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Cheltenham Problems

Cheltenham is it's own worst enemy and should sit down and have a serious rethink about what it is doing to the sport. And they need to talk to other trainers apart from Henderson who only wants winners there and will wrap them in cotton wool to achieve that. It is becoming so damaging that owners are now conditioned to "want or even expect a Cheltenham winner" when a vast amount of horses will not only not be good enough but not remotely suited by the course but their trainers are under so much pressure they run anyway.

The Racing Media does not help this either. The "Countdown to Cheltenham" "The Road to Cheltenham" are all ridiculous and fuelled enormously by ITV Racing. There are other meetings - good meetings and good races which aren't being supported as a result of this obsession. It doesn't happen on the Flat so why does it happen in the NH division.

I had planned to talk to Guy Lavender in person as he fence stewards at one of my local point to points (good to see that he is down to earth) but I didn't manage to (not going to name the meeting as I suspect he wishes to remain incognito there). But this season I will definitely try to. Just hope he is ready for me....... :ROFLMAO:
 
archie said:
Irish Racing covers the potential move to Wednesday- Saturday in a much more circumspect fashion.

www.irishracing.com

Cheltenham ‘nowhere near’ a decision on Festival scheduling switch

Moving the jumps highlight to Wednesday to Saturday could be considered by the track.
www.irishracing.com www.irishracing.com
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Must have been a slow news day yesterday.
The headline of Cheltenham COULD move has sent people into a frenzy.
I COULD date Margot Robbie, but you'd have to say on the balance of things it's extremely unlikely!
 
As pointed out by Gullible earlier, there’s an arrogance about Cheltenham and they have fallen for the hype themselves. Thus, they believe they are untouchable and can soak the race goers as they wish, forgetting that it is supposed to be a showpiece event for the sport and not just a means of raking in the £s.

When you watch how the Dublin and Punchestown festivals have taken root I say to Cheltenham that you’d better watch out for it’s not going to be long before they become the “go to” events for top class sport (most of the best horses are over there anyway) leaving your Cheltenham to pick up the pieces and killing your cash cow.
 
First went to Cheltenham Mackeson Day 1983, very foggy, couldn't see a lot, next went with my Dad New Year's Eve 1988, glorious sunny day, saw how beautiful the backdrop is.

It's Jump Racing's "HQ," stunning visually and top-class racing.

BUT....

Not exactly the best viewing track, stands set back further from the rail than most, the configuration of the circuit takes them a long way from you, even though it's only 1m4f round, the car park is a nightmare, it's overpriced on every level, you're absolutely rinsed of your extra disposable income if you go.

I really enjoy the Cheltenham Festival - at home.

They'll never get me there, I'd literally want paying to go.

To get those who might go to go, they need to accept slashing profit margins with much lower prices for both admission and food and drink once inside and better customer care generally.

But they may have already done the damage - once you've had one enjoyable "Fez," flying out to watch it in a bar in Spain, the Canary Islands or simply watching it like me at home mob handed with Tesco Finest food and drink all week, why would you ever want to go back?
 
I have been once in 1979 when Alverton won and even then it was not comfortable experience and vowed never to go again. For the last 10 years I always have a few mates round and cook them a hearty lunch before the first race and then settle down to watch with a few beers and devices to hand and enjoy the rest of the day although last year did break with tradition and went to Fakenham as Pointing Pointers were sponsoring the Hunterchase which was also a very enjoyable day and the beer and food outlets were very affordable ie not much more than you would pay in a pub.I actually do not think I would go to Cheltenham if they paid me 😎
 
Ian_Davies said:
I have subjects I know I repeatedly bore people about.

Despising both the racing print and broadcast media so much I read and watch it solely for rare, relevant-to-punters, news (horse runs in race, horse misses race) and live pictures of live racing on silent is one.

Cheltenham and the Festival in particular is another.

I don't dislike the meeting, but I'd never attend and I don't want to even think about it until the six-day confirmations.

I'm fairly sure I annoyed Lydia Hislop when I told her I never watch RacingTV and I considered her "Road To Cheltenham" as part of the problem.

It would be like the football media making one event - say the Champions' League Final - the ONLY thing that really matters in football.

"Good win for Stockport County on Saturday" - "yeah, but can't see them winning a Champions' League anytime soon, though."

