Cheltenham Festival anyone feeling

VERY MUCH HIT AND MISS ON A/P front  ....needs sorted out  long before now  with sigle  entries  by a certain date    .

particularly  bad this  year  with drop outs and  ,not  qualified  ,multiple  entries  and  betfair  trainers  blogs  ,, leaving a lot be desired  ,extra day  has weakened  the  festivals best  races  .....or  were best races  ...?..O nly thing is  people can  get a week off  no problem ,,so  more liable in years ahead to  go longer  ?

Will get more satisfactions out of the hdcps I think

Maybe each night on here I read yet another gd horse will swerve proper competition, its hard enough getting all the great horses to get to festival uninjured

If it goes 5 days will be awful, think am looking forward to the hdcps this year competitive and we have had none of the shennigans going on with horses targets being constantly switched.

Onwards still be good but not great for me as things stand gd luck all

Its a shame that big races are being diluted by newer races. Personally I think it'd be much better if they dropped a few races (new Jewson and the 3m novice hurdle come to mind). You only have to look at the below par QMCC and Gold Cup are this year to make a good case against the Ryanair too.

MAYBE JUST MAYBE ,  the media  will become  more friendly to  the racing game  ,only ever ran out of  newspapers  ...in the shop  , when bad news  prevailed  ?  very few wagers on horses this past while  thanks  to  whip  ,,,yes or ...no .  national  2011 did  us no favours  either  ,  tinkering too much with that as well  , none of it  for  the better,  as  little difference  .?

nice list governor   I  WILLHAVE A FEW QUID  E/W  ON THAT LOT FOR AN INTEREST  cheers ,

4 I  RECOGNISE OVER LAST 6 OR SO WEEKS  nearest pin and cantlow  not so sure about  , but will wait till wed  after noon as will see still in running ..  3 I have jotted down to do  something with so  will add rest to  them .

Orsippus last two festivals 3rd both occasions won at Aintree festival starting prices 33/1 33/1 40/1

Oeiseu de Nuit won last year almost beat finnigans Rainbow at Kempton in dec will love the pace travels like a dream

Sunnyhillboy last two festivals 2nd and fell backed into 6/1f and 9/2f might have him in the wrong race but Kim Muir is the chase event, feel it would be unlikely he would go to Aintree on the back of two hurdle races

Moon dice bit unlucky from recollection in greatwood hurdle in November /december  might have the wrong race but watched its run at Chelt would have finished closer.

Pays your money and all that but all have proven chelt form and 3 of these have run v well at the festival.

totally agree with ACStafford.

We will never go back to 3 days now so maybe they could think about having less grade 1 races - forcing grade 1 winners to compete with penalties in the 3m novice hurdle and ryanair for example forces them into competition... even think about making the Jewson a grade 3.

or make it a 2 day festival.....when you die and go to racing heaven this is what's on .....

Supreme Novices' Hurdle Hurdle Cheltenham 3319 2m ½f 4yo +
Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase Cheltenham 3219 2m 5yo +
Champion Hurdle Hurdle Cheltenham 3319 2m ½f 4yo +
RSA Chase Chase Cheltenham 4929 3m ½f 5yo +
Queen Mother Champion Chase Chase Cheltenham 3219 2m 5yo +
National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup Chase Cheltenham 6437 4m 5yo
Champion Bumper Flat Cheltenham 3319 2m ½f 4yo * 4–6yo


Triumph Hurdle Hurdle Cheltenham 3420 2m 1f 4yo
Ryanair Chase Chase (grade 2) Cheltenham 4225 2m 5f 
World Hurdle Hurdle Cheltenham 4828 3m 4yo +
Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase Cheltenham 5331 3m 2½f 5yo +
Neptune Investment Management Hurdle Hurdle
Christie's Foxhunter Chase Chase Cheltenham 5331 3m 2½f
Vincent O'Brien County Handicap Hurdle Hurdle Cheltenham 3420

good thread  roger  .. gravy train  stays on track   ,punters to the trough  , take some of this  .becomes like a drug  every year ...............A/P   on it's knees  ,back to  3 days  quality  , less choices ?

