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If the name isn’t familiar, he’s the man now running Cheltenham. He’s provided a piece of PR that has been printed in the Racing Post, promoting his plans to improve the Festival ‘experience’ for racegoers.
Good as all that sounds, it doesn’t address what I’d regard as his biggest problem. Which is the dismally small number of locally trained horses turning out for the feature races. Because if British trainers won’t run their horses, where’s the incentive for British punters to pay £100 to watch the racing.
We now have the final decs for Tuesday – and the four Grade 1 races have a total of 12 British trained runners. Two in the Supreme Novice, two in the Arkle, five in the Mares Hurdle, three in the Champion Hurdle. The majority of which will be rank longshots.
It’ll be the same on Wednesday when we’re already down to a maximum of one possible local runner in the Brown Advisory.
Now we all know why it’s like this and what has happened over the last 20 years to cause this decline – and maybe I’m completely wrong in thinking that the lack of local horses to cheer is a factor. But to me, that letter reads rather like a plan to improve the bars, the catering and the entertainment on the Titanic.
Imho as long as you got good puhting options to have chance to cover costs with a win or two or make dent in it thats what matters .
Iam old fashion if i want a load beers and sit in a bar there is a pub , i go racing to see the horses , have a bet , and odd beer , or cold drink . Thats it .
Dont mind seeing Mullins win a lot , saw him at Caulfield few years back saddling Siminon , he was happy to chat with racegoers and give bit of time , as Chris Waller is in OZ , these guys sell the game .Don’t think much of JP McManus’s idea to reduce the number of runners in the handicaps at Cheltenham to 20 to make them more competitive. Think it’s a daft idea and smacks of self interest, from someone who has lots of runners in lots of races.
Apparently though it is seriously being considered by Cheltenham and got a big thumbs up from the panel on Luck on Sunday.There is already a thread about Mr Lavender’s letter in the Cheltenham forum:
Open letter from the chief exec of Cheltenham regarding expected attendance.
But I agree that the lack of good British trained runners is an issue. Not everyone in the crowd has an RTV subscription or is following Irish racing on a regular basis.
I posted on the Gold Cup thread they might as well run the race at Leopardstown. That is true of several other races at the festival.
The Irish domination & in particular Mullins domination is killing the sport here.Big owners want their horses trained by Mullins,so are actively moving or have moved their horses to Ireland.
IMO there will be no Cheltenham or Aintree or any other jump racing here within 20 years.
Not that Mullins,Irish trainers or these rich owners care less.Money is all that matters nowadays.Only flat racing is now truly top class & competitive here now & even that will end should the Arab owners get fed up & move away.They stay here for the prestige of British Racing.
Further to my previous post to negate Mullins & encourage owners to spread their horses around there needs to be a limit on runners per race per trainer.
I would limit each trainer to 3 runners per race maximum.“Further to my previous post to negate Mullins & encourage owners to spread their horses around there needs to be a limit on runners per race per trainer.
I would limit each trainer to 3 runners per race maximum.”Patrick could get his licence in the first round of the training course/exam modules. Jackie too, if need be.
“Big owners want their horses trained by Mullins,so are actively moving or have moved their horses to Ireland.”
Who moved horses to Ireland/ Mullins from GB?
The Wylies – Tony Bloom – Munir and Souede.
Don’t blame them, in general the results justify the move. None of them had a horse with Mullins 15 years ago, but they’d all had success at Cheltenham, Bloom in the Paddy Power Gold Cup, the others with Festival winners.
The first horse he trained for Tony Bloom was Penhill, who’d run previously in his colours trained by Luca Cumani. OK, it’s flat to jumps and horses change trainers within this country for that. But prior to that, Bloom had NH horses here with Twister, Hobbs, Venetia Williams and Neil Mulholland.
Penhill won five races in his first season with Mullins, which would have convinced anyone to send him sone more!
Mullins vastly superior to any jumps trainer in UK ,systems , skill , he streets them.
I say jumps trainer as id put Haggas up there with him for outright training skill and brainpower . And of course the adventure to travel horses .
Appleby also top notch imho but has factory system in place for him to direct .Cheltenham Day 1 Attendance 2024: 60,181
Cheltenham Day 1 Attendance 2025: 55,498Punters voting with their feet and their wallets.
Wouldn’t have topped 50,000 yesterday without the R4R points gift.
Noticed in the racecard yesterday that there will be a price reduction in membership next year,being Cheltenham this suggests another privilege is being removed.
As for being there yesterday,vast improvement with car parking and they were clear by 6.45 but the same unfriendly staff at the entrance and still the same inane pap music being pumped out of the speakers almost continuously“… inane pap music being pumped out of the speakers almost continuously”
Another modern arrival which detracts from the day out.
Why is it deemed necessary? Is it to generate atmosphere? To get people pumped up? If you’re at Cheltenham, you’re probably already excited.
And let’s not forget that all this noise isn’t good for the most important players: the horses.
Indeed and they even pump it out while the horses are walking around the parade ring,somebody at Cheltenham obviously thinks thats boring
The Wednesday attendance was 41,949. The lowest crowd at the festival in the 21st century.
As recently as 2022 the crowd on the Wednesday was 64,431. To be fair, that figure was partly due to the previous year being behind closed doors.
Nevertheless, Cheltenham has lost about 22,500 customers in three years. Last year’s figure was 46,771, so the trend is downwards no matter what spin is put on it.
Is it purely down to the cost of travel and accommodation? Or are punters not satisfied with the product anymore? Or did interest in Cheltenham reach its peak and all we are seeing now is an inevitable tailing off?
A few shots of the stands today showed a very sparce crowd.
The more I know the less I understand.
Purely selfishly , seeing the smaller crowds has made me keener to head over to go the festival . Been Cheltenham a couple times to that early meeting they have but never the big one. From TV seems like theres room to get about and see the horses easily this yesr .Not bothered about queues for booze , i can make do with bottle water or drinking fountain at races , but want to have good view horses .
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