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The Thursday card is distinctly underwhelming. The "highlight" is really for horses not fast enough for the championship distance and who can’t jump fences. The Ryaniar is a consolation prize, and the rest of the races below the standard we expect from the festival.
There are too many races, and the competitiveness is diluted.The Cheltenham Festival is the best four days racing in the World. However, it was an even better 3 day Festival. I agree, the Ryanair is not a great race like other "principal races" are. Takes horses away from the Queen Mother Kalahari King et al; and Gold Cup Imperial Commander et al. It’s also dummed down the 2 1/2 mile handicap Fondmort et al.
The one good introduction is the Fred Winter. Triumph was a hard race with a lot of no hopers, now there’s another race to go for and Triumph is now a race for the Champion 4 year old.
New novice chase, the new Jewson has made the Arkle and RSA lesser races, only 10 runners in one and 11 in the other. If Wishful Thinking wasn’t around, Arkle winner Captain Chris would not be an Arkle winner. Wishful Thinking would’ve given the RSA principles a run for their money. Noble Prince would’ve been an interesting runner in the Arkle. It just makes the quality less evident in each race.
If there is a Championship race for the 2 1/2 milers now, why do we need the Centenary Handicap Chase?The reason why Cheltenham has been so good over the years, is the quality and competitiveness of every race. A fourth day has been detremental to most existing races.
Value Is EverythingVery much agree with the first two posters. However, we might aswell as accept it as it is not going away.
In fact, its more likely to become longer, not shorter. Now that is something which, IMO, would be of great detriment to the festival.
I like the Ryanair, personally, but I do think that another day of the Festival would be a touch pointless.
Twitter=@PGHenn
So don't run, just like the others always do
Must admit I was feeling rather underwhelmed by today’s racing but the Ryanair and World Hurdle have been among the best races of the week, superb rides from McCoy and Walsh respectively.
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Make it 3 days but get rid of all the handicaps imo.
Yes there should be 2m, 2m4f and 3m hurdle and chase races and for novices, that’s 12 races, you can then throw in 6 handicaps and you have 18 races for 3 days.
I was unsure about the 4 days and there have been some underwhelming races this week but you couldn’t imagine it being less than 4 now could you?
I was unsure about the 4 days and there have been some underwhelming races this week but you couldn’t imagine it being less than 4 now could you?
Yes, quite happily!
Least favourite day of the week for me.
I forget who, but someone on Twitter a few weeks ago said Cheltenham should be like the Olympics, not a school sports day where everyone gets a prize.
While I’m all for mares races, can you imagine if Dawn Run had skipped the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup to roll out once every 12 months to win a single sex race? And all the mid-trip races… while they’re at it, why don’t they bulldoze the course flat for all the horses that can’t handle undulations?
As for Saturday.. well if they must, make it like Ascot and put the Thursday card on then. But I’d really rather they didn’t.
Todays card was dreadful by championship standards, what was that 5.15 rubbish all about. Even Gold Cup day is not great with the conditional race. I prefer the County to finish proceedings.
Bring back a three day festival but run it Friday to Sunday
I remember once when John Francome said you could take virtually any Festival race and run it on a Saturday and it would be the big race of the day. There is no way you could say that now.
After 5-6 years the Jewson Handicap had in my opinion become a worthwhile addition to the Festival but now the race has been diluted even further just for the sake of adding one more race to the schedule.
To be honest, given events in Japan, Libya and elsewhere, Cheltenham has simply not had the focus or the coverage this year that it has enjoyed in previous years and its limitations have been laid bare.
Even in sport, the cricket World Cup and the Champions League have got more headlines and a semi-detached view from a more Flat racing fan is that there seems a very introspective attitude within NH racing this week.
I don’t know why – perhaps the Irish economic and political problems have taken some of that joie de vivre away from the fixture. Perhaps it is so over-hyped by RUK and ATR and the RP that we simply have got tired of the endless talking about it, the stable tours, the jockey interviews, the panels, the preview nights. The whole thing is dissected and analysed and talked to death from mid-January onward and it just gets boring.
You don’t get the same pre-meeting build up with Aintree, Royal Ascot, Goodwood or any other meeting. Ultimately it is because the NH season is too Cheltenham-centric. The meeting has become a bloated corporate-stuffed monster and it needs to be cut back and cut down and a proper festival set up on a right-handed track earlier in the season to act as a counterpoint to Gloucestershire in March.
I wish that Saturday was included then I could maybe go or at least watch it live … it is so frustrating having to wait until I get home to find out what’s happened.
Wish Mr Gillespie would recognise that you can have too much of a good thing.
I much preferred the three day format. In my view the only worthy additional race is the Mares race and even that has taken horses away from better races.
….. what was that 5.15 rubbish all about.
That "rubbish" was a fun race, run outside the rules of racing but one which raised over £150,000 for a very worthwhile charity in the process.
Don’t see any problems tagging such races on the end of a meeting . . . that way people can take it or leave it. Quite a few thousand did stay on to watch the race.
The race itself may not be one that lives in the memory but the smiles on the faces of all those who took part in the race, win or lose, will remain for a long time.
Agreed Paul,
I am against a fourth day, let alone a fifth; but there’s nowt wrong with a charity race like that; thought it was done well, far better than at Aintree.
Value Is EverythingThankfully, despite a few protests on this thread, the four days are here to stay. 50,000+ are voting with their feet each day.
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