Dropping the Ryanair to grade 2 would be a good idea, might help strengthen the QMCC in particular.

Under the 3 day festival the World Hurdle was just a stayers race and did not have the prestige that it now has. If you remember it used to be run on the first day.
4 days is fine but 6 races not 7 that way we could cut 3 races.
We have seen some great Ryanair races and the Gold Cup has not always been as great as it has over the last few years.

reckon you will see the performance of the Festival Ian

Agree with most about there being way too many races and the fields are weakening as a consequence. IMO there should be no ryanair, whilst it is a good race in its own right, i would much rather see all the runners either in the champion chase or the gold cup and make them fields stronger. You could have a gold cup with kauto, long run and the rest of them, but then add in riverside theartre, albertas run, medermit, captain chris. How much of a stronger gold cup is it already. Then you could add noble prince and sommersby to the champion, would add a couple of intresting runners to a very weak field.

Same with the jewson, peddlers, crystal bonus and for non stop would all add more to the arkle. Sir des champs, solix and champion court would all make the rsa a better race.

I really hope they dont add a 2 1/2 mile hurdle. If there was one this year then you could take away from the champion rock on ruby, oscars wells, thousand stars n poss overturn and from the world hurdle you could take oscar whiskey, voler la vadette, so young, zaidpour, mikeal d'hagunet and so on. Now dont get me wrong, if all the horses i listed were too race then it would be a cracker, but the champion and world hurdles would be very poor and severley lacking in depth. Especially in a year like this when youve got too very strong favs in hurricane fly and big bucks, the opposition would just end up running scared and going for the easier option.

Cheltenhams about champions.

Just thought that if the Ryanair had been around back in the day then Dawn Run would never have even competed in a GC.

It is due to this dilution that lower grade handicappers attempt to get the place money now IMO (therefore bigger fields). The worse the race the more runners you get at graded level.

Steamship     06 Mar 12 15:23 
Sorry hardy but the  Ryanair takes horses from the Gold Cup does not stand up.

Well im sorry but it does. The four horses i mentioned, riverside theartre, albertas run, medermit, captain chris, also forgot to mention rubi light, they would all run in the gold cup if the ryanair didnt exist. So theres 5 its taken away for a start. As MtM says, its due to the ryanair taking away 5 horses of such caliber that more and more no hopers are takeing part in the gold cup in the  hope of sneaking a place.

No what would happen is they would go to Aintree or Punchestown or run in The Cathcart basically The Ryanair.
Why do you want to see specialist 2 and a half mile horses in The Gold Cup? When did one last win it?

As for no hopers sneaking a place, we are just coming to an of a great era for 3mile plus chasers whereas the 90s there were no world beaters.Look at the ratings of the recent winners and placed horses compared to the previous decade.

I honestly think The Ryanair has been a success. It has produced close finishes and a Gold Cup winner.

Not feeling flat at all. Absolutely buzzing for it to all start. You can feel the anticipation building up in the town just by walking around. Not one race that I'm not looking forward to.

COME ON!

when the 5 day decs appear is when it really kicks in.

Grade 1's are fine as they are.Dont need horses running in thbe QM or GC if they aint running at their distance,they just become virtual no hopers as Albertas Run was the only time he tried the GC.Ryanair has been a success,and the race looks good again this year.
The top 2 milers will still be in the QM and the top 3milers will still be in the GC.
Having more runners that aint got much chance at that distance does not make the race better imo.

As for the festival as a whole,its ok now i think, but no more changes please,and certainly not a 5 day with Saturday!!

Ming_the_Merciless

Talking of heaven days racing, I remember the Thur and Fri after the abandoned Wed card 3/4 years ago, there will never be a better two days racing anywhere in the world...