You just don't get that myopic focus on one event: I don't care what days they race, I don't care what crowds they've been getting, I don't care what a pint costs there, and I don't care what price a horse who just won a maiden hurdle by 15 is for the three races it might or might not run in at the Festival.

There used to be three (Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, later on, Triumph) ante-post Cheltenham Festival markets - now it's every race bar the handicaps which themselves are priced up at entry.

And the racing media endlessly bang on about who might run in all of them, virtually ignore what's going on that day, and endlessly lap up then regurgitate ante-post prices, including the truly obscene NRNB margins come January.

The media have created a nauseating new breed of racing "fan."

"If you don't want Constitution Hill to bounce back and win the Champion Hurdle, you don't love racing," declares some sockless oaf or other on Twitter/X daily.

I'd say if that's all you care about that's the very definition of not loving racing - it's like watching the FA Cup Final once a year and calling yourself a football fan.

The racing media are c***s of the highest order and they've created a breed of racing "fans" who are c***s of the highest order.

Don't go to overpriced rip off race meetings, and don't listen to any of them - they will pollute your mind, destroy your soul and might even turn you into one of them.

The Cheltenham Festival is crack cocaine for the masses - just say "NO!"
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Spot on. I would add that the handicaps do get priced before Christmas, and I’ve seen people tip one up without the horse even having a weight or an entry.
 
Danny said:
That wouldn't have looked out of place of Point Blank. Cracking summary minus the C-bomb for the people that still condsider it a forbidden word.
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I’ve certainly written on the subject and was planning to again this season, but I’m so bored with it now I can’t even find the spark to do it.
 
I do love the place and it saddens me that it is changing so much and becoming so expensive. That said I have been there for some memorable days which you just cannot appreciate the same if you are sitting at home or in a bar in Benidorm.

Dawn Run's Gold Cup, Constitution Hill's Supreme, Honeysuckle's swansong, Sprinter Sacre's comeback - even last year with Golden Ace winning the Champion and a whole load of us Jezza supporter's singing his greatness by the Winner's enclosure. You just don't get that amazing feeling if you're not there!
 
IMO the great thing about the Cheltenham Festival back in the day was it never tried to be great or to dominate the Jumps season.

The season, from a UK perspective, used to be a succession of big Saturday races - Mackeson, Hennessy, Massey Ferguson, SGB, Great Yorkshire, Schweppes, Imperial Cup, interspersed with the King George at Christmas and a number of series - Embassy Premier, Panama Cigar Hurdle, etc - on the run up to a banging three-day Cheltenham, then onto Aintree.

And Irish racing had a mystique and aura about it as you only saw their best when they ran in Britain.

The good thing is we see the Irish racing now and it's become part of a joint trans-Irish Sea narrative.

The bad thing is this demoralising media focus on the Cheltenham Festival which you thankfully don't get on the Flat - no one thinks the entire Flat season is about Royal Ascot, for example.

To end on a jocular note, I think I need a scapegoat and I'm going to blame it mainly on Lydia Hislop.

A fair bit younger than me, she was the most hardworking trainee journalist I ever met - back in the 1990s, she actually did more work in an afternoon than the rest of the lunchtime booze up staff at The Sporting Life put together.

She richly deserves her career success.

But she created "The Road To Cheltenham" and it's spawned a sick religious cult about the world revolving around four days in March.

Others you could blame include See You Then, for being so fragile he virtually lived in Nicky Henderson's house between Champion Hurdles, giving Henderson the idea only the Fez needs to matter, and Best Mate, for having the same effect on Henrietta Knight and making a mockery of Arkle's feat of winning three Gold Cups by hardly ever appearing inbetween them.
 
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Gullible said:
I have been once in 1979 when Alverton won and even then it was not comfortable experience and vowed never to go again.
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1979 Gold Cup day was also my first experience of the Festival. To be fair, it's the coldest that I've ever been on a racecourse and it was so dark that the last race was only visible via monitors in the bar but that's hardly the fault of the racecourse. My next experience was for the whole meeting in 1983 and the Tuesday was dispiriting but Wednesday brought Badsworth Boy winning the Champion Chase by a distance and Thursday, the Famous Five. I was hooked and after that I went every year until quite recently, cutting down to 2 days just before the meeting was extended to 4 days. Initially in Members but by the early 90s conditions were as primitive as the plebs area so we downgraded to get better value.
The new stands are a huge upgrade on those days but even they were overwhelmed when Peaky Blinders wannabes decided that it was a good day out particularly when accompanied by a liberal amount of white powder, To be fair, those facilities had to be paid for and advanced ticket prices are comparable with much top grade sport such as Premier League, Test cricket, Grand Prix or Wimbledon but I do welcome the restriction on numbers.
When I've been in the last few years, it's just been for a single day's racing unless I had a runner and it's likely that next March, the Wednesday will be my last hurrah there so I have invested in Members and a reserved seat. I think that that will make 95 Festival days and most have been enjoyable but they were certainly enhanced by it being an experience shared with good friends.
 
