Plumpton Goes Premier as BHA Experiment Makes Unconvincing Start

Anfield or Old Trafford it isn't, but that didn't stop Premierisation coming to Plumpton, a National Hunt track at the foot of the South Downs more easily associated with farmers, pensioners and Brighton sharps on country forays than marketing resets.

The second track to stage a Premier fixture in a two-year trial of 170 meetings each season, dear old Plumpton didn't need labels to tell you how good it is. In the most valuable race since racing began here in 1888, a 5lb claimer called Joe Anderson found himself hanging from his horse's neck after a bad mistake, rode a circuit with no irons, finally hooked his feet back in and then thundered up the hill to win the new £75,000 stayers' hurdle on Transmission.  It was a miracle ride. The Plumpton crowd fell in love with Anderson, who could make a living in rodeos.

Premierisation is on a debut tour of British racing, picking out sellable, mass market meetings and adorning them with prize-money, banners and high hopes for the sport's future. Racing is playing catch-up here. There is a Premier League of darts, an Indian Premier League in cricket and Premierships scattered across professional sport.

The use of a tag to bestow mystique on sporting events reflects trends in society, where seductive designations appeal to our social climbing. Premier accounts. Flex-Plus savings. Platinum clubs. And special-entry levels in short-term airport car parks that enable you to skip a whole flight of stairs to get to departures.

It's the cachet, you see. The message it sends about you. And in case anyone thought racing would simply swallow these trends by Premierising only Cheltenham, Ascot and Newmarket, Plumpton became the first 'gaff track' to be invited behind the velvet rope, with a card that featured an 86% increase in prize-money for Sussex National raceday, from £105,000 last year to £195,000.

Give them better runners and a prize-money injection and the crowd swells, the excitement grows, and the nectar-like local Harvey's Ale runs out even quicker than usual in the racecourse bars.

As a Plumpton regular for 40 years, I motored down Sussex lanes half proud for the course and half in trepidation that Premierisation might compromise its character. Much as non-league football is a haven from the money mania of the Premier League, so Plumpton trades on its picturesque setting and authenticity. On Monday afternoons, mostly, a familiar cast of characters greet winners with murmurs of approval or resignation.

This is National Hunt racing's heartland, and nobody ever expected to see it reclassified as 'Premier' sport, which is meant not as an insult but a compliment. The undemonstrative but hardcore Plumpton crowd knows what it wants on a cold January Monday, and none of it corresponds to what you might call glamour.

But they know their horses. Give them better runners and a prize-money injection and the crowd swells, the excitement grows, and the nectar-like local Harvey's Ale runs out even quicker than usual in the racecourse bars. Plumpton's management are skilled at looking after the regulars while also trying to entice the uninitiated. Premierisation is largely about focusing attention on the top end while rebranding the rest as the sport's 'core' (in football, they call that the second-tier 'Championship.')

Sundays are considered ripe for plunder, which is why Plumpton was followed by a scrubbed-up evening card at Wolverhampton, with £160,000 spread across eight races. Of the 1,468 fixtures in 2024, 170 are Premier. The launch could charitably be called low-key. Cheltenham kicked it off on New Year's Day without plastering itself in logos. At Plumpton the tannoy announcements made frequent reference to the course's first Premier event but it felt like any other Sussex National day. Unlike newcomers, aficionados don't need to be told what they're watching.

From the directors' box a thoroughly enjoyable day was observed by Plumpton's joint-owner, Peter Savill, who also happens to be one of the prime movers behind Premierisation. And here's an irony. Savill, who has held secret talks with major players to improve the Premierisation concept, told the Nick Luck podcast recently that all his horses are now trained in France and Ireland. Why, Luck asked. “Prize-money,” Savill replied.

At Plumpton, Savill's son Tom told me they have an interest in a horse trained by Charlie Johnston. Otherwise, Savill snr has voted with his feet while also doubling back with a mission to rescue British racing from its broken business model.

 A £90million funding boost over five years is an ambitious target, if labelling and higher prize-money are not backed up by better marketing and improved racecourse facilities. An overlooked part of racing's great survival debate is that the experience offered by many racecourses has not changed in 30 years. In other sports, what you might call infrastructure investment is far more conspicuous. Dated catering, too few toilets and a lack of comfortable places to sit are unlikely to appeal to a generation not inclined to tolerate a 1980s ambience.

Was Plumpton's jump into the big time a success? You bet it was. But I doubt whether many attended just because someone called it a 'Premier' meeting. They went because Plumpton has charm and always draws a big Sussex National day crowd. 

Maybe Joe Anderson's ride on Transmission was an allegory for racing. You can be hanging on for dear life but recover and still come through to win. Dressing up 170 meetings a year may set off a rebirth. In its very earliest days, though, it seems to lack conviction. The theory will need supporting evidence.

 

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Moyglare Blueblood Debuts At The Curragh

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today's Observations features a blueblood from the Moyglare Stud nursery.

