Mike Cattermole on the mares' sex allowance and Cloth Cap's Newbury win

DO THE BEST MARES NEED THE SEX ALLOWANCE?

And, if they do, have we got the amounts right?

Epatante and Almond Eye both struck significant and much celebrated blows for the fairer sex last weekend, under different codes of course and in different places in the world.

In the Japan Cup, and on her final start, Almond Eye saw off the previously unbeaten three-year-old and Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail by a length and a quarter, with the also unbeaten 1,000 Guineas and Oaks heroine Daring Tact a neck away in third.

It was her ninth Grade 1 win and what a way to bow out!

Although Almond Eye is a five-year-old mare, she carried the same weight as the three-year-old Contrail of 55kg as the 2kg she would have conceded as weight-for-age was cancelled out by her 2kg sex allowance.

Over here, Epatante was sensational in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle, producing a supernatural turn of foot after the last flight to see off a very good horse in Sceau Royal, who was also not exactly stopping himself and came into the race in terrific form.

I suspect that Sceau Royal was being asked to do the impossible by trying to give Nicky Henderson’s brilliant mare 7lb and maybe it was the same for Contrail against one of the all-time greats over in Japan.

Perhaps both superstar mares would have won even without the sex allowance that they received, although we can’t be 100% sure and of course we will never know.

But you can’t help but wonder on occasions like these about whether we have got these sex allowances right or indeed if they are necessary.

Does it make sense that a fully mature racemare should receive any weight at all?

I recall back at the start of the 1983-4 jumps season, there was the introduction of a 5lb allowance for fillies and mares in chases, hurdles and bumper races when there had been none before.

By coincidence, this was the season that saw the emergence of the brilliant Dawn Run who promptly galloped through the season to notch up eight top-class wins.

Receiving 5lb from the then champion hurdler Gaye Brief, she defeated him by a neck in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and then got the better of Cima in the 1984 Champion Hurdle by three quarters of a length when receiving the same allowance.

Would she have won both those events at level weights? Again, we will never know although, on those terms, she certainly was not the best horse in the race. But Dawn Run she was a great big, rangy mare, physically at least the equal of any of her male counterparts.

However, it is interesting to note that she ended that busy campaign with a superb win in the French Champion Hurdle (Grand Course de Haies d’Auteuil) when she had no sex allowance at all.

(I know what you are thinking – you then wonder of course about the famous 1986 Gold Cup win when she got up to beat Wayward Lad by three quarters of a length in receipt of 5lb from the Michael Dickinson-trained chaser).

Since September 2004 that sex allowance was increased to 7lb over jumps, the amount that Annie Power, for example, received from My Tent Or Yours when she lifted the 2016 Champion Hurdle in such style. It might have been a bit closer at level weights but she looked to win with a lot in hand.

On the Flat of course, things are slightly different with just a 3lb allowance.
Enable, widely regarded as one of the best mares of the modern era, has only just retired. She had an outstanding career but it is questionable that she would have had such a stellar record without that allowance to help her.

Remember she too was a powerful, fully mature individual who received 3lb from Crystal Ocean when winning the 2019 King George by a neck. Would that result have been different without it?

The bottom line is that, historically, female racehorses can’t run quite as fast as their male counterparts and hence the need for some assistance in the championship races.

However, there must be a decent argument for suggesting that some of the great mares we have seen recently, under both codes, would have more than held their own at level weights.

It would make for an interesting debate but, that aside, I am just beginning to wonder whether the 7lb off in National Hunt is overdoing it.

Maybe the original concession of 5lb is worth revisiting.

JONJO ADDS ANOTHER TO THE CV

Saturday’s Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury was turned into a procession by Cloth Cap who was simply magnificent from fence to fence.

It was a result to celebrate for jumping’s good guys with Trevor Hemmings and Tom Scudamore winning it for the third time, while Jonjo O’Neill finally added his name to the illustrious role of honour of a race, when known as the Hennessy, that eluded him as a jockey.

Coming three years after Go Conquer’s win in the Sodexo Gold Cup at Cheltenham, which helped him through the £1m mark that season, Jonjo needed this. And on the day that mattered, Cloth Cap was clearly in great nick.

The Gold Cup and Grand National-winning trainer has been quietly rebuilding his team since then but replacements for the likes of Taquin De Seuil and Minella Rocco, whose physical issues severely compromised his once very promising career, have been hard to come by.

Now Jonjo is on course for his best season in a while and the progress of Cloth Cap, now raised 11lb by the assessor to a mark of 147, will be fascinating.

It seems as though good ground suits him best but he has got form on soft and a crack at the Grand National, a race his owner loves, is now firmly on the agenda. Rising nine, Cloth Cap is approaching his peak.

SANDY THOMSON WORKS THE ORACLE WITH YORKHILL

One of my colleagues at Sky Sports Racing, who shall remain nameless, commented on Saturday morning that retirement would be kind to Yorkhill when he noted him in the line-up for the Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle.

I think I went along with it!

Not for the first time, this enigmatic but mega-talented character, made fools of most of us but we are in good company as even Willie Mullins had probably given up on him in the end. Yorkhill was also the one horse that seemed to bamboozle the great Ruby Walsh.

Now with Borders trainer Sandy Thomson, who I wrote about in this column recently, and owned by Dave Armstrong and Lee Westwood, his comeback was rightly celebrated by many.

Yorkhill, up to 147 now compared to a peak of 164, is one unusual but special horse. Who would dare to write off this dual Cheltenham Festival winner ever again?

HOLLIE DOYLE ENDING THE YEAR ON A MASSIVE HIGH

The news that Hollie Doyle had been nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year was so uplifting for many reasons.

Already the recent winner of the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year, can Hollie add the Beeb’s famous gong, too?

Thousands of racing fans will be voting for her and it could just happen.