Interesting piece in the Racing Post...
"A true giant that should be allowed to grow more
Robin Gibson argues it is time to add a fifth day to the meeting
THE festival does not fall at the end of the season but its profile just grows and grows. Those words were written by the Racing Post's Andrew Scutts this week in a column about the Flat jockeys' championship, but the point was about natural strength and lack of contrivance.
The festival has expanded to transcend the sport. It has soared higher and higher above the rest of the season, its popularity with participants, public and the media surging every year.
If it were a blockbuster movie the cinema and tills would be overflowing and the box office would be flattened daily. The four-day format, once considered a possible drain on the meeting's life force, is now an obstacle to its epic sweep.
The evidence is everywhere. Bloodstock agent Tom Malone spoke in the Post this week for many when he said: "All people care about is the Cheltenham Festival - that's what you're judged on."
It's impolite to joke that the jumps season is four days in March, but the top horses are now really campaigned with the meeting as their season's goal. Other races, even the Hennessy or King George, have their days but are puny squeakers in comparison to the noise they made 30 or even 20 years ago. Only the Grand National - a unique event slightly dislocated from its parent sport - beats the festival for public interest.
The festival handicaps are now so popular they're oversubscribed. Not many got near the stated weight range this year. For the 2m4f handicap on Tuesday there was 6lb between top and bottom weight; the Martin Pipe race 9lb. Yet a random glance at the Post of a few years ago shows horses running from out of the weights.
The meeting has been managed with awesome commercial acumen worthy of a KFC. But that's not the propeller for its growth. Unlike the output of the bucket-chicken kings, the product Cheltenham consumers scoff has bloomed organically. You can recall the years of famous Gold Cups and Champion Hurdles but not the year when the festival attained the eminence it now has. It got there without a defining fanfare or strategy.
It must be the envy of every track. No-one can copy it, never mind top it, and other high-level jumps meetings do not achieve the depth, quality or international rivalry. Attendances are huge and increasing and the four-day format has changed the make-up, with more one- or two-day visitors and fewer of the old-school three-day fans. Just lots more visitors.
Now is the time for the meeting to be extended to five days - not to leech the customers for their last drop, but to satisfy genuine demand. There have been 11 four-day festivals. Many voiced doubts at the time but now it looks like one of the brightest ideas since they made football a game of two halves (around 1840, apparently).
The argument about dilution was settled long ago. The meeting is more exciting than ever and this year's was the best. Even if they do not outnumber their adversaries, advocates for the cross-country chase have ensured its future. No-one is upset about the juvenile handicap hurdle any more.
The ease a nd success of transition from three days to four shows how feasible it should be to make it five (or more). There's abundant scope for more races. Lob in a Grade 1, 2m4f hurdle, a female riders' race, a couple of veterans' races, divide a couple of the oversubscribed handicaps and you're pretty much there. In Wednesday's Post were nine credible suggestions for a 28th race.
THE idea of tradition can be overstated. In the context of racing history, the festival is a modern event. It has changed fluidly. For years before the introduction of the Gold Cup, the National Hunt Chase was the main event. The Champion Chase not that long ago turned 50; the Stayers' (now World) Hurdle was first run in 1972. The JLT is only a few years old and this year showcased a star whose brilliance justified its creation.
The festival is often declared analogous to the Olympics. Little over a century ago the games at the Paris Expo and the World's Fair were sparsely attended sideshows.
The modern games, an event roughly contemporaneous with the festival, has expanded, courting argument and controversy, but never standing still.
It introduced new sports and a winter version. Good grief, they might even get darts in. None of that will lessen the irresistible draw of the event. You could say much the same about the Glastonbury music festival. Old-timers grumble about its expansion, but the thousands who attend feel their version of the original spirit.
The pace of change increases, but that goes for most things. Holding a position nowadays is tantamount to reversing. There's a great opportunity to make the festival even bigger and better than it was this year - not a monster, but a true giant."
I personally agree with the author that the Festival should be extended to a fifth day. Nothing beats the thrill of the meeting and it's clear that it is the centrepiece of the NH season with every trainer in the land dreaming of and aiming at this magical week in March.
