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Which is the best festival between Cheltenham & Punchestown as in my opinion Punchestown wins by a country mile, last year at the Cheltenham Festival we had at least 2 handicaps with 24+ runners each day whereas Punchestown only had 3 hanicaps the whole festival.
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Ask a stupid question and you’ll get a stupid answer.
After doing 1237 hours of research and talikng to ever forum member exept you and a CH contendeer the majority agree you should get out more and almost to asm voted for the Cannes Film Festival.
Cheltenham is the best four days racing in the World. Was an even better Festival when just three days.
Question:
Is the fact the Cheltenham Festival dominates so much; good for "racing"?
Without it, we’d see the horses far more often during the rest of the year.
I do think the prizemoney at Cheltenham is too much compared with the rest of National Hunt racing. If they were worth a bit less, it would not detter anyone. Where as if other races were worth more, it could persuade trainers to run.
Value Is EverythingRealise I’m going over old ground but I cannot agree that the extension to four days has improved the Cheltenham Festival. For me the Thursday is a real bore.
Have never been to Punchestown, hope I can put that right one day.
Punchestown has also suffered from "greed extension". Five days now and a lot of dross- 6 bumpers ffs! The only good thing about a good depresssion is that hopefully a lot of this extra Festival padding will be reversed.
Even as a patriotic Irishman if I could only go to one it would be Cheltenham and if only one day it would be Champion Hurdle Tuesday.Both have recognised and significant grade 1 races but there is only one Champion hurdle,Champion chase and Gold Cup for me,Cheltenham is something i plan my year round and have done for 25yrs! Having said that i did go to india in March 95 on the promise i would see Tigers in the wild! trying to get a bet on
Coulton
in the Cathcart was a nightmare!
Punchestown has also suffered from "greed extension". Five days now and a lot of dross- 6 bumpers ffs! The only good thing about a good depresssion is that hopefully a lot of this extra Festival padding will be reversed.
I wouldn’t bet on it Carv. I’d love to see the Saturday card removed from the ‘Festival’ and run as a seperate stand alone card like it was up until 2 or 3 years ago but I can’t see it happening. The later starting times the past two years has worked very well though.
Punchestown is a fabulous meeting in its own right but Cheltenham is the Olympics. However, there’s no doubt that the quality of Cheltenham has deteriorated since the introduction of the 4 day festival. For me, the plethora of new races is unwelcome. The Ryanair, the mares hurdle and the new 2m5 novice chase only serve to keep the top horses apart. The conditional jockeys handicap is the biggest joke of the lot. The yacks that run in that should be running around Bellewstown, Ballinrobe, Cartmel, Catterick, Newton Abbot and the likes. Not at Cheltenham.
The day Cheltenham goes to 5 days or to a Saturday Gold Cup is the day it becomes just another meeting. Sadly, I think that day will be upon us sooner rather than later.
I am a huge man Utd fan and have been for 22 years, and if someone offered me a chance to go back in time and see either the Champions league Final of 99 or Kauto Star GC win in 2009 i would choose the later.
Cheltenham festival to me is the closest thing on earth to heaven.
Every single day of the festivl is magical and my whole yar is based around preparation for it
Punchestown is good but does not have the same buzz or excitment imo
I go to both and they are both great for different reasons.
Cheltenham is the wig out – you’ve waited all year and it meets all your expectations.
Punchestown is the chill out – stay in Naas and just enjoy the party.
Preferred the 3 day Cheltenham and 4 day Punchestown though.
Incidentally, don’t know where the stat about 3 handicaps came from; there are at least 8 handicaps at Punchestown, if not more!
Is there any contest?
Cheltenham in a landslide.
Although Cheltenham has nothing to match the Bishopscourt Cup….
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