An Absolute Farce
Punchestown has been providing us with some impressive racing the last few days, so it really disappoints me to see one of the main races of the Festival attracting only 3 horses, where the pot is 200k and pays all the way down to 6th place. OK so the race has attracted Hurricane Fly and Jezki. But the race cannot be taken seriously. Steps To Freedom is completely out of his league, not even good enough to win a grade 3 race. We know why he is in thereand that is something i will speak off later. This is effectively a 2 horse race. This race isn't unusual in fact several Grade 1 races have been run with fewer than 5 runners. This is a Champion Hurdle, it should be attracting the best horses in the UK and Ireland. So why isn't it? Is it because the season is at an end and most the horses have had heavy campaigns. or is it because there are not good enough horses at this level? or maybe the prize money is not good enough. Something surely needs to be done to change this