Over the stable door: Sport must change in race to survive

The South will launch it, earlier than usual, November 28, with the Black Forest meeting in Devon. It will be mid-January before MW Easterby's splendid Sheriff Hutton course in North Yorkshire heads the start of our season. It's a meeting my horses are aimed at to begin their campaign.

Traditionally, points were held when the hunting season ended – from February onwards. But in the last decade there has been increasing pressure to extend the season as the Irish have done. They have just a three month break between point seasons, virtually mirroring their National Hunt counterparts.

A horse must fulfil certain condition to be allowed to point. Each must hunt four times to gain a certificate. They must not have won a race under rules after June 1, or one with a value of more than 20,000 within three years. Being placed in a grade one or two steeplechase within two years also prohibits entry. These rules are to prevent top-class horses competing until they are in the latter stages of their career.

The traditionalists are keen to protect the sport's amateur status and ensure professionals stick to their own ranks. But a number of rule changes introduced this decade have caused resentment and controversy.

Licensed trainers are now allowed to run horses in points, providing they are owned by family members. Hunter chases (amateur steeple chases held at National Hunt meetings), designed for qualified point to pointers, are now dominated by professionals in search of easy pickings against recreational horse owners. Many regard this as totally unfair.

But the sport has to find ways to survive. Hunts need members, secretaries need entry fees to balance the books and the increased involvement of professionals has created a new market at a time when the Point to Point Association must battle to keep hunter chase meetings on the racing calendar. It's a hard fight and one they are slowly losing as more of these races are removed from the calendar every year.

Why? Because any race with fewer than six runners does not qualify for money from the betting levy. That means courses lose valuable income which they badly need to enhance prize money and keep their meetings attractive.

We have been hit by two things – a lack of runners and a gambling public which avoids amateur races – and so the revenue raised by hunter chases is constrained. The authorities regard them as a burden.

An official from the British Horseracing Authority said recently that hunter chases and amateur races were at the bottom of their priorities and they would be financially better off just to replace them with conventional races.

Despite the traditionalists' resistance, the inclusion in this amateur sport of their licensed cousins now looks the the only way forward. Safeguarding the sport in its original state will soon be impossible.

The amateur jockey with a full-time job and a pointer trained in a back field, or the farmer with his home-bred runner, were once the lifeblood of the sport. Their numbers are dwindling.

Low prize money and lack of sponsorship kept commercialism to a minimum – but on the pointing field in 2010 jockey sponsorship is now allowed up to 900. An option once dismissed by officials as incorrect for amateurs is now necessary to survive.

Jo Foster trains horses at Brookleigh Farm, Menston.

CW 30/10/10