4.25 Curragh, Debutantes, €16,500, 2yo, 7fT
ECLAT DE LUMIERE (IRE) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) is one of several notable representatives of major breeding operations in this fascinating affair, hailing from the Dermot Weld stable seemingly well-equipped with talented juveniles in 2021. Carrying the famed Moyglare Stud Farm silks, the April-foaled half-sister to the high-class Dominant (Ire) (Cacique {Ire}) and Es Que Love (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}) has a pair of colts from Ballydoyle among her 17 rivals including Sussex (Dubawi {Ire}), who is out of a listed-winning half to Pour Moi (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}).

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Breeders’ Cup Challenge: ‘Simply Incredible’ Alcohol Free Draws Clear In Sussex Stakes

Alcohol Free (No Nay Never) led home a 1-2-3 for 3-year-olds in the G1 Qatar Sussex Stakes, a clash of the generations over a mile and the highlight on day two of the Qatar Goodwood Festival. The win earned Alcohol Free an expenses-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Mile this fall at Del Mar.

Jockey Oisin Murphy held the Coronation Stakes winner up in the early stages, seeking cover before pouncing as the race developed two furlongs from home. Trained by Andrew Balding, the 7/2 chance had too much in reserve for the 11/8 favorite Poetic Flare, who was trying to add to his 2,000 Guineas and St James's Palace Stakes victories this season.

The winning distance was a length and three-quarters at the line, with Falmouth Stakes heroine Snow Lantern (6/1) running on late to take third and complete a clean sweep for 3-year-olds.

Winning owner Jeff Smith has enjoyed much success at the Qatar Goodwood Festival over the decades, most memorably with Chief Singer, who landed this race in 1984, Lochsong and Persian Punch.

Smith said: “I won my first Sussex Stakes 37 years ago – I had jet black hair and no worries in the world! I thought it was very easy and that I would come back and do it again.

“This filly is something else. The way she has won is simply incredible, I am thrilled to pieces. What a wonderful job Andrew and the whole team have done.

“It wasn't so much the opposition; I was more concerned that we did not have a repeat of the Falmouth where she got left in the lead having broken too well. She needs to get cover and something to aim at.

“Then she got bumped around and pushed back, but then the way she picked up showed what she really is. She is a champion – there is no question in my mind.”


Balding, who won the 2017 Sussex Stakes with outsider Here Comes When, said: “Maybe we got lucky with Here Comes When, although that was hugely rewarding, don't get me wrong.

“But this filly has already won two Group 1 races, so it was lovely to see her cement her place at the top of the tree.

“Oisin was at pains to try and tuck in and get some cover because she's so much better when you are able to do that and she has got something to aim at. Poetic Flare is a very good horse, but she really did it well in the end.

“I am sure there were hard luck stories, but I am sure she was the best horse on the day. It was lovely to see her do that because we have always believed in her. It is no easy task taking on the colts and older horses, and to do it in that style was just fantastic.”

Balding continued: “It is a privilege, it really is, watching her at home in the mornings. Cassia, who rides her every day, does a wonderful job as she tends to get a little highly strung. Watching her work is demoralizing for the other horses; we have to keep swapping the lead horse because she is just so, so good. You see her afterwards and she is hardly blowing – it is effortless really.

“She has looked very good right from her first bit of work, and we ran her on one bit of work. She had been cantering, we worked her once and thought we'd better run her. She went to Newbury and hosed up. She has been the victim of bad draws whenever she has run, to be honest.

“She probably would have won the Dick Poole, and, with a good draw, I think in the Guineas she would have gone close had she been drawn in the middle or to the far side. Anyway, I will take this over all of those!”

Regarding future targets, Balding added: “It was Jeff Smith's idea in the first place, and I don't think it's a bad idea, to put her in the International at York and we decided to keep her in at yesterday's forfeit stage.

“It might be asking a bit much, going a mile and a quarter, but she's a filly that has won three Group 1 races, so we have very little to lose.

“If it doesn't work, we'll regroup and go back to the mile race on Champions Day.”

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Murphy said: “I can't thank everyone at Park House enough. Alcohol Free really can be a handful in the mornings. Cassia has to deal with her every day and deserves a medal because she can be really tough work.

“Anyone who follows me on Instagram will see that, when I go to tack her up, she looks like she is going to bite or kick me. Then when you get near her, she is quite the opposite. She is a special character.

“Alcohol Free is so, so talented and what a thrill I got from that. I've won this race before on Lightning Spear and last year it all went wrong on Kameko. Day to day, you have to just keep kicking.

“Alcohol Free thrives on racing, and she felt super on Saturday; we only went four furlongs, but I was full of confidence to be honest, particularly when the rain came.

