What was the best performance of the festival?

Vautour undoubtedly H. His jumping was sublime.

More Of That was special on his 5th start, could be very smart over fences

JONJO'S IN THE WORLD HURDLE TOO could win a world hurdle

^^^ sorry could win a gold cup

Sire De Grugy. 

Smashed the opposition and great connections.

was a very substandard race though

True it was, but beat them incredibly easily.

Of the novices if you've got a class one you'd rather have the supreme than neptune and the latter lacked depth. Both were impressive but Vautour for me for the reasons above.

Having said that after just four runs and giving Annie Power half a stone I think More Of That powering clear of her after the last leaves a deeper impression especially given them leaving the others in their wake.

me too, MOT very impressive

performance in the saddle: Geraghty - a master, although a big shout out to Davy Russell

I'd go MOT, Vautour,SDG in that or - SDG would probably be my Jumps Horse of the Season now and I ain't backed him once.

I also thought the performances of Taquin Du Seuil and O'Faolain's Boy particularly augured well for next season.

Beyond the obvious, superb training performances from Culloty,Pipe and Rebecca Curtis who has now trained a festival winner in each of the last three seasons and will surely continue to go from strength to strength.

I'm sure I've missed plenty.

^ in that order

Despite not loving the four day format there has been a lot of wonderful memories. Quevega also not mentioned. Yes it's only the mares (see the comment about four day fillers) but Mullins getting her there six times on the bounce is some achievement.

Time to start marking the days off on the calendar.

Have to say that one of the best rides has to be macnamara on spring heeled!

vautour dynaste and MOT.

Don Pooli, next years star nov chaser?
Vautour
Sire De Grugy horse of the year

Shout for O'Faiolains Boy (and Smad Place)

Remember looking through the card for that immediately beforehand and bar Samingarry at 100/1, I thought every other horse had some decent form behind it at some point in the season.

Yes we know this race can bottom out a horse easily (though it didn't do Lord Windermere any harm!) and we'll probably only know to what extent after next seasons Hennessy, but for the first two to put 6 lengths on a very capable third looks good at the moment.

Maybe they don't get the plaudits since this race tends to be won by grinders rather than obviously flashy types.

Faugheen for me

Smashed a load of hurdles and the way he quickened from about 1/2L ahead to 5 lengths in not time coming round the final bend was so impressive. He put the race to bed in a matter of seconds.

Reckon that'll turn out to be a hot race too, fancy Ballyalton for the RSA already!

My three were as follows:

3. Ballynagour. Demolished a good field and looked like he could have gone round again, stand out handicap winner of the week for me.
2. More of That. Beat Annie Power fair and square and looked all about staying. Could win the World Hurdle countless times or be a GC horse. Very exciting beast.
1. Vautour. Can't look past him. The way he controlled every yard of the race was breathtaking. Jumped well, travelled well, quickened, stayed. Just a faultless performance and I am going to back him every week from now until next year for the Arkle.

Fantastic week of racing even if I only backed 6 winners and had 11 seconds Still can't believe CF got nutted on the line

As for the lowpoints, Our Conor totally took the gloss of the CH for me and I wasn't really interested in the race after he fell. But I had a really good view of the Daryl Jacob incident and it was shocking. Minutes after riding his first winer, that happens. Just shows the ups and downs of this fantastic but cruel sport.

Like a mention for Fingal Bay too. Back from injury and winning giving weight all round in a festival handicap is no mean feat.

Will have a say in next year's world hurdle imo

Vatour for next years Arkle at 5-1 is a JOKE

Got some on at 7's. Didn't realise he was 5's already tbh.

think O'Faolains Boy may be a little underrated too Roger. He's been impressive in his last two races now since that blip at Haydock. Rebecca Curtis seems rather shrewd to me. She did very well to get At Fishers Cross back to form after his first two dire runs.

That said, if I owned Many Clouds I would now save him for the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in November. He must be chucked in off 145!

Vatour - it was simply stunning

could not believe how he finished the race considering how fast and keen he seemed to be early on and that jump at the last was just magic

Even CF was 8-1 in the November
Cant bet at that low price
Ridiculous

It is as if the market has no recent memory of Champagne Fever. If you are going to take short prices like that then they need to be in the superstar catergory like Simonsig or Sprinter Sacre.

Doesn't vautour look to be in at least  simonsigs class? the style of his win if not ultimately achieving the distance between himself and the rest was equally as impressive, he's definitely the best horse I've seen at actually hurdling for as long as I can remember, I said the other day, you often get blown away at seeing a good chaser soar over a fence, you don't often get that feeling from a hurdler, you did with him, took ground away from the pursuers at most hurdles, went a strong pace throughout and ran away from them.

