Keeping the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham Festival was bad for the sport – it should have been binned

SHAME on you Cheltenham. Shame on you breeders and owners. Shame on you racing.

Shame on all of you who believe the Mares’ Hurdle brings anything positive to the Cheltenham Festival or the great sport of horse racing.

PABrighterdaysahead (left) beat State Man at Punchestown – but is still likely to head to the Mares’ Hurdle[/caption]

Cheltenham recently had the opportunity to get rid of it – they did nothing.

The only people who believe it is a good idea are selfish horsey insiders. As of yet, I have not met a single racing fan who sees anything about the race as a positive.

I have been on about this for years, just as I have the whip. No one listens. But they will one day when they have ruined the game when the whip is eventually removed, and when another horse who should be running in the Champion Hurdle essentially walks over in the Mares’.

That might happen again in March. After all, the horse who is now around 8-1 for the Champion, Brighterdaysahead, is already being talked up for the Mares’ by her trainer Gordon Elliott.

That’s on the back of a victory over the current Champion Hurdle hero State Man on Saturday and with doubts surrounding the future of Constitution Hill, who took the prize in 2023. It’s just utterly depressing.

The Mares’ race is about ego. Don’t be fooled into thinking it is anything other than that.

Breeders will tell you they desperately need massive goals for female horses to encourage people to keep the fairer sex in training. In other words, the hope of someone landing a Grade 1 at the Festival. What absolute nonsense.

If you are an owner out there and you just want to buy a horse for a gimme at the Cheltenham Festival how sad does that make you?

But, of course, that is what is happening. For some trainers the only aim is to give an owner a Cheltenham winner. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Mares’ Hurdle or a seller as long as it’s run at the Festival.

If you want a Grade 1 mares’ event in the UK I have no issue with that. Run it anytime you like. Eventually, all you do is weaken the breed because some mares who don’t deserve Grade 1 black type look better than they are because they haven’t raced against geldings.

But shame on every one of you that don’t want competition at the highest level. You are all making a mockery of what everyone is trying to achieve. And that is to be and see the best of the best.