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Highs –
The New Lion living up to his name. Total class act. All granite.
Doddiethegreat showing great heart and giving me my biggest win of the meeting.
Rishi meeting his match with the mare Bossiemouth … aka Gemma Collins.
Willie Mullins missing out on the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup.
Princess Anne looking more miserable than a bulldog sucking webbox off a cactus.Low –
The Champion Hurdle! Should’ve been the race of the meeting but turned out to be the worst Champion Hurdle I’ve ever seen. My interest in the entire meeting felt like a slow puncture after that.
Not a NH fan but do watch Cheltenham
Highs as Jonjo Jnr is my neighbour has to be his two wins shows how hard these lads/lasses work he was off to work again 6.15am next morning
lows
Springfield Bay loss
and them false starts, i am no horse rider but surely a tape behind the backsides about 20 yards from the start would be better, sure that use to be the case, so obviously someone upstairs thought it needed changing
It was great to hear John Hunt’s dulcet tones back for the Gold Cup.
Regarding the starts I’ve seldom seen a better line in a big field than when they lined up for Ultima on the first day, yet he called it a false start. Thought it would be a struggle after that. I’m afraid I’ve never rated Robbie Supple as a starter, always been poor in my book. Sophie Upton is an excellent starter.
The race of the week for me was the Turners novices hurdle, 3 quality animals.
Fact to File won well but don’t think it was a great field for the race.Turners novice was brilliant wasnt it. I think everyones agreed about that and nice to see the winner based in the UK, would have been easy for JP to move him to Ireland when he bought him. I think Final Demand will end up being a Gold Cup contender in time and The Yellow Clays a lovely horse too
Agree, the Turners was the race of the week.
Harry Skelton deserves some credit for what was possibly the ride of the week. Plenty of people (including myself) have questioned him around Cheltenham. In previous years he has sent some horses for home too soon. However, I think he has learned from his mistakes and rides the track well now. It was a great ride which I doubt he would have delivered a few years ago.
McManus tends to leave the horses he buys with their original trainers, so I don’t think it was ever a consideration to move him from Skekton.
Plenty to be excited about going forward.
The New Lion, Inothewayurthinkin, Fact To File – my goodness they promise plenty for the future.
Wasn’t a great Festival for Elliott, his light has dimmed somewhat since the glory days when he threatened the Mullins domination.
Even Willie himself, ten winners apart, must be feeling so near but so far away as the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup slip through his grasp.
Cromwell continues his rise through the ranks, he’s now right there with De Bromhead behind Mullins on the Irish training pecking order. Henry showed yet again that few are as skilled as him at getting them to Cheltenham in March on song.
Good festival for Mark Walsh and young O’Neill. Townend, Like Mullins himself, will be ruing the ones that got away. But young Danny Gilligan riding two winners and Brian Hughes riding a winner were the jockey highlights for me.
“….would have been easy for JP to move him to Ireland when he bought him.”
High’s of the week.
JP still here and long may he continue to do so.
Firstly. Sorry to hear about the loss of your dad He didn’t like the ground. It’s clear to see how much you miss him and I hope the memories you shared with him give you some comfort.
Highs. From a financial point of view. The double I had of Woodhoh in the last with humble spark at Southwell turned a losing week into a winning one. So that was well received.
Overall my thoughts are that the festival can still give you moments that no other event can! For me, Golden Ace, the Mikey o Sullivan double, bob ollinger and Willie winning the triumph with a 100/1 shot were all fantastic.
But this carry on of having what??? 7 odds on shots across the 4 days is what taints the whole week! It should be 3/1 minimum the field in just about every race. Galopin Des Champs/ Kopek Des bordes & Majborough were all utterly dreadful value.
Thanks cider , I agree it’s poor having so many odds on shots however loads got turned over , considering the ground the good horses should have been moping up however many of the had flaws , Marjborough can’t jump , Jonbon can make a mistake and hadn t won at the festival … It paid to take them on this week
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
All those odds on chances, yet two of the biggest certainties of the meeting – Fact To File and Dinoblue – started odds against!
I’ll be honest I played limerick lace against dinoblue as I thought she was vulnerable , Fact to File was impressive and I’ll be playing him for the KG and a repeat next year , can we trust Mullins to go to Kempton though
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Highs:
The equine performances were at times breath taking.
Highly entertaining races throughout the week.
Golden Ace and others who had a go took on the good things and won- in racing anything can happen
Gordon Elliott re-routing my nap of the meeting from the mares novice hurdle to Limerick on Thursday and obliging at 11/1- sorted my week outLows:
Its still 4 days – please move the tier 2 races to the April meeting and revert the festival back to a 3 day festival would make it so much better
Wondering why we have to wait till Cheltenham for this level of excitement and entertainment in national hunt – few races surely = more competitive more exciting racing.
The nonsense that I heard discussed on ITV racing before I forgot to mute in between races
The music and dancing before the triumph hurdle
See so many horses return at SP’s bigger than their ante post prices –
People talking about Cheltenham 2026 targets after the races – enjoy the moment people
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