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I've never been to the festival and wouldn't have minded going once just to say I'd done it.

I've been to the November meeting a couple of times purely due to the meet-ups of forumites (and the fact that it was feasible for me to travel down from Carlisle which was near to where I was working at the time), plus back then (the Fondmort/Rooster Booster Greatwood years) you could get B&B for £18 per night so it was affordable although £4 for a pint of Guinness was definitely steep back then.

For me to go now, someone would need to give me hotel accommodation, transport to and from the course, a hospitality package including drinks, and maybe throw in a couple of good-looking women.

More chance of me getting the Rangers job.
 
Desert Orchid said:
For me to go now, someone would need to give me hotel accommodation, transport to and from the course, a hospitality package including drinks, and maybe throw in a couple of good-looking women.
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An impressive tender from Maurice.

I'm going to undercut him by saying I "only" require: a £1,000 daily fee, hotel accommodation, transport to and from the track, soft drinks only and to spend the four days in the company of Ms Charlotte Church, with the proviso she doesn't start singing "From The River To The Sea," as 1 I don't want it getting political and 2 It sounds too much like a local water table reading and I'm perfectly capable of ascertaining the state of the ground on my own.
 
I love the NH season, but the build ups nauseating.

People tipping up one of Willies at 16/1 to say they got on, rather than collecting the 4/1 readily available in a race 4 months before the festival. All to screenshot their docket on Twitter.

There is actually some half decent judges, but most get a semi on thinking they’ve spotted one called ‘Iknowwayurthinkin’ for National when everyone in racing spotted it, only for it to shit up in the Gold Cup, bypass the National, and cost the ‘shroods’ their 9/2 Galopin dockets.

As a wise man on Twitter says, or said before wrongfully being shut down, 10/1 Samcro Supreme dockets and all that.
 
"someone would need to give me hotel accommodation"

Join a dating site... Plenty of single women around Cheltenham prepared to put me up for a night or two... 🫣
 
A few race name changes might freshen things up -

The Hughesey Thinks He's A Ladies Man Supreme Novices' Hurdle

The Slim You All Know Nothing About This Game Nothing Champion Hurdle

The Walsworth Trainers In Form In February Champion Chase

The Pawras Real Men Use Stats Stayers' Hurdle

and for the final event....

The Slim Get Off My f$%^ing Racecourse Martin Pipe Hurdle
 
Ian_Davies said:
A few race name changes might freshen things up -

The Hughesey Thinks He's A Ladies Man Supreme Novices' Hurdle

The Slim You All Know Nothing About This Game Nothing Champion Hurdle

The Walsworth Trainers In Form In February Champion Chase

The Pawras Real Men Use Stats Stayers' Hurdle

and for the final event....

The Slim Get Off My f$%^ing Racecourse Martin Pipe Hurdle
Click to expand...
What about the "Just Back F*cking Winners Challenge Cup" ?
 
Double J said:
I love the NH season, but the build ups nauseating.

People tipping up one of Willies at 16/1 to say they got on, rather than collecting the 4/1 readily available in a race 4 months before the festival. All to screenshot their docket on Twitter.

There is actually some half decent judges, but most get a semi on thinking they’ve spotted one called ‘Iknowwayurthinkin’ for National when everyone in racing spotted it, only for it to shit up in the Gold Cup, bypass the National, and cost the ‘shroods’ their 9/2 Galopin dockets.

As a wise man on Twitter says, or said before wrongfully being shut down, 10/1 Samcro Supreme dockets and all that.
Click to expand...


Where have you been havent seen you post on here for years ?
 
Ian "pinch the sleep out of the bookies eyes" Davies Network Hurdle to be won by the 9/4F but somebody had 40's the week before.
 

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