Vautour, could be a multiple champion hurdler. Followed by More Of That who only in his 5th race won the world hurdle.

fingal bay and balthazar king best performances of the meeting, two banker bets that battled all the way to the finishing line,
thats what racing is all about, horses fighting all the way to the finishing line. there where better horses, these two refused
to be beaten.

Vautour more impressive than CF, even if it wasn't as good a renewal, so deserves to be shorter IMO. And I have no doubt he is superior to Simonsig. Obviously SS is a one off, but Vautour deserves to be put in the superstar bracket as we stand IMO.

The fact WPM has been waxing so lyrical since day one also suggests he's special.

My two performances of the week
Vautour - Breathtaking
Fingal Bay - Sheer guts

Honourable mentions
Sire De Grugy, Ballynagour, Faugheen, More of that.

Best performance from the saddle - The jockey in the charity race

the new one best in defeat ......................some u win and some u lose  ?
not a lot of fun when hampered like it suffered .

Jezki beat a pretty classy CH field ,and did it well.

Tammys Hill was impressive, werent that many races we knew the winner 3 out!!

Catch me,

You serious mate??
Taken 7/1 on Vatour for the Arkle??!!!

I have mate. I know it sounds daft, but that was the most taken I think I've ever been with a novice. And he looks like he will improve for a fence. I understand he's probably 7-1 to even get there... But you pay your money, you take the chance etc.

Hopefully I'll be feeling quite smug when he goes off 5-4 and hacks up next year!

I thinks antepost has changed a lot the last few years. With all the extra place offered and the increased competition, I think I'm going to do much less of it this year. So I've decided I'm going to pick two or three horses and have bigger bets on them than spreading my money around to about a dozen which has been my usual approach. Vautour is my number one pick to win next year.

Fair enough, I wish you best of luck.
Lets hope fortune favours the brave my friend.

Thanks mate.

superior to simonsig! brave that

Said it the other day about vautour, and admittedly I'm perhaps getting a little carried away and a good few things need to happen with lots of IF's along the way, but.....IF this horse can carry the impression he has created, through next year when chasing and IF SS is still on the missing list, I can see it being muted that he could even run in the Queen Mum as a novice.

This is all based on the premise that he really is the very special horse he has suggested he is in the last week, and with CF potentially stepping up in trip, they don't look likely to have queen mum horse,also, with the UDS and AP fiasco, Ricci just may well take a view of going for it while the chance is there.

You may think that if connections of SS didn't go for it with him, why should anyone else, but they had finians in the queen mum, mullins/ricci, aren't likely to have anything in there......I think it's worth a speculative punt as it's not hard to imagine huge momentum gathering behind the horse, particularly if the queen mum looks as weak as it did this year.

sire de gury was the best ,closely followed by tammys hill,vantour will win the arkle ,holywell will grand national in 2 years time

Sire de Grugy's brilliant performance in the 2 mile Champion G1 Chase.  Destroyed the field with a devastating turn of foot just as he did previously at Ascot.

MoT for me. At the prices Josses Hill 12/1 makes most appeal. All things considered ran a cracking Arkle trial.

More Of That, hope they stick to hurdles again next year. There's not much value in antepost betting these last 5 years, bookies (and punters) are far too switched on/focused on Cheltenham all year round

The New One to come third in a very hot CH despite losing all momentum. Will pish in next year - Vautour or no Vautour

agree ante -post has aLL BUT DIED   R.I.P.        BOOKMAKERS ARE NOW KNOCK -OUT MERCHANTS ?  think seven out of seven or therby  ..

how can you tip a horse to win the arkle when its not jumped a fence

Vautour looks a different class, and hard to tell at this stage, but it looks a really poor Supreme.  Faugheen was very special, reminded me about Simonsig; not the best of jumpers, but has a huge engine to compensate.

Diakali ran a blinder in the County Hurdle off top weight, carrying about half a stone more than anything else.

Sire De Grugy silencing the doubters was a big highlight for me, but I'll be in therapy for years trying to forget the name Western Warhorse.

As much as it pains me to say it, for Western Warhorse to win an Arkle after only one chase is a pretty damn good achievement, and would be the performance of the festival for me, because he beat a serious rival in the Arkle in Champagne Fever.  He didn't fluke it, CF ran a blinder and both pulled well clear of the rest.

^ Western Warhouse also a good example of an owner insisting on dictating the running plans and being proven correct.