“I knew James Doyle would go forward on Century Dream but on his own terms and in his own rhythm. I knew Tilsit under Kieran Shoemark and Alcohol Free would fight for the same position. Unfortunately, she is 440kgs and Tilsit is probably 500kgs plus. I was never going to win that battle and was happy to come back and trust that Kieran would move at the right time and that I would be able to get out and slip into the race. The race really ran from when we turned into the straight and then it was a grind to the line.

“Jeff Smith has been an incredible supporter of horse racing for a long time. I don't know how many employees there are at Park House Stables, but they all play their part and this will mean the world to them.”

Una Manning, daughter of Jim Bolger, said of the runner-up: “Kevin [Manning] said for Poetic Flare that it was the same as France again. The ground just blunted his speed, and I would say the wind drying it out has just made the ground tacky.

“That was all that Kevin said – the ground. We were always going to turn up here, it was just unfortunate that the rain came. We were game to go and had to give it our best go.

“Poetic Flare has lost nothing in defeat. He loves his racing, loves his work. He's an easy horse to deal with and to travel. Bringing him over here wasn't going to be any sort of disadvantage to him even if the ground didn't turn out like he wanted.”

Kevin Manning said: “It was the same as in Paris. I was riding Poetic Flare a little bit behind the bridle from a long way down, whereas on good ground he is travelling into his races. I think the ground has just blunted him for speed. It is tacky, holding ground and there is no bounce in it.

“Poetic Flare has dug very deep and I thought for a few strides when Alcohol Free came by that he would shunt her back.

“He's won a 2,000 Guineas and St James's Palace on good to quick ground. The runs that he hasn't lived up to have both come on soft ground.”

Snow Lantern's rider Jamie Spencer said: “The pace was only just OK. When they quickened at the three, I was caught a little flat-footed, but I hit the line very strong. Further won't be a problem.”

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Classic Winners Kameko, Siskin Clash In Wednesday’s ‘Win And You’re In’ Sussex Stakes

Classic winning 3-year-olds, Kameko and Siskin, are set to clash in the Qatar Sussex Stakes (G1) at Goodwood on Wednesday. The winner will earn an automatic berth into the US$2 million TVG Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) through the international Breeders' Cup Challenge.

QIPCO 2000 Guineas (G1) winner, Kameko, and Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas (G1) winner, Siskin, will take on the older generation on Wednesday in the British Group 1 mile showpiece.

Prince Khalid Abdullah's unbeaten homebred colt Siskin travels from Ireland for this hot contest. The son of First Defense (USA), trained by Ger Lyons, has not been seen on a racecourse since scoring in impressive fashion at the Curragh.

Lyons said: “On form figures we have to improve. I think he has but we won't know until the day. The horse has done everything I've asked him and has been working well at home. Physically he is improving — you can see him getting stronger. It is going to be a tough contest.”

Regular jockey Colin Keane will take the ride despite facing 14 days' quarantine on his return to Ireland, with Lyons adding: “These are the races that you want to win. He has to self-isolate when he comes home. These are strange times though, and we are lucky to be racing.”

Owned by Qatar Racing and trained by Andrew Balding, Kameko steps back down in trip after finishing a credible fourth in the Investec Derby (G1) last time out. The dual Group 1 winner set a course record over a mile in the 2000 Guineas (G1), beating Ballydoyle's Wichita (IRE) by a neck.

Wichita is one of three runners for trainer Aidan O'Brien, alongside Queen Anne (G1) winner Circus Maximus (IRE) and Irish Guineas runner-up Vatican City (IRE). The former's Royal Ascot victory guarantees his place in the TVG Breeders' Cup Mile through the international Breeders' Cup Challenge.

The Breeders' Cup Challenge is an international series of stakes races whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race of the Breeders' Cup World Championships, which is scheduled to be held at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky, on Nov. 6-7.

Others lining up at Goodwood for the Qatar Sussex Stakes and looking to earn their place at this year's Breeders' Cup include Mohaather (GB) and San Donato (IRE), the first two home in the Group 2 Betfred Summer Mile at Ascot this month.

Mohaather was an emphatic winner that day, having previously endured a luckless run behind Circus Maximus in the Queen Anne Stakes. His trainer Marcus Tregoning is hoping for his first Group 1 success since landing the Derby with Sir Percy in 2006.

Marcus Tregoning said, “It's a tough order but I don't think we could have Mohaather any better and he deserves a crack at it. He took his race in the Summer Mile very well and was back cantering the next day.

“I don't see why he won't handle the track because he's a neat horse who travels well and has plenty of speed. Hopefully he's going to run a big race.”

As part of the benefits of the Challenge Series, Breeders' Cup will pay the entry fees for the winner of the Qatar Sussex Stakes to start in the TVG Breeders' Cup Mile, which will be run over 1 mile at the Keeneland turf course. Breeders' Cup also will provide a travel allowance of US$40,000 for all starters based outside of North America to compete in the World Championships. The Challenge winner must already be nominated to the Breeders' Cup program or it must be nominated by the Championships' pre-entry deadline of Oct. 26 to receive the rewards.

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