Cheltenham - postscript

See below from todays Times..................thought it interesting..............

After a week of upsets and bad breaks, there is no room for complacency over jump racing’s greatest meeting
Many will recognise the post-Cheltenham blues, that sense of weary emptiness once it is over. This year, after a Festival of furious pace and intensity, broken bones and hearts, bewildering results and uplifting emotion, the withdrawal was harsher than ever.
Was it an epic meeting? Probably not, when so many of the expected stars were beaten. From Irving and Hurricane Fly on the first day, through Annie Power and Big Buck’s and so to that extraordinary Gold Cup, the horses that commanded so many advance words and wagers failed to deliver.
In the feature races, the one favourite to triumph was the one that many had doubted. Sire De Grugy’s victory in the Champion Chase, for his wonderfully unpretentious connections, was the high point of a week that contained much to admire but also much to ponder. These were the lessons of the Festival:

1 Willie Mullins may be the first trainer ever to end Cheltenham with four winners and feel disappointed. On Friday night, he was still shaking his head over the defeat of Champagne Fever and the fall of Briar Hill. Watching his Festival team exercise at breakfast-time each morning would have turned any rival trainer green – the travelling party of 40 alone formed a stable of astonishing potential. If Mullins takes his British raids still more seriously next season, he could easily be champion trainer.

2 It was an attritional week, no point pretending otherwise. Even on perfect ground, four horses died and that will always be four too many. Certain reactions, though, turned the stomach more than the losses themselves. Animal Aid predictably used them to pursue an agenda against racing, while sections of the media relished another stick with which to beat a sport that offers heroics aplenty, yet commands headlines only through death, drugs and corruption. Aintree, next month, will once more see racing on a tightrope.

3 If punters wait all year for Cheltenham, think what it is like for the jockeys – and then think how many ended it in hospital. Bryan Cooper, the meteor of Irish jump jockeys, faces a prolonged battle to ride again after breaking his leg with hideous complexity. Daryl Jacob and Ruby Walsh will both be off for several months with compound fractures. Spare a thought, too, for Jason Maguire, who never even made it to Cheltenham. For him, and his family, it became an irrelevance until he survived the critical hours after liver surgery. Jumps riders are not just the toughest of sportspeople but the most honest, compassionate and uncomplaining.

4 The camaraderie of jump racing is a cliché but also a truism, demonstrated time and again even within the pressure cooker of the Festival. When Nicky Henderson was beaten in the Champion Hurdle, his first gracious thought was for the sick husband of the winning trainer, Jessie Harrington. When Jacob buried his head in his hands after a tight photo-finish, the first arm around him was that of the victor, Richard Johnson. And when Tony McCoy, barely able to walk, was asked about his pain, he said: “It’s nothing, compared to Bryan Cooper.” It is the communal ability to express such feelings that sets this sport apart.

5 Nothing has altered my view that Cheltenham should be refining its schedule, not adding further to it. The fourth day has been so successful that it is a strain to recall how everything once squeezed into three, but such praise cannot extend to all the additional races. At least two of the handicaps are make-weights with no place at this level. It is often said, even by some who should know better, that they offer opportunities to those who might normally feel excluded. The Festival, though, is not supposed to embrace mediocrity. Cut back to six races a day and start at 2pm. Allow this elite event to breathe.

6 The remit for Channel 4, when it won the exclusive contract for British racing, was to broaden the sport’s audience. Instead, it seems to be losing the audience it already had. Despite an encouraging increase on Gold Cup day, some of the figures for last week’s coverage were of grave concern. How many switched off after the barmy Tuesday item featuring a pig as a tipster would be interesting to know. As a better recipe for engaging more people with the business of racing, the evening sale in the parade ring on Thursday was a resounding success and must be repeated.

7 Thirteen whip bans were handed out, indicating that it may be time for stern reminders that the much-revised rules could yet be reinforced. The rules became a battleground in 2012 and no one wants a return to the ill feeling and posturing of that period, but time may have erased the lessons learnt on both sides. A return to the win-at-all-costs attitudes of old would be hugely detrimental to the sport.

8 Similar re-education is required over starting protocols. Cheltenham races are run faster than anywhere else, which is as it should be, but that does not mean they should start before the tapes go up. Several races, the Gold Cup included, featured shambolic starts, with horses in a canter even before they had emerged from holding areas. Jockeys should be routinely banned for such indiscipline. False starts are an embarrassment. They need eradicating before Aintree.

Got it about right I'd say

Think you are right there Phil.

too my mind and I don't know why. it was a good cheltenham as it always is,but not a great one,there didn't seem to be the same buzz in the bookies after a race,

still we've got Aintree to come