The Great, The Very Good and the downright Terrible - Cheltenham Review 2023

Morning,

Lets start by saying that like many on here, the Cheltenham Festival this season hadn't got me as excited as it had in the past, I have had a pretty bad downer on the sport this season. However, it is fair to say that the Tuesday of the Festival is always a day I do enjoy.

The Great - Tuesday

Simply put, this is the days racing that I will remember fondest of all I have been to, and will stick in the mind as long as the Ouija Board Goodwood ding dong with Alexander Goldrun. This day was so special, and one that may well keep the membership numbers ticking over for the next seasons Cheltenham renewals.

It started with two wonderful horses in the Supreme, that was great to see, and then it ramped up further with Jonbon and El Fabiolo putting on a show in the Arkle. The latter is a horse that I really liked in the flesh and he is already an early Antepost bet for the QMCC!

Then it kicked off, well the anticipation did, as Corach Rambler won for Scotland, repeating last seasons win, and that then played a part in the best 1 and 1/2 hours on a racecourse. The celebrations by that team was great, and then in strode the Champion Hurdle field, with Constitution Hill amongst them. The nervousness in the crowd, the anticipation and the hope was palpable.

He didn't disappoint in any way, he absolutely demolished them, and with such consumate ease. He is a horse of a generation, and if he has a long career, we may well be talking about one of the greatest horses in National Hunt racing. Absolutely breathtaking.

And yet, that was almost like the secondary story, because seeing the remarkable win of Honeysuckle and its intertwined stories with Jack de Bromhead and the family was something else. I want to put on record how amazed I am by Henry de Bromhead, he is truly remarkable and yesterday (Friday) seeing him put an arm around his daughter in the parade ring was one small but crystal clear memory of the week. He is some man.

Honeysuckle is some mare too, she battled past the gallant Love Envoi, and the crowd absolutely took off, it was one of those "I was at Cheltenham" moments. Two in two races!!

The Very Good - Ireland domination

It is fair to say that Willie Mullins dominated the festival, but it was the strength in depth, the relentlessness of it all that was so telling. Winning races is one thing, but taking home all the prizes in the same race is something else. The Triumph, The Supreme, The Ballymore. All out domination by Ireland.

Yes we did see some glimmers from the UK, with Nicholls winning Grade 1s, we saw Jamie Snowdon and Oli Greenall/Josh Guerrero have winners and Lucinda had the aforementioned day 1 repeat. However it is Patrick Neville who also needs a mention for the superb jumping The Real Whacker, who won what looked a decent race, and did so in gallant style. A great win for the small yard, and the first in a long time for the north of England.

We also had Dan Skelton fiddling handicappers to success, a very obvious pattern we need to continue to watch out for. Imagine if he was Ronan McNally !!!

However one true point of optimism, and yes, I use point for a reason, having used it twice now is that point to point? was the winning of the Foxhunters. Bradley Gibbs, for Bradley Gibbs. What a result for British pointing and it does give some optimism that you can find Cheltenham winners in the UK. Energumene being another that shines that light.

The Downright terrible

In a week where Willie Mullins had over a hundred entries we saw the usual ****e from the "second" tier of British racing, with I am sad to say, Fergal included. 5 runners over 28 races, from a yard who have had near 200 individual runners this season. It is bordering on shambolic, but he isn't the only one, you've got Olly Murphy, Donald Mccain, Gary Moore, David Pipe, Venetia Williams, Joe Tizzard, Nigel TD, Ben Pauling, Jonjo O'Neill, Kim Bailey, Alan King, Neil Mulholland. All top 20 trainers in the UK, all with the sum of their parts sending next to sod all to the festival.

The champion jockey this year has had 0 - ZERO, **** ALL, NADA, NIL, NOTHING, BUGGER ALL rides at the festival. He was at Sedgefield, Hexham, Doncaster and even had a day off!! Champion jockey not riding at the festival. It is farcical to say the least. A sport who "champions" mediocrity. A sport that counts the number of ****ty winners at Sedgefield, Hexham, Worcester, Hereford in the same way it counts winning a Gold Cup or a Champion Hurdle.