Credit to D Pipe for being so open and relaxed about it too - other connections might want to take note!

Couldn't agree more re. Josses Hill. I was looking for Arkle prices before he jumped the last in the supreme!

For me it was The New One, to be hampered in a championship race just when things were about to heat up, and to pass a 2 time champion leaving him standing was mightly impressive. you can never say for sure on a what if, but STD interview after the race said it all imo

more of that giving annie power half a stone,beating afc,only going to improve aswell !

The thing with TNO,if he had lost stacks of ground up and started a run that saw him closest at the finish, then there would be a sound argument that he may well have won.....but it did not happen like that....he made the ground up that he lost and was with them when they quickened but got left behind as he couldn't go with their pace before closing again after they had used up that vital bit of energy to initially get away from him....it was just like zarkandar's run a couple years back that saw people saying that if he can keep tabs on the front runners he'll win next year, the hampering that occured to TNO will just feed the frenzy.

Ah well, we all see things differently but you can only go with 'the unluckiest horse in training' moniker for so long.

I knew I had Don Poli as a novice chase star

Some good calls on here. Sintonian with Many Clouds for Hennessy

UDS thus far this week.

sintonian    15 Mar 14 13:55 
That said, if I owned Many Clouds I would now save him for the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in November. He must be chucked in off 145!

Best this year so far is surely Faugheen. To win a championship race do easily when still a relative novice was awesome in my book. It is easy to say that the opposition was below the average standard but he had at least a stone in hand of last years winner and Hurricane Fly is still a good yardstick.

Don Poli

Holy shat Vautour
AS and VL are top novices

That was comfortable it, Vatour jumped, just like Best Mate, who couldn't run in his novice year, due to foot and mouth and we all know how good he was. Fantastic jumping.

Pretty impressive from uxizandre as well.
Been spoilt with the jumping performances from UDS, Vautour and Uxizandre this week.

C O N E Y G R E E - best performance of the last few years!

Probably a lot of people voting based on how much a particular horse won them but leaving that aside I'd go:

1. Vautour (by a distance)
2. Don Poli (think he would have beaten Coneygree therefore he deserves to be ahead of him even though he won a lesser race)
3. Coneygree (by virtue of the fact that he was a novice running in the blue riband and led from pillar to post)
4. UDS (frightening potential)
5. Faugheen (in his comfort zone and never looked in danger, still more in him)

Coneygree produced the highest rated performance of the week. Therefore, he is No.1

Coneygree by far the best performance, I didn't backed him(I was on Holywell and Conti) but the way he jumped from the front beating the best around it was amazing, he already done a better Vautour lto(at Newbury) beating 160 rivals by any lengths unlike Vautour beating 150 rivals in the same manner. However Coneygree today he performed to a different level, the way he jumped from the front against proven G1 performers...as a novice... amazing...

willie mullins

a record breaking haul of 8 wins for national hunts finest trainer

^^^ nicholls for me

Mar 13, 2015 -- 5:41PM, timtin wrote:

Coneygree by far the best performance, I didn't backed him(I was on Holywell and Conti) but the way he jumped from the front beating the best around it was amazing, he already done a better Vautour lto(at Newbury) beating 160 rivals by any lengths unlike Vautour beating 150 rivals in the same manner. However Coneygree today he performed to a different level, the way he jumped from the front against proven G1 performers...as a novice... amazing...

agree, because Vatour was very impressive, but today was a much stronger Gold Cup, than last year and the Novice, just ran the lot of them, into submission.

Coneygrees was a great victory but he got a helping hand from the weather.

Best ride: McCoy on Uxizandre. I even commented at the end of the race, so impressive was it.
Best Horse: Vautour. Made it look easy.

you can make it look easy against 150 animals, or you can prove to be alot better than the best around like Coneygree and Faugheen did in a championship race. Vautour put up one of the impressive performances of the festival but not the best IMHO.

Vautour would have won the Arkle, Queen Mother or Ryanair this week imo. He was awesome, destroyed 4 of the best novices we've seen this year.
But Conygree has beaten the best there is, and stuffed most of them, in the blue ribbond, so it has to be him.

A bit left field but some of the beaten ones that I thought put up great performances were:

1. Djakadam to finish second in a Gold Cup as a 6 year old was fantastic - ran a lot better than I thought.
2. Hurricane Fly - say no more.  Racing royalty where the ground was against him and fully justified his place in the race
3. Somersby - went off at huge odds, but second in two QMCC's now (as well as 2nd in an Arkle and 3rd in a Supreme).  I thought he was going to win it jumping the last