Your thoughts guys?
"A true giant that should be allowed to grow more
Robin Gibson argues it is time to add a fifth day to the meeting
THE festival does not fall at the end of the season but its profile just grows and grows. Those words were written by the Racing Post's Andrew Scutts this week in a column about the Flat jockeys' championship, but the point was about natural strength and lack of contrivance.
The festival has expanded to transcend the sport. It has soared higher and higher above the rest of the season, its popularity with participants, public and the media surging every year.
If it were a blockbuster movie the cinema and tills would be overflowing and the box office would be flattened daily. The four-day format, once considered a possible drain on the meeting's life force, is now an obstacle to its epic sweep.
The evidence is everywhere. Bloodstock agent Tom Malone spoke in the Post this week for many when he said: "All people care about is the Cheltenham Festival - that's what you're judged on."
It's impolite to joke that the jumps season is four days in March, but the top horses are now really campaigned with the meeting as their season's goal. Other races, even the Hennessy or King George, have their days but are puny squeakers in comparison to the noise they made 30 or even 20 years ago. Only the Grand National - a unique event slightly dislocated from its parent sport - beats the festival for public interest.
The festival handicaps are now so popular they're oversubscribed. Not many got near the stated weight range this year. For the 2m4f handicap on Tuesday there was 6lb between top and bottom weight; the Martin Pipe race 9lb. Yet a random glance at the Post of a few years ago shows horses running from out of the weights.
The meeting has been managed with awesome commercial acumen worthy of a KFC. But that's not the propeller for its growth. Unlike the output of the bucket-chicken kings, the product Cheltenham consumers scoff has bloomed organically. You can recall the years of famous Gold Cups and Champion Hurdles but not the year when the festival attained the eminence it now has. It got there without a defining fanfare or strategy.
It must be the envy of every track. No-one can copy it, never mind top it, and other high-level jumps meetings do not achieve the depth, quality or international rivalry. Attendances are huge and increasing and the four-day format has changed the make-up, with more one- or two-day visitors and fewer of the old-school three-day fans. Just lots more visitors.
Now is the time for the meeting to be extended to five days - not to leech the customers for their last drop, but to satisfy genuine demand. There have been 11 four-day festivals. Many voiced doubts at the time but now it looks like one of the brightest ideas since they made football a game of two halves (around 1840, apparently).
The argument about dilution was settled long ago. The meeting is more exciting than ever and this year's was the best. Even if they do not outnumber their adversaries, advocates for the cross-country chase have ensured its future. No-one is upset about the juvenile handicap hurdle any more.
The ease a nd success of transition from three days to four shows how feasible it should be to make it five (or more). There's abundant scope for more races. Lob in a Grade 1, 2m4f hurdle, a female riders' race, a couple of veterans' races, divide a couple of the oversubscribed handicaps and you're pretty much there. In Wednesday's Post were nine credible suggestions for a 28th race.
THE idea of tradition can be overstated. In the context of racing history, the festival is a modern event. It has changed fluidly. For years before the introduction of the Gold Cup, the National Hunt Chase was the main event. The Champion Chase not that long ago turned 50; the Stayers' (now World) Hurdle was first run in 1972. The JLT is only a few years old and this year showcased a star whose brilliance justified its creation.
The festival is often declared analogous to the Olympics. Little over a century ago the games at the Paris Expo and the World's Fair were sparsely attended sideshows.
The modern games, an event roughly contemporaneous with the festival, has expanded, courting argument and controversy, but never standing still.
It introduced new sports and a winter version. Good grief, they might even get darts in. None of that will lessen the irresistible draw of the event. You could say much the same about the Glastonbury music festival. Old-timers grumble about its expansion, but the thousands who attend feel their version of the original spirit.
The pace of change increases, but that goes for most things. Holding a position nowadays is tantamount to reversing. There's a great opportunity to make the festival even bigger and better than it was this year - not a monster, but a true giant."
I personally agree with the author that the Festival should be extended to a fifth day. Nothing beats the thrill of the meeting and it's clear that it is the centrepiece of the NH season with every trainer in the land dreaming of and aiming at this magical week in March.
Your thoughts guys?
