It's time to ask whether the Cheltenham Festival would be improved by the removal of the Turners Novices' Hurdle

The Dublin Racing Festival has been and gone, which leaves us pondering what we learned now that Cheltenham is looming ever larger on the horizon. 

Even if he didn’t enjoy a second successive clean sweep in the Leopardstown Grade 1 races, the DRF taught us Willie Mullins still has a stranglehold on the finest racing talent.

While Galopin Des Champs was spectacular in the Irish Gold Cup, it was Final Demand and Kopek Des Bordes who got my blood pumping and between them they head the markets for the Supreme, Turners and Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdles.

It is all well and good watching exciting horses but it is even better if they are producing exciting races, and we know uncompetitive Grade 1 races are a turn-off for punters and fans alike.

While he is often very sporting in his decision making, one of the potential downsides of the Mullins domination is that he can pick and choose where to send his horses to optimise his winnings at big meetings.

For instance, he could run Salvator Mundi in the Supreme, Kopek Des Bordes in the Turners and Final Demand in the Albert Bartlett. 

The fact these great talents have the opportunity to skirt around each other – in theory if not in practice – is damaging to the depth and competition of the best novice hurdle races.

Would the Cheltenham Festival be improved for the removal of the Turners Novices’ Hurdle? It’s something I’ve been considering over the past few days.

This season the Jockey Club made the decision to scrap the intermediate novice chase to improve the two-mile and three-mile contests at the meeting and a similar adjustment to the hurdle programme would be beneficial.

Last year’s novice hurdle over the intermediate distance – then sponsored by Gallaghers – hardly produced a Grade 1-worthy spectacle, with the Mullins-trained Ballyburn never coming off the bridle to beat four of his stablemates at odds of 1-2 in a seven-runner field. Three of those rivals haven’t even been seen this season.

Last year's Turners Novices' Hurdle won by Ballyburn was an embarrassing spectacleCredit: Edward Whitaker

It is hard to know what exact purpose the race is meant to serve, and if it is designed as a springboard for future Ryanair winners, then it is failing miserably.

Envoi Allen is the sole winner of both contests and the vast majority of Ryanair winners have run over hurdles elsewhere. Cue Card, Vautour and Min all took in the Supreme, Balko Des Flos and Allaho ran in the Albert Bartlett and Protektorat took the handicap route in the Coral Cup.

While it gives connections an additional chance to win at the festival, this intermediate trip has proved to be redundant at this stage of their careers when the other two novice hurdling contests can do a perfectly satisfactory job.

If the Turners does have a purpose it has been to produce Champion Hurdle winners like Istabraq, Hardy Eustace and Faugheen. There is no reason why they couldn’t have added depth to a Supreme, considering they went on to excel over the shorter distance anyway.

Long gone are the days of Sea Pigeon, Night Nurse and Monksfield. Our hurdling ranks aren’t as deep as they were and the current horse population doesn’t support the swollen fixture list. At some point this issue needs to be addressed.

We are already seeing how the culling of a premier novice chase is helping to promote strong and compelling events at this year’s festival.

The Arkle looks set to be a spectacular race, headlined by the clash between Sir Gino and Majborough with further depth added by L’Eau Du Sud and Gidleigh Park, while Ballyburn will face powerful rivals in Dancing City and Jango Baie in the Brown Advisory even after the injury to The Jukebox Man.

If the Turners Novices’ Chase still existed, we would surely be wringing our hands about whether Sunday’s DRF intermediate novice chase winner Ballyburn would run in it or the Brown Advisory, just as we did 12 months earlier over whether he would go for the Supreme or the 2m5f alternative.

Removing the intermediate Grade 1 in the novice chase division has not only strengthened the two remaining contests but also helped to provide clarity for punters, who may otherwise refrain from wading into the muddy ante-post waters.

The pruning of the novice chase division is already resulting in signs of growth, so racing’s powers shouldn’t be afraid to take the shears to the festival programme yet again.

British racing needs to do all it can to preserve the elite nature of the festival and, after all, changes can be monitored and ultimately reversed if not proving in the best interests of the sport.

Read these next:

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'Final Demand looks really good, The New Lion looks really good, Yellow Clay looks really good - we'll see what happens'  

Four in a row for Willie Mullins in the Turners? Tom Segal reckons it will be - but not with the favourite  

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