Goodwood was glorious but it highlighted the range of problems facing the sport

Irish trainer John F. O’Neill owes the stalls handlers at Goodwood a good drink or two. In Ireland this season he has run just three horses – Tullyhogue Fort, Daily Pursuit and Pink Fire Lilly – in a total of 13 races at an average starting price of around 100-1. None has won.

Last Saturday, Pink Fire Lilly, who had finished twelfth of 13 in an undistinguished race in Killarney on her previous outing, lined up with three others at the start of the Group Three William Hill March Stakes. The favourite Hoo Ya Mal had a Timeform rating of 131, the Queen’s horse Perfect Alibi was rated 114 and the Cheveley Park Stud’s Animato 102. Pink Fire Lilly’s rating was a mere 73. She had no chance and could be backed at 125-1.

But John F. O’Neill is clearly no fool. With comparatively few entries for the Goodwood feature, all Pink Fire Lilly had to do in the hands of jockey C.D. Maxwell was to start and finish the race to guarantee picking up the fourth prize of £4,570. If one of the three much classier horses had an off day he could even dream of taking home the third prize of £9,150. The only problem came when Pink Fire Lilly showed considerable reluctance to enter the stalls. Had the stalls team not finally managed to squeeze her in, the plan could have come unstuck. But they did, she ran and the Irish team could collect their money.

The absurdity is that if O’Neill had entered Pink Fire Lilly for a low-grade Class 5 or Class 6 handicap at an English racecourse, the British Horseracing Authority would have banned her from competing: he found a loophole and who is to blame him for exploiting it?

No racecourse runs a better show than Goodwood. The Bank Holiday weekend programme featured some prestige races along with family-attracting features such as a traditional fairground, face painting and circus tutors, live music and a petting zoo. On Saturday we watched some good races with tight finishes which included a master class five-timer from the champion jockey-elect William Buick.

But Saturday’s racing also highlighted a range of the problems facing the sport. For a start, the cost-of-living pressures are leading to smaller attendances – Glorious Goodwood’s attendance figures this year were down from 100,104 in the last pre-Covid year to 94,937. Too many racing fixtures are held for a declining horse population leading to unattractive smaller fields. Those smaller fields in turn affect racecourse attendances: who wants to see a seven-race card with just 40 runners? And smaller fields mean less betting – betting on which racing’s finances ultimately depend. With prize money slipping ever further behind Britain’s competitors, more horses are being sold to compete abroad. In 2016, 2,619 horses were exported; in 2021 it was 3,545.

On his way abroad is the winner of Pink Fire Lilly’s race Hoo Ya Mal. Second in the Derby this year, he was bought for £1.2 million by a group headed by Australian trainer Gai Waterhouse with the Melbourne Cup his aim. In the meantime, he is being handled by the progressive young Newmarket trainer George Boughey who was well pleased with his charge’s first run over the longer distance of 1m 6f having worried that Hoo Ya Mal might take too strong a hold: ‘He has stayed on in Britain to build up his experience. I’m just holding the baby, but he is improving both physically and mentally. It was the perfect test for him on ground softer than he has met. A strong pace in the St Leger is what I think Gai wants. Certainly it’s what we want.’

There were no complaints about the size of the field in the William Hill Handicap over seven furlongs, which was contested by 11 runners. It proved to be just the kind of race crowds come to see. At the end a short head and a nose separated the Andrea Atzeni-ridden winner I’m A Gambler, trained by Mark and Charlie Johnston, from Orbaan and his David O’Meara-trained stablemate Rhoscolyn. First and second both won at the Goodwood Festival and I stuck with Orbaan, who at 9-2 just failed to peg back the winner at 11-1. Owner Jimmy Chua reckoned afterwards that Orbaan would have preferred an extra furlong. They will now give him a break and come back for Ascot’s Balmoral Handicap in the autumn, he said. Had he taken the 20-1 on Orbaan’s Festival win? ‘No,’ he told me. ‘I got 40-1 on the Monday before.’

The sad reminder of our troubled times was that the Group Two William Hill Celebration Mile, in which the Simon and Ed Crisford yard scored a one-two with Jadoomi and Finest Sound, had a first prize of more than £70,000 and yet attracted only five runners. Where were all those owners who complain about inadequate levels of prize money? If one day soon they lose a race which isn’t giving Goodwood value for the executive’s money, then it won’t be the course that is to blame.