Introducing the Jumps Championships: is this the way to save the jumps season?

Tennis has the Masters 1000 series; golf has the FedEx Cup; athletics has the Diamond League; and racing should have the Jumps Championships.

For those not familiar with those other sports, the competitions listed above are all means by which the best are enticed – and in some cases compelled – to compete against each other through the regular season, rather than only in Grand Slams, Majors or world championships. Points are accrued through the season, contributing to massive prizes at the end of the year.

Everyone knows jump racing clearly has a major problem getting the best to compete against each other regularly and one potential initiative to tackle the problem occurred to me when reading Lewis Porteous’s column on the state of jumping in the Racing Post this week, in which owner Ronnie Bartlett said that closer affiliation between Britain and Ireland would be a major help.