Festival reflections.

as in life, we’ve experienced the highs and lows this week at the festival. For me the highs were seeing little tiger roll fly up the hill and the girls Rachel Blackmore , lizzy Kelly and Bryony Frost proving the girls can mix it with the boys. Frodon has been a bit of a hero of mine for a few years now and after a poor season last year came back this year and conquered all before him. The sight of the pair flying up the hill will remain with me for years to come.
The downside is the fatalities. Unfortunately with this sport comes with risks and I thought the professionals dealt with the situation with great compassion. Let’s remember more horses are lost in paddocks than the racecourse, it’s a fact of life and all the people involved in the sport deserve great credit with how they present themselves in public. The tv coverage has been exceptional opening doors to the background of racing all the lads and lasses that hold it all together presenting a very professional industry.unfortunatley the administrators like our politicians continually let these hard working people down. The ted Walsh’s and McCoys are right to take some of their ridiculous decisions to task.
It was sad to hear thar noel feilly has decided to hang up his boots. He gave one of my best memories booting rock on ruby to victory up the hill years ago.
Overall the sport is in god condition and look forward to next year.

 

I agree with all your observations Florida. Another I would add, which does for me indicate a healthy sport, was the spread of prizes across jockeys and trainers. By my calculations 21 jockeys got in the winners enclosure and 16 trainers during the 4 days. That is surely better for the future than domination by just a few trainers on each side of the Irish Sea with 150+ horses at their disposal. Willie Mullins finally getting that elusive win in the GC and his very measured reaction when I bet he was bursting inside. I was also very happy to see Shropshire's Philip Rowley fulfill his ambition in the Foxhunters, in some style too. Finally a few honourable mentions in defeat. Native River. To say he was carried out on his shield as defending champ is a huge understatement. It speaks volumes for NR's constitution that he was still in with some sort of chance at the bottom of the hill on the final circuit. Politologue and Santini ran absolute blinders in defeat too. A great 4 days of NH horse racing. There are other decent horse racing festivals but there is only one Cheltenham.

 

Highlights-McCoy putting that posh snob Cumani back in her box, dont you ever dare talk to the great man like that you tart!!!!I'm not Baz Gerathy biggest fan but I thought he gave two peaches on DDF & SDB.RSA and Champion chase were great races.Delighted for Willie Mullins who landed the Gold Cup for the first time.

Downer was the crap ITV coverage over the four days. Chambers is very PC and hypes up everything, Luke Harvey is childish and Cumani isn't very knowlegable on the jumps game.Dont get me started on the social media tent and that clown Gleeson pushing his smarmy head into the camera at every opportunity. Racing TV much better coverage with Nick Luck and Gary o Brien.Fair enough Bryony Frost won the Ryanair but the way they went on you could have swore she won the Gold Cup.This was a very open festival and there was not many superstar horses on show unlike the last few years, don't think it was the greatest of festivals overall.Biggest downer was Sir Eric tragically being put down and also Mullins lost two horses as well.The Gtown crew won't be to happy with just the one winner but let's be honest they are a greedy shower of kunts so I'm happy with that result!!

 

. Beautifully put Ste D.

 

Fortunately I was spared the obvious downers as I didn't see them. Hearing about them was bad enough. So I can concentrate on the upsides. I was gobsmacked at the way Tiger Roll dismantled the field in the X Country. Incredible run. Bryony Frost's victory on Frodon was one of the most emotional Cheltenham experiences for me. And Paisley Par's victory was also emotional with his blind owner so emotional but unable to actually see his hero's victory. 3 different ladies winning was fantastic and rewarding my long held faith that it was only a matter of time before ladies would be competing and winning at the top level. The Champion Hurdle was an anti climax for me. The Gold Cup was a bit of an anti climax but still glad for Willie Mullins that he eventually got his winner; in a fast time too considering the ground. A very enjoyable Cheltenham overall, the time passing very quickly

 

Totally get your assessment of the ITV pundits but I still think it is a lot better than what was channel 4 were doing but I guess that doesn't say a lot. I don't mind Gleeson as it happens and I really like Alice Plunkett. I didn't understand why they brought in that posh tart Cumani...she is more suitable to flat racing where one she has more knowledge but also all the posh talking just goes hand in hand with the likes of Ascot, Goodwood etc and the hideous sums of money they pay for a large number of flat horses..

 

Captain, Club enclosure at Cheltenham is full of posh birds in tweed. Very few can hold a candle to the luvly Francesca however .

 

Week of highs and lows.

Lows - the horses which did not make the trip home

Highs - Altior, Paisley Park, Frodon
Biggest high personally Pentland Hills - have to confess that I am one of the 3000. Had no money on him as this would have put a jinx on him, but I can now say I own a Cheltenham Festival winner (or at least a tiny piece of one)

 

Brilliant Janabelle. Congratulations .

