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Is the juvenile handicap really such a good idea?
Going to be a poor spectacle tomorrow, compared to previous Triumph Hurdles.
But it was a terribly rough and tough race for juveniles when you used to get fields of 30 runners.
I’m not a great fan of the move to a four day Festival, but the introduction of the Fred Winter Hurdle is one plus that’s come out of it.
I’ve been watching the festival for more than thirty years now although only managed to go this year for the first time. I just wondered what others opinions were on move to four days?
Whatever I preferred the three day Festival. Four days is just too much for me and the quality of the racing is decreasing.
I am pretty sure that the simple economics of having an extra day will mean no way back to the shorter meeting.
Four days suits me fine, just as extending the Royal Meeting to include the saturday suited.
Six races on all days is preferable to seven, as was the case on the last two days previously.
Upgrading the Ryanair to Grade 1 would be a good move imo.
All I miss about the three day fixture is the run of four succesive chases on the thursday – Gold Cup, Foxhunters, Grand Annual, Cathcart; nirvana.
The addition of a fourth day has clearly diminished the meeting, for me, but there is no prospect whatsoever of Gillespie and Co. learning from their mistakes and reverting to a three-day meeting.
Four.
Three days is just too short for such a monumental occasion. After May, all the major festivals on the level are four days plus. You can really get into it and it’s a test of a punters skill, endurance and self-belief.
All three days did was encourage bigger bets.
I’d add the Uttoxeter card to Saturday to make it a five day festival, like Goodwood. The Staffordshire track is a poxhole in comparison.;)
Quote: from EC on 3:46 pm on Mar. 19, 2006[br]prefer 3..Thursday is just not cutting it with me at the mo<br>
So you’d like Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday then EC? :biggrin:
<br>My opinion is that FOUR days is best, I’m not a fan of the NH season to be honest but when a meeting like Cheltenham comes along and all the top horses taking part it’s an occasion to savour, therefor best that there are four days, the rest of the season is a big come down apart from the National meeting at Aintree ofcourse.
The Gloucestershire Echo reported yesterday from Edward Gillespie that they are going to gather opinions about running the Gold Cup on Thursday (albeit not until after next year’s Festival). This sounds like even the management are thinking four days doesn’t work so well.
2
That would give plenty time to have proper top class racing without the hcaps and amateur nonsense.
What do we really need?
The 4 championship races. The big 4 novice races. The triumph. And upgrade the Ryanair.
That’s 10 races. Add another 2-4 races to cover anything that’s not catered for in the existing 10.
And you’d have the breeders cup of jump racing.
Steve
Been on the fence on this one before but coming round to 4 days now
Slightly less manic and its true that 7 race cards are just a bit much on what is a long day…
Not quite sue why the thursday is being knocked so hard. Taken as it is, how many better NH days will there be in this years calender?
Thursday’s card in particular and the h’caps and amateur stuff in general didn’t interest me. What’s laying a horse out for a h’cap hurdle got to do with championship jump racing?
3 days over 4 i would say as in the present form the world hurdle day is very poor no wonder the bookies had a field day, was it created for them??? Strike a balance at least, all the other 3 days have at least 2 somtimes 3 top quality (gold cup day has gold cup , triumph and county hurdles with the novelty foxhunters thrown in ) but im sure another race could be changed to boost the thursday program and make it a more punter friendly card. My suggestion would be maybe the cross country chace or as an addition a 2 mile 5yo champion chace therefore making the arkle what it was and always should be a level weight champion novice chace for the 6yo’s and above. This then would add extra excitement for the following years champion chace.
Quote: from Lingfield on 7:01 pm on Mar. 19, 2006[br]Thursday’s card in particular and the h’caps and amateur stuff in general didn’t interest me. What’s laying a horse out for a h’cap hurdle got to do with championship jump racing?<br>
I have to agree with Lingfield on this point. I just get the feeling that Thursday’s card has the feeling of a ‘filler’ to pad the meeting out to 4 days. More does not necessarily meet better.
Rob
Some good views here!
I like the idea of three (or two) consecutive top class days and if they must have a fourth day of good quality NH racing then fine. Do so on the Friday. Those that want can stay on for it.<br>
Agree with the concerns raised over the quality of day 3.
Personally I’d replace the 21f novice handicap chase with a Grade 1 21f novice chase as an alternative to the Arkle and RSA. As the blessed Henrietta pointed out before the Arkle such a race would have been ideal for Racing Demon; and for trainers not keen to give young staying chasers a hard – by reputation – race in the RSA.
I’d name it the Mill House Novices’ Chase in deference to he who chased himself.
This along with the aforementioned promotion of the Ryanair Chase to Grade 1 would then mean three ‘championship’ events to open day 3.
Presumably the Ryanair was given only Grade 2 status in order to maintain the Melling Chase at Aintree as the premier event over the trip. So I guess there may be some problems with the NH ‘pattern’ should it be upgraded. Anyway here’s hoping.
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Tthere’s no chance of the Festival reverting to three days, despite the average racing fan (that’s us, folks!) being in favour of it. Cheltenham is about money and little else these days, so we’re stuck with four days.
Still, were it up to me, I’d have the meeting culminating on a Saturday and the following cards:
Thursday:
Supreme Novices’ hurdle<br>Triumph Hurdle<br>Champion Hurdle<br>William Hill Trophy<br>Grand Annual Chase<br>Pertemps Final
Friday:
Sun Alliance Hurdle<br>Arkle Chase<br>Champion Chase<br>4yo H’cap Hurdle<br>NH Chase<br>Bumper
Saturday:
Sun Alliance Chase<br>World Hurdle<br>Gold Cup<br>Foxhunters'<br>Racing Post Plate<br>County Hurdle
Of course, Sun Alliance wouldn’t be too happy about having their races spread over two days and the Racing Post would be wingeing about having lost television exposure but, sponsors’ interests aside, this seems a good balance of tradition/quality/bookies’ benefit races on each day.
I’ve got rid of the Coral Cup, as we already have one race designed solely to boost bookies’ satchels on each day; the Jewson, for similar reasons; the Cross Country, which has no place at a Championship meeting; the Kim Muir, as it’s too similar to the William Hill Trophy and the amateurs already have the NH Chase; the Ryanair, as the championship race for 2 1/2 milers can wait until Aintree; and the Brit Insurance, as it looks (judging by the way last season’s participants have run this term) too searching a test for novices.
I’ve moved the Triumph to day one, so that horses balloted out can run in the 4yo handicap; in addition, day one is now all about the two-mile hurdlers, with future champions on show before the big one; day two has a similar theme for the two-mile chasers and day three for the staying chasers.
I’d also introduce a minimum rating rule (set at about 140) for the non-novice Championship races.<br>
(Edited by yquem21 at 10:40 am on Mar. 20, 2006)
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