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When you look at the ridiculously small fields - 10 / 15 years ago a lot of the races had 20 runners in them. That was the point of the festival - the spectre of 20 horses racing in a bunch, jumping and scrimmaging for room, the pack swinging round the home bend and a champion emerging to win the race.
Now take today for example , small fields, 3 races with odds on shots with fields of 8,6,7. I’m not including the handicaps in this as they’ll always be well subscribed. This is meant to be a championship meeting where the best meets the best, not having so many races means that the likes of Lossiemouth can dodge the champion hurdle and run in the mares hurdle, and so forth.. All it means is that Stateman doesn’t get pushed out of his comfort zone and we have the lowest rated champion hurdle winner for 20 years.
It’s not helping the breed and it’s not creating true champions . All it does is raise revenue for the racecourse with people coming in the gate but with regard to it being a true championship festival it is sadly not.
I love watching the racing and love Cheltenham and every year I wished it went on for longer..
But The only solution in my opinion is to cull some races and go back to 3 days with 6 races per day. This will ensure we have big fields again, without 1-3 shots and the best horses will have to face each other and there will be true champions again. Not these plastic champions winning the accolades for defeating nothing of note.
Now take today for example , small fields, 3 races with odds on shots with fields of 8,6,7. I’m not including the handicaps in this as they’ll always be well subscribed. This is meant to be a championship meeting where the best meets the best, not having so many races means that the likes of Lossiemouth can dodge the champion hurdle and run in the mares hurdle, and so forth.. All it means is that Stateman doesn’t get pushed out of his comfort zone and we have the lowest rated champion hurdle winner for 20 years.
It’s not helping the breed and it’s not creating true champions . All it does is raise revenue for the racecourse with people coming in the gate but with regard to it being a true championship festival it is sadly not.
I love watching the racing and love Cheltenham and every year I wished it went on for longer..
But The only solution in my opinion is to cull some races and go back to 3 days with 6 races per day. This will ensure we have big fields again, without 1-3 shots and the best horses will have to face each other and there will be true champions again. Not these plastic champions winning the accolades for defeating nothing of note.
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I think the turners could turn into a h'cap same as one the mares but the biggest problem is the British trainers and owners they just dont want to take the Irish on. They big up there own horses in the media after winning some egg and spoon race over here but when it comes down to it they would rather keep them in there stable fooling themselves that they have a future champion or wait to Aintree to avoid the Irish.
thing with the irish/eng horses is we,re not talking lbs and ounces ,were talking beaten 100 lengths and more, hope it wins for them but paddy and fergal got this horse to chelt tomorrow portrayed as a possible superstar and might be beaten a furlong by the irish horses in front of it in betting
Take it back to 3 days, today will be the first time in years i won't bother watching, i'm going fishing as the season ends on Friday
I agree. The 4 day Festival should never have happened.
Cheltenham is becoming a serious dead duck for many reasons. Look at this year. No competition no atmosphere. Boring and dead.
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