FIRST it was Howard Johnson, then it was Ferdy Murphy, now it is Keith Reveley. One by one, the leading lights of the Northern jumps racing scene are exiting the stage.

The Reveley name might evoke memories of a halcyon age when Mary Reveley, who announced her retirement in 2004, was joining the likes of Arthur Stephenson and Denys Smith to dominate the world of National Hunt racing, but the days when Northern trainers were feared across the length and breadth of the country are long gone.

The Cheltenham Festival is now little more than two months away, but it will almost certainly take place without a single Northern-based horse in any of the championship races. Brian Ellison, John Quinn and Donald McCain might have a couple of handicappers scattered across the four days, but the chances of a Northern winner are remote. Jumps racing, in this part of the world, is becoming a forgotten art.

In some respects, the decline of the leading Northern stables is part of a wider pattern that has seen National Hunt racing become much more like the Flat in terms of the concentration of the best horses in a small number of hands. With Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Colin Tizzard dominating on this side of the Irish Sea, and Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliot sweeping all before them on the other, it is becoming increasingly difficult for anyone else to compete at the top table.

But the decline in the North is especially marked, and is a reflection of both the poor prize money on offer at the majority of Northern jumps venues and the increased importance of the big ‘Saturday’ cards that are generally staged in the South or in Ireland.

There are still major owners in the North, most notably Newcastle-based Graham Wylie, but they no longer want their horses to be trained on their doorstep.

That is a major problem, and while Keith Reveley’s retirement has been hastened by his son, James’, decision to relocate to France, he might have been tempted to continue had it not become so difficult for training in the North to pay its way.