UK jumps racing becoming a joke. Look at all the non runners at Newton Abbot today too.
They won’t run in Autumn because the ground is too fast. They won’t run in December because the ground will be too bottomless. They won’t run in January or February because all the tracks will be frozen, however, they will all decide that they want to run their chasers and hurdlers on the AW at Newcastle so we get 8 x 14 runner fields of “jumpers bumpers”.
Then in March they moan that the Irish win all the races at Cheltenham.
In the trainers defence, surely they have to scrap the 48 hour declarations. It works ok on the AW and can kind of see why they do it for the festival meetings. Though just seems pointless on jumps with the ground liable to change significantly. Same on the flat. Just end up with loads of non runners, that can’t be good for the levy etc.