I'd do it via the BHA not Cheltenham racecourse, and if a horse is injured and can't run till March it isn't going to win a Championship race at the festival. I like the QIPCO approach to making it a series of races rather than 1, and would like to see this translated to the jumps. I think the practitioners of our sport need challenging if the sport itself is to progress.
Just playing devils advocate but what if a horse can only get one run in before and bolts up. Would it still be barred from running? I do agree that something needs to be done though. Maybe there is just to many races and options for these horses. If there were less races would the horses meet each other more often in a race, or would they have even less races in a season. Its a tricky call.
Not sure about this qualifying suggestion (other than maybe they have to acquire a certain rating). I can only liken it to the junior show jumping world a few years back. There were some shows that had to be qualified for but the most prestigious one, in terms of prize money and additional prizes, was a 5 day festival and had no qualifiers. It attracted all the best ponies at all levels with £60k worth of prize money and prizes on offer -the main class had a first prize of £6k plus laptop and other goodies (not bad for under 16s). This to me is more like the Cheltenham Festival - attract the cream but no qualifiers. What other tracks do and how much prize money is on offer at those tracks and who enters them is of no concern to Cheltenham. They will always attract the cream whatever happens.
Both races are non events, Charlie Hall is a handicappers race and the Irish one might just be the most irrelevant grade 1 of the season, despite some some good winners of it.
That's really wide of the mark re the Irish race. Why is it irrelevant? The Charlie Hall - I'd probably agree.
