The rule introduced to prevent horses appearing twice at jump racing’s toughest meeting is a very welcome one
Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of changes to historic races, but I’m wholly in agreement with the change to this year’s Cheltenham Festival that prevents any horse from running there more than once in the same year. Rule changes made it hard to do so at last year’s Festival but it was still just about possible. Now there are new race conditions which will prevent any horse from being declared for a Festival race if it has already been declared for another Festival race, or has run already at that Festival.
There have been some great examples of resilient horses that ran twice in years gone by, mostly from the days when the Festival was only three days long. I think Our Armageddon was the most recent winning example, when he landed the Cathcart Chase in 2004, two days after being pulled up in Well Chief’s Arkle. The glorious Mysilv was an extremely game second in the Stayers’ Hurdle of 1996, having run sixth in the Champion Hurdle two days earlier; she’d never tried three miles before.
Related: Cheltenham plan Festival fence change to reduce risks for horses and jockeys
Ayr 1.30pm Lastin’ Memories; 2.00 Galvin 2.35 Glittering Love; 3.05 Camile;3.35 Effet Special 4.10 See Double You; 4.40 Lilly’s Arc
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