Southwell racecourse has narrowly escaped the deletion of a race from its programme for the second week running under the British Horseracing Authority’s new scheme to tackle the problem of small fields, after the regulator decided that a four-runner event at the course on Thursday could not be scrapped because of a lack of suitable alternatives for the declared runners.
A four-runner fillies’ handicap scheduled for Southwell’s meeting on 1 January last week was scratched from the schedule just 24 hours before it was due to be run, prompting anger from the owners and trainers of the horses engaged. The £5,000 32Red Handicap at the same course on Thursday has also attracted just four runners, having been designated as “at risk” when fewer than 10 entries were received at the five-day stage. In this case, however, the BHA has opted to let the race go ahead, on a card on which all but one of the seven races will be contested by a single-figure field.
Last week’s removal of a race from the programme on the first day of the BHA’s three-month trial of the new scheme was described as “a farce”, “outrageous” and “a disgrace” by the connections of the horses involved, but Robin Mounsey, the Authority’s spokesman, said on Tuesday that the criticism had not informed its decision to allowThursday’s four-runner event to proceed.
“There are no hard-and-fast rules on it,” Mounsey said. “There are a couple of other races [in the next seven days] which are comparable, but we don’t want to take a hard line with this trial. In this instance, the best course of action was to let it run.
“The slight difference between this and the race we culled is that it is a pretty specialist. It is quite an extreme distance [one mile and three furlongs] for three-year-olds and because of that, it was always the case that there would not be as many options around. There are probably some horses out there that specifically need a race like this, and if you take away their options, you’re not helping.
“Last week’s race had many other options including another race with almost identical conditions and was a much more suitable candidate for deleting. Then again, if this race had got only two declarations, we probably would have deleted it as well.”
Three of the four runners in race were winners last time out, including Offshore and Quest For Wonder, both of whom are trained by James Tate.
“I’ve got two in it as it was the right race for them to run in as they need a trip,” Tate said on Tuesday. “I don’t understand the rules with scratching races and not. They don’t seem to be black and white.
“There are a couple of mile-and-a-half races in the next month or so coming up for 0-65 horses and my horses wouldn’t qualify for those, and they don’t have any options coming up over that distance.”
Research conducted by the BHA prior to the introduction of its new rules suggested that 11 races would have been scrapped over the first three months of 2014 had the same regime been in place.
“Eleven races would have been liable for deletion, but that was purely in terms of the numbers criterion,” Mounsey said. “What we don’t know is whether those races would then have met the criterion of other suitable alternatives. It could be less than that this year, it could even be more if we find, as we suspect, that field sizes are different and lower this year, but it will be something in that ball park, I think.”
Kings Palace, the favourite for the RSA Chase at Cheltenham in March, has also been entered for the Gold Cup two days later.
“I think the plan is to give him one more run before the Festival,” Harry Drew, the son of the gelding’s part-owner Barry Drew, said on Tuesday, “and there are a few options. There’s a race at Newbury and also the race at Ascot that O’Faolains Boy won last year [the Reynoldstown Chase on 14 February].
“He’s been entered in the Gold Cup today, but it’s just an entry and everyone wants to keep their options open.”
Denis O’Regan was banned for 10 days by the stewards at Bangor-on-Dee on Tuesday for failing to take all reasonable measures to obtain the best possible placing on Delvin Road, a runner in the card’s maiden hurdle.
Delvin Road, who is trained in Ireland by Tony Martin, was a 6-1 chance for the Stella Artois Maiden Hurdle, but was notably weak in the market on the Betfair betting exchange and was available to back at 16-1 as the tapes went up. Delvin Road appeared to be tenderly ridden throughout the two-and-a-half mile event, eventually finishing fourth behind the 20-1 winner Lough Derg Walk.
The racecourse vet reported that Delvin Road was lame after the race, although O’Regan did not report a problem when he returned to weigh in.
“From our point of view, it’s not necessarily a get out of jail free card,” Simon Cowley, the stipendiary steward, told the Racing Post on Tuesday. “The jockey did not report anything when he came back and from looking at the video, the horse didn’t appear to be distressed or lame in any way that we could see.”