Trainers targets aren't seemingly improvement in horses, getting them to festivals, but the number of winners they get in match races and the like in the depths of winter. ****ing hell, it is so uncompetitive currently, I think every trainer should be beating their previous record number of wins. The take it in turns declaring horses, uncompetitive ****e.

British racing is in the doldrums, it isn't about the spending either, they are buying horses at boutique (cough rip off cough) sales like the one on Thursday night. Mulholland paid 290k for one!! Ben Pauling 200k and David Pipe 95k.

It is about the whole sport in the UK, it is rotten to the core, from the dire prize money, to the lack of competition and the ever expanding waistline that is the number of races. It is a sport that is killing itself from the core, and it might have bright sparks like Constitution Hill and even Stage Star, but it also has lots of annoyed racegoers, frustrated owners and even with the glory of the four days, its so bloody apparent that the sport needs critical changes in the UK. Otherwise next year it might be an even dimmer picture for the NH game in the UK.

 

thanks nass , a great summary of the meeting and the overall picture of nh racing , is it perhaps a reflection of the uk as a basket case , hollowed out , living on past myths / nostalgia and essentially being fleeced by the ruling order on some manic binge

 

Excellent, Nass. The chicken-s*** attitude to the Festival of most of the English, yes English, trainers was pathetic. As for the 'champion' jockey's non-appearance at Cheltenham, words just fail me. Could you imagine Frankie D. not turning-up for The Derby at Epsom, or the Arc at Longchamp?

OK, so these owners' and trainers' horses had little chance against the Irish battalions, but good grief, give it a try!

 

Nass, I share your disillusionment with the sport and its future prospects.
It was sad to hear Gordon Elliott saying that “Cheltenham is the be all and end all.”
Let’s face it . Take Cheltenham away and the rest of the season is loaded with poor, uncompetitive crap.
Not until handicaps are encouraged with boosted prize money and graded races reduced shall we have a chance of seeing more competitive racing. Apart from Denman winning the Hennessy, when do we see a top weighted Gold Cup winner going for a handicap?
Trainers need to change mindset and Cheltenham should be the cream on the cake, not the target.
On the positive side, wonderful to see Constitution Hill but he’ll never thrill me like Persian War did when carrying top weight and winning the Schweppes in ‘68 from class animals like Major Rose and Sempervivum. Nor Arkle giving away 42lbs when winning the Irish Grand National; or Stalbridge Colonist running fifteen times in a season and winning eleven races!
Yes, those days are long gone, but why should they be?
Until trainers start racing their horses instead of fondling them in a care home….the sport is doomed in mediocrity.

 

I hope you dont mind me tagging my experience on the end of this Nass.

The Winners. Marine Nationale, Jazzy Matty, The Real Whacker, Angels Dawn, Galopin Des Champs with the first four at prices that kept me from dipping even further into the dwindling pension fund.

The near misses. Chemical Energy, Galvin, Fugitif all finished second and all looked at some point late in the race that they might win, such is the hill.

The ones that got away. Langer Dan *backed him at the last two festivals, Maskada was on my extremely short list and even now I dont know why I didnt back him and the most annoying one was Favoir who I actually backed in a forecast with his stablemate Pembroke and sent the thread author a post on WhatsApp with the comment "mark my words". So why in hell did I have a big bet on Pembroke but no saver on Favoir, it simply beggars belief!

The ones that impressed.
MARINE NATIONALE, the favourite backers and cry all they like but this was the class animal in the race. He surely comes with that tag line "anything he does over hurdles is a bonus". He is a horse that I will now be following over that proverbial cliff.

CONSTITUTION HILL. I fully believe that like some of Hendersons great Champion hurdlers of recent years that venturing to the larger obstacles will not be on the agenda. He could very well win this race for the next four years without ever coming off the bridle. As Nass says he is a horse in a lifetime.

