With Cheltenham threads about to start building up, now seems the time to set up a mega thread containing an index to all the Festival related threads. Oddy, if you are preparing one of your more juicy threads for this, please replace Index Cheltenham 2019 Ante Post Thread Timeform 2019 Cheltenham Festival The 2019 Cheltenham Festival Betting Competition - Rules and Selections The Not 606 Preview Evening
Tuesday 12th March - Champion Day (Old Course) 13.30 The Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle Race (2m abt ½f) 14.10 The Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy Steeple Chase (abt 2m) 14.50 The Ultima Handicap Steeple Chase (3m abt 1f) 15.30 The Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy (2m abt ½f) 16.10 The OLBG Mares’ Hurdle Race (2m abt 4f) 16.50 The Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase (2m abt 4½f) 17.30 The National Hunt Steeple Chase Challenge Cup - Amateur Riders’ Novices’ Steeple Chase (Abt 4m) Wednesday 13th March - Ladies Day (Old Course) 13.30 The Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle Race (2m abt 5f) 14.10 The RSA Steeple Chase (3m abt ½f) 14.50 The Coral Cup Hurdle - A Handicap Hurdle Race (2m abt 5f) 15.30 The Betway Queen Mother Champion Steeple Chase (Abt 2m) 16.10 The Glenfarclas Cross Country Steeple Chase (3m 6f) 16.50 The Boodles Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Race (2m abt ½f) 17.30 The Weatherbys Champion Bumper - A Standard Open NH Flat Race (2m abt ½f) Thursday 14th March - St Patrick's Thursday (New Course) 13.30 The JLT Novices’ Chase (2m abt 4f) 14.10 The Pertemps Network Final - A Handicap Hurdle Race (Abt 3m) 14.50 The Ryanair Steeple Chase (2m abt 5f) 15.30 The Sun Racing Stayers’ Hurdle (abt (3m) 16.10 The Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate - A Handicap Steeple Chase (2m abt 5f) 16.50 The Trull House Stud Mares Novices’ Hurdle (2m abt 1f) 17.30 The Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Handicap Steeple Chase (0-145 - 3m abt 2f) Friday 15th March - Gold Cup Day (New Course) 13.30 The JCB Triumph Hurdle (2m abt 1f ) 14.10 The Randox Health County Handicap Hurdle Race (2m abt 1f) 14.50 The Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle Race (abt 3m) 15.30 The Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m abt 2½f) 16.10 The St. James’s Place Foxhunter Steeple Chase Challenge Cup (3m abt 2½f) 16.50 The Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Steeple Chase Challenge Cup (2m abt ½f) 17.30 The Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle Race (0-145 - 2m abt 4½f) Those races in blue have a dedicated thread which can be reached by clicking the hyperlink. Those still coloured red have a hyperlink to the racecard on the Sporting Life website.
I'll knock off a thread for each of the Stayers Hurdle and Gold Cup this afternoon (slow day in the office) and then at least we have a thread for all those races with entries already declared. I can literally sense the anticipation of the Forum for the Trull House Mares Novices Hurdle thread but patience people, patience.
The entries for the 4 novice chases are out today so I will try and get write-ups done over the coming few days
I have reflected the timing changes announced today - on the Tuesday, the 4-miler and the novices handicap chase swap places (so the card closer is now the 4-miler) and similarly on the Friday, the Martin Pipe Conditionals Handicap Hurdle and the Grand Annual swap places - so the "get out" race now becomes the conditionals race.
A link to some of the pre-festival interviews in the media this week - your chance to gauge how honest the trainers are about horses targets at the festival (cough cough) Gordon Elliot Lieutenant Henderson Willie Mullins more to follow ................. Lydia Hislop's in-depth "Road to Cheltenham" articles - good reading
Interview with Willie Mullins on the Racing Post website. His Cheltenham team will be significantly smaller this year, they just haven't been able to get the novices out due to the ground. https://www.racingpost.com/news/latest/festival-lowdown-willie-mullins-on-his-cheltenham-team/367347
Joseph O'Brien festival file https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/festival-file-joseph-obrien/158888
Paul Nicholls festival file https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/festival-file-paul-nicholls/159052
Latest going update with Simon Claisse. Good to Soft looking nailed on again https://www.racingpost.com/news/che...winter-have-on-the-cheltenham-festival/368180
Colin Tizzard festival file https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/festival-file-colin-tizzard/159009
Just checking whether bold and underline are carried over from a word document when using a simple "cut and paste". Prep for the preview thread which will be posted this evening