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“If I were the boss at NTF or PJA, I’d be telling members, leave it to ‘the officials’ representing the track, the organisation that should face full liability.”
Rishi Persad made a similar point the other night in a poor defence of his Racing TV colleagues who called it wrong on the day. Think he was bowling when the race was run.
But exactly how would that work? The course says the track is fit to run the race but the jockeys say it isn’t?
Do the jockeys still have to ride in the race despite them thinking it is unsafe, because the officials says it is?
It cannot work unless the jockeys are involved.What Racing TV should have been concentrating on was what a good race it was, instead of continually moaning the race shouldn’t have been run.
At least the going will change from the usual – What ever Nicky Henderson wants
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Reports state that since the start of the year Cheltenham has had over 210mm (7 inches) of rain and that was on ground that for the November meeting was officially soft and for the December meeting was officially good to soft (although all the hurdle race times were closer to soft ground).
With the course currently somewhere between good to soft and soft https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/cheltenham/owners-and-trainers/the-going/ there is absolutely no need to start watering because with the amount of rain we have had since the start of the year Cheltenham’s water table must be very high and as such it will not take main rain to halt the drying and revert the course back to soft.
If it was good ground all round and still drying out and little rain forecast then you could understand starting to water now to maintain that level but to start watering now is an absolute joke, as you only need the weather to throw you a curve ball forecast and then you are looking at potentially deep winter ground again (which we should only be getting if the weather intervenes).
This is just crazy. I get it wanting decent,so called safe jumping ground but to interfere this way is just wrong. Let the cards fall the way they will. From a selfish point of view id love it to be very soft as id love to see gdc win a third gold cup but truly good to soft is the aim. Watering now definetely runs the risk of sudden down pours changing the going very quickly. I can see loads of outsiders winning if this meddling doesnt stop. The first days card is incredibly competetive and not being sure of what the ground is could make it a lottery
remember a few years back when they watered then had a downpour on the Wednesday and ended up with almost unraceable ground
given the volume of rain weve had since the turn of the year surely they can just let it run its course-
It’s all about public perception in avoiding fatalities. Fair enough but don’t create false ground. You don’t want to overwater and open up another sinking drain!
I don’t have the statistics but when the field sizes for a number of races in the former 3 day Festival were often at their max was the fatality rate higher pro rata than now with the number of runners?
One of reasons I didn’t want a 4 day Festival was that more races would likely increase the fatality rate for the whole meeting.
According to BBC its light drizzle or light rain every day at Cheltenham between now and next Friday. According to XC there’s loads of rain about. What on earth are they playing at watering? We could have absolutely perfect jumping ground for the best horses to thrive if they just leave it alone.
Pullin has said: “If we leave the New course alone and don’t get very much rain until Wednesday or Thursday we could be far too quick.”
What does “far too quick” mean? Genuinely good ground?
I struggle to believe it will go good to firm after the wet winter.
Let nature decide about the ground. If you think good or good to soft ground is too fast, don’t run. But why virtually exclude fast ground horses from the Festival?
“But why virtually exclude fast ground horses from the Festival?”
Because the horses from the powerful Irish connections which keep Cheltenham going are better suited by the soft ground they have raced on all winter?
Yes,CAS. They will keep buying horses suited by softer ground and the home team will rarely get into double figures, let alone have the luxury to have a horse being aimed at multiple targets. No Irish entry is ever dependent on a British horse’s target.
I live in andoversford about five miles from track, we probably have had a bit of rain think it was the Friday before last, walked track yesterday only from top of hill to winning line and thought it was perfect good to soft going(btw I am no expert) can’t see why watering.
Been cold and bit of frost Thursday morning cloudy and cold today.Did they avoid that rain last night?
Hammered down all the way home from Cheltenham to Taunton last nightGaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
They were mentioning that they were looking to the possibility of watering after racing today – sunshire and bright blue skies with a breeze all day and the ground based on times is clearly good rather than good to soft (good in places).
The slowest race off the day (Brown Advisory) was only by 2.62s, the Cross Coutry course is neigh on good to firm as that race was fast by 8.61s but they never water that part of the course so that time is not a true reflection of the main course.
The QMCC was run stupidly fast early but overall was still fast by 0.16s, the Turners and Bet MGM races were also under standard – will be gobsmacked if they don’t water.
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