IMPAIRE ET PASSE. If there is a young pretender then surely he is it.

GALOPIN DES CHAMPS. Barely out of the novice brigade but already an absolute beast. The danger with Gold Cup horses is that most seem to find it difficult to follow up year on year. I suspect this lad will break that trend.

Finally, the one for next time. Has there ever been a better Grand National trial than the one from Noble Yeats yesterday. I am sure I can remember one similar but honestly cannot recall the horse, I am sure you guys will help me out.

PS, a little warning to Nass. I really got the bug back this Festival to the point where I said to the missus "I think I might have to do the four days again next year".

I hope you all had a great week even if you didnt win.

 

Hedgehunter

 

A great summary from Nass with regards to the action and the right old pickle British racing is currently in. Having said that I definitely enjoyed the festival more than I anticipated. The racing highlight for me was the Gold Cup yesterday. Just a brilliant horse race with a superstar winner. However whilst I do agree that Tuesday was truly memorable for racing and humanity reasons if I owned Honeysuckle she would have been in the proper race defending her title. A couple of comments on the coverage one bad one good. The bad, O’Leary in the Chapman interview insisting that we must have a 5 day festival. **** right off. The good, Ruby Walsh’s insight on the riding. I was never a huge fan of his as a rider as he seemed a right miserable git but as someone who has only ever sat astride a donkey on Skegness beach his insights immediately after the races was brilliant.

 

Honeysuckle would have been destroyed in the champion , clearly has nothing to prove , recognising what is or isn’t possible is her trainers forte . She can retire and make future stars now !

 

What a shambolic-looking fellow Honeysuckle's owner is. He could at least turn-up at the Festival in half-decent clothes? I am sure he is not short of a bob or two? Goes with that other owner, who although reasonably well-dressed, badly needed a decent haircut, as Oddy said.

 

Jesus, perhaps its a good thing that myself and @stick haven't got a festival runner if you are being this mean about the owners and their attire!!

As Stick mentioned betting, I think the one thing I finally learnt last season was to avoid the UK runners in the majority, and thankfully I did have a very good run of betting, even a few accas landed!!

Interesting that @Chaninbar mentioned O'Leary and the interviews on ITV, I must admit that I warmed to him throughout the week, and perhaps its because Davy is also a bit of a villain, that I thought it was an amusing subplot to the week. I much prefer him to Ricci, but that isn't much of a compliment.

 

Agree to a point but CH nearly did an Annie Power at the last. Never fear one horse. Grow a pair.

 

Both O’Leary and Russell make good interviewees. Have a view and not too shy to share it. My point was regarding the 5 day festival which O’Leary was 100% behind. British racing doesnt need this meeting further diluted.

 

Lord, I did not intend to be mean, but I just felt the guy could have done a bit better, that's all. No more from me on sartorial matters, for damn sure.

 

What do you think @stick would turn up wearing?

 

Oh, very well-dressed, I would imagine!

 

A question I would be wondering is why aren't some owners buying these horses and sending them to some of the aforementioned trainers listed above ? Have they a bad reputation? What are they doing wrong ?

 

Just seen that Willie is now 4th in the UK NH trainers title with £1.4 mill return from 7 winners. He’s just ahead of Fergal O’Brien who has £1.35 mill from his 125 winners.

 

Success breeds success and some of those yards don’t spend top money on horses, however some of them do and don’t get the success that they should.

The problem for those who aren’t buying from the top sales is that they are looking at unearthing a buried treasure that has been overlooked by Irish trainers and the P2P scene. This usually means buying from the old farmers with a dozen horses rather than the big pointing yards who can compare young stock more accurately.

Until British racing competes in breeding, pre-training and point to point racing, the yards are still going to either have to buy store horses or what they can afford from Ireland and France. Leaving them with the same old problems.

 

you forgot the hip flask.