 

Tiger Roll's 4th festival win. But.........whilst Tiger Roll's win in the XC was great to watch I can't believe he's now 5/1 for the Grand National on the back of it. Up 9lb from 2018, 39 other horses who could get in his way not to mention the obstacles. Then there's the ground conditions. If it's good to soft I would say he has a chance of his weight but if it's worse than that he'd surely be right up against it. Dont get me wrong I love that little horse but the 5/1 should come with a complimentary straight jacket.

 

No horse should be that low odds in the GN

 

Tiger Roll is no ordinary horse though Ron!!

 

Very true it is but the enclosure also has Its fair share of grounded girls. She fits the flat scene more which I regard as the more snobby side of racing. Ridiculous sums of money are paid for so many of the flat horses .Luckily those ridiculous sums of money are not there in national hunt..

 

She fits any scene CP as far as I'm concerned. £300k+ for a horse with no knackers is a ridiculous amount of money too. Didn't Garde Champetre cost JP about half a million a few years back. That's a lot of dosh to go round the horse racing equivalent of a crazy golf course.

 

I thought that it was a fantastic week, although one that maybe ended a little flat on the final day, due to the poor weather, Sir Eric's fatality and an outsider winning the Gold Cup.

the 5 horses that I will remember from the festival are:

1. Altior - the winning machine continues. his performances are not always the best, but he ALWAYS does enough!
2. Tiger Roll - for me the performance of the week. simply breathtaking. If he runs like that at Aintree and has a bit of luck then who knows!
3. Frodon - Wow!. One of the all time great Cheltenham moments,and in Bryony Frost, National Hunt Racing has found a new star!
4. Paisley Park - Probably the story of the week. Such a great win for the owner, trainer and jockey. Much deserved!
5. TopoftheGame - a future Gold Cup winner ? Won arguably the strongest non Championship race in style. Much to look forward to for next season!

thought the TV coverage was ok...but i do still feel that ITV are better covering the flat, whereas CH4 was always better on the jumps.
sad to see John Inverdale being forced out at Radio 5. He covered the festival very well for 30 years. Much better to listen to Radio 5 than watch the TV in between races, although maybe not from next year..

 

I assume you are referring to the recent purchase of Blaklion Chan...these figures are not the norm in jump racing and whilst there are instances of lofty purchases these are not common place. They are very common place on the flat and we hear of lots of ridiculous figures. Elarqam cost £1.6 million and is just one example and we might see him for a couple of seasons if we are lucky!

National hunt racing grabs the attention of the general public more and is definitely more grounded. Recent betting turnover published sbows your general public can relate to it more.. as I say Francesca Cumani doesn't fit the sphere for me and would be better replaced with Alice Plunkett and Sally Ann Grassick taking higher profiles in the ITV programme. Posh totty can enter the fray when the flat season starts. .

 

Got to say that I thought the whole week just enhanced the reason why I and so many on this forum like the jump racing so much. The story lines to some of the winners , and even some of the other runners in the field, just make the whole sport so watchable...

My strongest memories come from Thursdays action and Paisley Park, who i've just fallen for, my new Zarkandar, who gives everything and has that one thing most special horses have, a little bit of class. Frodon and his very excitable and accomplished jockey Bryony Frost, if ever a horse and jockey were made for each other it's these two. And to complete the events of Thursday Lizzie Kelly pushing Siruh Du Lac up the Cheltenham Hill to take a narrow victory over Janika. Just an enthralling, exciting and totally top bit of racing sport you could wish to see...

Topofthegame needs a mention in the RSA, some horse that one, going to be interesting as to how soon they push for the bigger races as he could challenge a few of them now...!! Also, just because of who it was, Altior, more because at one point the list of favourites been turned over from the Tuesday was at one point going to happen again but his class came out in the end. And finishing off Wednesdays events Tiger Roll literally rolling about the Cross Country course like it was a Sunday afternoon stroll...!!

Tuesday was the day that seemed to be most surreal with quiet a few of the good uns failing to hit the placings let alone the top spot in the winners enclosure. The Champion hurdle was maybe the biggest let down, with the Supreme not standing up to much either though I do think Klassical Dream will end up being a good one to follow.

Which leaves us with Friday which to be honest was enthralling but for maybe all the wrong reasons... Good days racing, some good story lines coming from it, but the best definitely wasn't left till last...!! Good on ole Willie for claiming his first Gold Cup, but the pre-race hype didn't mention Al Boum Photo at all in it (Apart from Wooly mentioning him in his Preview report...) Hazel Hill winning the Foxhunters was another great story but the whole day just had that down in the dumps feel to it after the poor events taking Sir Erec away from us. To think how well he stood while having his shoe re-fitted, looking around as calm as you like, just a beautiful looking horse, only to perish a matter of minutes later...

Still, we have to move on, connections of Sir Erec will as well, including his trainer young Joseph, who looks like he is going to be claiming some big prizes in the near future, making Willie & Gordon to take note...!!

Finally I do think that ITV did a half decent job, it's better than it was, plus you can see that they are trying like hell to attract racing to the youth of the world something that twitter and hashtag this and that is very lost on this +40 year old bloke...!! Good luck to them all...