Cheltenham Gold Cup 2015

Maruco said:
That's a pretty rough decision then unless there's something we don't know then. Lord Windemere didn't travel an inch just the same as every other Culloty runner all season.

A scapegoat for Culloty as he tries to hang on to Lambe's patronage maybe?
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Lambe be seems to be the most patient/ luckiest owner in the game.
 
clivex said:
Agree witn every word.

im not against five days and it would make sense for one day to be geared towards the roots of the sport as we should say perhaps..

also I frankly dislike having the sister shaggers ramming fox hunting down our throats at these events. Clapping a load of smelly dogs shitting on the course with some fat beetroot faced prick with a trumpet..

a farmer hunting event with a pack of lions would be more of a fun spectacle imo. Leave the foxes alone. They don't **** our taxes up the wall on Soanking new range rovers.
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Thanks you Clive, you've made my point very effectively.


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Really can't agree with a 4 mile handicap chase being added. This festival is the pinnacle of the sport and shouldn't be polluted with what would ultimately be a trials race. There's also no realistic solution to it clashing with Uttoxeter.

I also have issue with the Ryanair for hurdlers. The staying hurdler division is already criticised for its lack of quality and this race would only further dilute it. It would also reduce the quality in the Coral Cup.

A veterans race should be added first.
 
The veterans chase is a good idea -conditions race or limited handicap ?.Two races that could be transferred from other courses are the EBF Final and the mares final from Newbury.
 
I really don't like veterans races. The notion that a 10 year old is a veteran is total nonsense.

Not everyone's cup of tea but I'd sooner have a shorter cross country race and take a bit of pressure off the other two courses.

I'd also like to see them do more to attract French/overseas horses over to the Festival. Perhaps a race or two that is international invite only would add some genuine variety.
 
Maruco said:
I'd also like to see them do more to attract French/overseas horses over to the Festival. Perhaps a race or two that is international invite only would add some genuine variety.
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You wouldn't get me committing a penny to that race!
 
TheBear said:
It would also reduce the quality in the Coral Cup.
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To an extent yes, but then both the Coral Cup and Pipe Conditions Race are heavily over-subscribed on compressed handicaps. The reality is you might lose one, or possibly two of the highest rated in the Coral Cup. Whisper proved good enough to step up at Aintree, but the reality is that most trainers/ owners will probably elect to run off top weight rather than trying to mix it in the higher grade against horses about 15Ibs better

I think the problem you face is that introducing a fifth day will inevitability further dilute the quality, unless you're able to plug the final hole in the set which is a Gd1 two and a half mile hurdle. The 3 mile staying hurdle division has been lacking depth for some time, largely because it tends to be the last stop on the line for horses that haven't got off at other stations. It possibly isn't helped either by the fact that the Spa hurdle seems to be producing chasers rather than hurdles, as the Supreme and Neptune will invaribaly throw up a very strong champion hurdle candidate every year

If you get a gd1 middle distance hurdle though, that will hopefully evolve to occupy a status comparable to the RyanAir or the Neptunes in the novice world. If you don't then it's simple really. You can't keep adding handicaps over more days and expect the intensity of the quality to remain. It can't happen as it means the same numb er of grade 1 races are having to be allocated over a longer timeframe

I think you reach a point where you're better off to round up the weaker races, not all of which appeal to the wider punter anyway, and throw them into one palpably weaker day in order to reinforce the quality of the other four. It helps that NH racing has a natural, sizeable, and loyal constituency to whom these races appeal. It's a model that courses have used before. It's also the case that they represent the grassroots of the sport throughputting a lot of equine talent from the point to point circuit

I'm not so sure myself that I wouldn't be in favour of simply abandoning the mares race and altering it's conditions as a straight swap. It might be interesting to know what the median OR's for the mare hurdles and Coral Cup. I've no idea of course, but I'm heavily suspicious as to whether its really a Gd1, even though I seem to think the pattern committee requires a 3 year average to award them such status, so it must be better than the impression that I've formed at least

Perhaps they could introduce a selling hurdle
 
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This year

6 of the 25 horses who ran in the Coral Cup were rated <140
8 of the 15 horses who ran in the Gd1 Mares race were rated <140, about a quarter of the field wouldn't have got in the Coral Cup and some wouldn't even have made the Pipe race

If memory serves me right, wasn't the race introduced as a bit of a sop to the 20F conditions hurdle lobby, particularly Nicky Henderson. The 'quality' solution would be to abandon the mares race and open it up
 
Maruco said:
That's a pretty rough decision then unless there's something we don't know then. Lord Windemere didn't travel an inch just the same as every other Culloty runner all season.

A scapegoat for Culloty as he tries to hang on to Lambe's patronage maybe?
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Davy quoted as saying he retains the rides on Dr Lambe's horses at the Weld stable.
 
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