WHEN I read that Michael O’Leary had called for a Ryanair-style hurdle race at the Cheltenham Festival, I thought perhaps he was proposing a race where half the horses couldn’t run because there weren’t enough pilots.

But it turned out that I’d got the wrong end of the stick. It was much, much, worse than that.

The Ryanair Chase was introduced as a Grade Two steeplechase in 2005, over two miles, four furlongs. Becoming a Grade One steeplechase in 2008, the race was deliberately pitched at a distance in between the Queen Mother Champion Chase (one mile, seven furlongs and 199 yards) and the Gold Cup (three miles, two furlongs and 70 yards, depending on how many whiskies the clerk of the course has enjoyed while inputting the race distances to the BHA’s admin site).

Incidentally, I am not casting aspersions about Simon Claisse, Cheltenham’s clerk of the course who recently issued two updates to the race distance of the Cotswold Chase – merely judging by my own standards.

Calculating race distances after rail moves is not so straight-forward as many people assume – but that’s a topic for another week!

O’Leary’s dreadful idea was to create a championship race for hurdlers at a distance between the Champion Hurdle (just short of two miles) and the Stayers Hurdle (just short of three miles). His reasoning is understandable: he’d like to win as many Grade One races as possible and he has so many horses to in his ownership, it would create an extra opportunity for at least one of them. I can’t argue with the logic.

But the problem is that the proposed race inevitably reduces the quality of the two principle races. I love watching the Ryanair Chase. Of course I do, who wouldn’t – it’s a great race, attracting wonderful horses. But they are horses which should be competing in the Champion Chase and Gold Cup – the twin peaks of jump racing.

Since the introduction of the Ryanair Chase, those peaks have been eroded. It’s a bit like knocking 1,000ft off the top of Mount Everest and saying that the challenge is just as great because it is still the tallest mountain in the world. Creating a championship hurdle race over two miles and four furlongs would have the same impact. The Champion Hurdle would become Kangchenjunga and the Stayers Hurdle would become Ben Nevis – by which I don’t mean to denigrate the achievement of climbing on top of Ben Nevis. He was a marvellous horse.

Anyway, there’s no need to panic this year. Cheltenham’s races have already been programmed and Jimmy Moffatt will be studying the form ahead of Cartmel’s annual Festival Preview Night on March 7. Together with race-day presenter John Sexton, top northern jockey Brian Hughes and form expert Marten Julian, Cartmel’s leading trainer will be naming all the winners at this year’s Festival.

Tickets, including a light supper, cost just £16 and can be purchased by calling Cartmel Racecourse.

In the meantime, I intend to build up my Festival funds by backing this week’s selection, which runs at Musselburgh’s Two-day Festival Trials Meeting: the Jim Goldie-trained Sir Chauvelin, in the Bet365 Scottish County Hurdle.