting, Epsom, Royal Ascot, July meeting, Glorious Goodwood (sorry drop the Glorious now), Ebor meeting, St Leger festival, Western meeting and Champions Day. Not forgetting all the great international meetings as well. We seem to get ourselves in a tizzy about British Champions Day. There are complaints that it is isn't staged at the right time of the season and we don't see the best horses. Take it for what the meeting is, a cracking day's racing which adds to the long list of great racing on the menu throughout the flat calendar.
Imagine if British Champions Day was to be like Cheltenham and all trainers and owners thought of was preparing their horse(s) for Ascot in October? Thankfully it ain't as we have a flat season which hits high notes all season.
So what can national hunt racing do to make it more appealing from October to February? Well there is less of a horse population for the jumps code. There may be a lot of deeper issues at play with regards to this, breeding and the dominance of a few select stables who have the best horses. I would like to see a cut in the meetings that we have now. Summer jumps seem to have better fields than that staged on a January afternoon. I think there should be better marketing of NH meetings throughout the year. I accept that we cannot force connections to race against each other prior to Cheltenham, so this maybe a trend that we have to get used to.
When Cheltenham does come around, in two months time, I will be taking note of all that has been discussed at the numerous preview nights on the run up to the festival. The juices will be flowing as the 10th March approaches. My old adage of course form being important will keep my head above water for the week. The exciting racing that we see race after race will make me forget about this post I have written back in January. The fact that Aintree, Ayr and Punchestown have still to come will lighten the blow when I walk out the Cheltenham gates on the Friday. But I'm sure I will be back on this subject come January 2016.
