Paddy Flood: New William Hill Each Way Extra Challenge Series a Game-Changer for Irish Racing The William Hill Each-Way Extra Challenge Series can be only good news for Irish racing, according to Paddy Flood. Speaking on irishracing.com’s Irish Angle show this week, the panel highlighted the perilous nature of the business for smaller trainers and the new series can help ease the burden. The series started last Friday on Gowran Park and features 50 races running April 26th with trainers with less than 50 winners across the last two years eligible for the grand prize of €50,000 with the top jockey taking €10,000 and a further €10,000 is up for grabs for stable staff. There are 10 points for a win, six for second place, five for third, four for fourth, three for fifth, two for six and a single point for finishing second. After the opening five races over the weekend, Padraig Roche, Peter Fahey, Ross O’Sullivan, Philip Rothwell and Alexander Ott are joint-top of the standings winning a race each. Only Good News For Irish Racing “Anything that helps the smaller trainers is a good idea,” Flood explained. “I was scrolling through Twitter last night and saw how many point-to-point horses are going to the big yards — it’s crazy. You rarely hear of one changing hands for under £250,000, and if they do, they’re still going to big names like Dan Skelton or Jonjo [O’Neill]. There’s nothing there for smaller trainers. “Back when I was riding, you look back 15, 20 years in the summer time, you’d have your summer horses. You go to Kilbeggan, Killarney, places like that — and hope for a few winners. Some summer maiden winners even turned into Grade One horses later on. “But now, there’s no such thing as an ‘easy’ race anymore. Not that it was easy racing but you wouldn’t have come across a superstar. “So fair play — €50,000 is a great pot, not to be sniffed at by anybody and €10,000 for a jockey is just as valuable.” Jockeys Could Be Tempted To Smaller Trainers Host Emma Nagle explained there are no restrictions on jockeys, only if they are riding for an ineligible trainer and that may have unintended consequences. She said: “The top jockeys aren’t excluded, but if a jockey rides a winner for one of the top four trainers — say, Willie Mullins — they don’t earn points. They only get points for rides with smaller yards, like T.J. Nagle for example. “Obviously a lot of thought has gone into it. It’s worded very well. You’re not excluding anybody from running in the race but this €50,000 is going to mean a lot more to these smaller yards than the big four trainers. “Even the way it’s worded for the riders, it might encourage somebody to ride for a smaller yard.” New Series Bucks The Trend Racing journalist Johnny Ward heaped the credit on William Hill for showing they are a bookmaker still willing to invest in the sport. He said: “One thing that strikes me out about this is the real support of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association — and Feidhlim Cunningham has been front and centre on this. “It reminds me a bit of that failed HRI initiative from a few years ago to bring in those races where they tried to exclude the top four trainers entirely. “That idea got a mixed reaction, even though the reasoning behind it was sound but there were reasons to oppose it as well. “But this new scheme seems to have found a really good middle ground. “I know myself when you have a horse in training, you don’t pay your bills the whole time. Trainers are often owed money by a lot of owners, owners often leave them in the lurch and training fees are expensive. €50,000 is a big incentive. “I want to give William Hill a lot of kudos here and not for a sponsorship reason. “I was talking to Feidhlim Cunningham about this. If you went on a regular betting site compared to 20 years ago, the percentage of bets on the website on horse racing would be absolutely tiny, it’s so small compared to where it was at. It’s getting smaller and smaller. “Bookmakers are rapidly losing interest in it so for William Hill to say they are interested in racing and we’re trying to do something here. “From William Hill’s perspective it makes a lot more sense, their name is all over these races for the next few months. It promotes Each Way Extra which is a bookmaker initiative to get people betting. “I don’t see any flaw in this at all. “I would like to give the bookmaker some credit, we do knock them plenty but I think William Hill is helping racing here and showing an interest.” Watch The Irish Angle In Full: Or Listen On Spotify:
