Why Irish National Hunt breeders might be looking to their laurels

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Here, as he returns from a festive break, he takes a closer look at why Irish (and British) National Hunt breeders are being outgunned by their French counterparts. Subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

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National Hunt breeders in Ireland might be looking to their laurels after the elite racing action over the festive period continued a rather worrying trend in the 2022/23 season.

The country that gave us Arkle, Mill House, Dawn Run, Best Mate, Denman and countless other jumping greats – and produced 2,179 foals intended for a career over obstacles last year, some 3.5 times as many as in Britain – is responsible for a mere five winners of the 23 Grade 1 races contested on these shores since November.

Conflated, Facile Vega, Home By The Lee, Marine Nationale and Paisley Park make up that quintet of horses carrying the IRE suffix to have scored at the highest level this season.

Horses with GB plates have meanwhile won only one fewer Grade 1 race in the same time frame, thanks to Constitution Hill’s victories in the Fighting Fifth and Christmas Hurdle, and Edwardstone and Thyme Hill’s triumphs in the Tingle Creek and Kauto Star Novices’ Chase.

Both countries have been blown out of the water by French-bred counterparts in 2022/23, though, with Bravemansgame, Blue Lord, Envoi Allen, Gaillard Du Mesnil, Galopin Des Champs, Gerri Colombe, Hermes Allen, Jonbon, Mighty Potter, Protektorat, Saint Roi, State Man (twice) and Teahupoo all winning Grade 1 races.

This is a problem peculiar to breeders rather than other horsemen in Ireland, as talent scouts and traders in the country can claim credit for a good few of those French-bred stars, with Bravemansgame, Envoi Allen, Gerri Colombe, Hermes Allen and Jonbon all having cut their teeth on the Irish point-to-point circuit before joining their current stables.

When you’re a National Hunt breeder in a country that is a major producer of jumps horses, but the pinhooker and point-to-point handlers down the road from you are looking to France for their raw material, there is a serious issue.

That constantly creeping prejudice in favour of Gallic-breds, even when they are unraced, was summed up by one wise breeder in Ireland who told me over the festive period that the market will currently favour a light French page over a light Irish one.

This is not a new development, of course; the French-bred has long flourished in jump racing in Britain and Ireland, and therefore always held significant allure in those countries. But the situation appears to have become acute this season, when there is just one Irish-bred in the top ten horses by RPR and that is Hewick at number ten.

Gaillard Du Mesnil: another French-bred Grade 1 winner in DecemberCredit: Patrick McCann

Five years ago there were six French-breds in the top ten, but Altior and Native River did at least hold prominent positions for Ireland, while ten years ago there were five French-breds in the top ten, but the likes of Bobs Worth, Hurricane Fly, Sizing Europe and Tidal Bay were still flying the tricolour with pride in the upper echelons.

If only Irish National Hunt breeders could wind the clock back to 2002/03, when only three of those pesky French-breds were among the ten best jumpers around, and those wonderful Irish-bred horses Best Mate, Bannow Bay, Limestone Lad, Moscow Flyer and Marlborough were carrying all before them.

I’m not picking on Ireland, by the way, as French-breds have obviously squeezed out the British-bred jumper, too, and it is worth pointing out that not only was Constitution Hill sourced by current connections after finishing second between the flags at Tipperary for Warren Ewing, but also that his outstanding sire Blue Bresil is now based at Glenview Stud in County Cork.

Similarly, both Edwardstone and Thyme Hill are by the long retired and now deceased Kayf Tara, which speaks to a vacuum in the ranks of top-class proven National Hunt sires in Britain.

The fact remains, though, that the much larger industry of jumps foal production in Ireland is being regularly outgunned in the most prestigious domestic contests by France.

It has long been the case that the top trainers in Ireland and Britain have looked across the Channel to source exciting form horses, but more recently so too are traders of untried stock – just look at last year’s Goffs Land Rover Sale, where four of the five dearest lots were French-breds, or the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale, where two of the three top prices were given for FR stores.

How this has happened, I’m not sure. The industry long ago latched on to the fact that nearly all those French-breds who have dominated the National Hunt scene in the past few decades were prepped and raced over obstacles earlier, and so three-year-olds are now regularly offered at Irish store sales instead of four-year-olds and up, as had long been tradition.

But perhaps the changes didn’t go far enough. And, either way, those sales still operate against the backdrop of a racing programme that provides numerous bumpers, and championship Flat races to boot, which encourage horses to be sent jumping later – all of which might have left the door open to French blood appearing to be more powerful and precocious, and therefore more alluring to buyers, than Irish and British.

I also wonder whether a certain faddishness that infests jumps breeding has been counterproductive, too.

It probably can’t be helped, when there is such a big gap between conception and the racecourse test, and nor can it be legislated against, but those huge books for new and unproven stallions, many of whom will turn out to be indifferent sources of classy jumpers, and conversely the hasty renunciation of useful sires on flimsy grounds or spiteful rumours, are hardly a solid foundation for the production of consistently commercial stock.

As for solutions, Ireland might look to Britain’s experimentation with three-year-old development hurdles for horses who have not been raced on the Flat as a way to emulate the French model of sending horses over jumps earlier in their careers – a process that has happened organically in Irish point-to-points, with handlers attempting to advertise young horses to big owners, for some years now.

The authorities in Ireland could at least cease discouraging horses jumping at a young age by directing them into bumpers instead.

There was even talk at the ITBA National Hunt seminar last spring of cataloguing two-year-olds as well as, and maybe one day instead of, three-year-olds in store sales, in a move that has been pioneered in Britain by Yorton Farm at their auctions since 2019 and was tentatively tried at the Goffs UK August Sale last year.

Returning to my opening statement, I know that Irish National Hunt breeders won’t have been resting on their laurels as their product suffers reputational damage on the racecourse, even if results at foal and store sales have generally remained healthy.

Yeats: certainly appreciated by Castlehyde staff but perhaps breeders might have shown the love a bit earlierCredit: Colin Kenny

The ITBA have, to their credit, long campaigned and educated on the subject of doing more with young jumps-bred horses, so it might now be down to racing administrators to play their part.

If there is any way in which breeders could help themselves, it might be by taking a more rational, evidence-based approach to mating and not allowing a proven sire like Yeats – source of the second and third best Irish-bred horses on RPRs this season, Conflated and Noble Yeats – to go unloved for so long, as he was until recently.

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com

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Good Morning Bloodstock is our latest email newsletter. Martin Stevens, a doyen among bloodstock journalists, provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday