One of racing’s best trainers had endured a scarcely credible barren spell until Harry Cobden’s fine frontrunning rideHow the mighty had fallen. A 13-times British champion trainer who had saddled the first home in 46 Festival races including four Gold Cups, six Champion Chases and one Champion Hurdle before Thursday’s card got under way, Paul Nicholls might have been forgiven for wondering if he would ever again welcome one of his charges back into the winners enclosure during the annual March festivities at Cheltenham.Given all his previous successes, masterminded in partnership with the help of household names such as Kauto Star, Denman, Frodon, Big Buck’s and Flagship Uberalles, among others, by his own remarkable standards one of the best trainers...
Irish riders could be forgiven for thinking that the Brits are on their case when the Festival starts on TuesdayA modern-day Cheltenham Festival involves 28 races and around 400 horses, supports a significant cottage industry of preview nights in the months beforehand and is the only thing on the mind of most racing fans once the Christmas decorations are packed away, if not before. With so much to consider, it is fair to say that no one has ever seen much need for something new and divisive to argue and fret about in the run-up to the biggest meeting of the year.The British Horseracing Authority, however, apparently thinks differently. It could have introduced its new rules on the use of...
The increased popularity of the Festival has boosted the local economy and led to greater scrutiny of horse racingIf the demand for hotel rooms in the local area is any guide to a sporting event’s popularity, the news that plans for a “fan village” near Cheltenham racecourse during the Festival this week have been ditched should, on the face of it, give the meeting’s organisers some cause for concern.A local entrepreneur planned to use shipping containers, parked within walking distance of the course, as somewhere for racegoers to rest their heads after a hard day at the track (and, for a fair proportion at least, a harder night on the town). But only 16 of the 300 beds had been...
Davy Russell has high hopes of adding to his 25 Cheltenham Festival winners after Kennedy misses flagship meetingJack Kennedy, the No 1 rider for Gordon Elliott’s powerful Irish stable, has been ruled out of the Cheltenham Festival later this month after failing to recover in time from a broken leg, sustained in a fall at Naas in January.“He tried his best, but it [the Festival] is just coming too soon,” Kevin O’Ryan, the rider’s agent, said on Friday. “He is keen to get back as soon as possible, but he is going to give it all the time it needs. Hopefully it will be a couple of weeks after Cheltenham.” Continue reading...
Even bookmakers were less than ecstatic about the prospect of adding another meeting to the jumps season’s highlight For a venue that was built on expecting the unexpected, and on an afternoon that veered from bright sunshine to downpours and back again, there was an odd sense of certainty as Cheltenham opened the doors for its new season on Friday. The Festival in March has been a four-day meeting since 2005, and despite years of debate, speculation and rumours that a fifth day was all but inevitable, the track announced earlier this week that that is how it will stay.More than 3,000 of Cheltenham’s 8,000 or so annual members responded to a survey on a fifth day, according to Ian...