Cheltenham - 'The Festival'

Hamm

Hamm

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Across this and other forums, I've seen many recent debates regarding the likely target of many horses at the Festival.

Now, i think there are many issues with National Hunt Racing, particularly the lack of occasions when the 'top' horses take each other on over the course of a season. The riposte was always a point regarding the Cheltenham Festival, and it's merit as a Festival of Championship races. Yet now, and of course for the past few seasons, there have been several new races introduced.

So, we have a NH season where horses (or connections, I should say), spend all season avoiding taking each other on, and now they can do the same at the supposed Championship of NH, what with races like the Albert Bartlett and Fred Winter.

What's the point of these, but to ensure horses are kept apart? Of course, the expansion into a 4 day festival needed a further set of races but at the expense of producing definitive Championship events?
 
It's one of my biggest criticisms of the jumps programme in that the increasingly primacy of the festival and the kudos to trainers for winning there might be detrimentally impacting on the other events which are increasingly being relegated to shadow boxing affairs, exercise assignments or handicap mark manipulations. Having said that, it's difficult to argue that the festival provides a focus that the flat programme doesn't really have.

I actually think there would be a commercial case for introducing a 3 day 'Winter festival' which would probably be held at Ascot to incorporate a few top races around the Christmas period, as there's a 3 week window where a whole host of top quality races are run in the London area, and could conceivably be consolidated in a festival format. However, this will require Kempton Park to become a housing development first and I can't imagine Sandown would take too kindly to losing the Tingle Creek, Henry VIII and the 2 mile William Hill handicap hurdle. I suppose that the venue could alternate between the two, but charismatic as Sandown is, it will always be the poor relation to Ascots new facilities and infinately larger capacity. It is just about conceivable that with Aintree following a few weeks after Cheltenham, the triumphrate could be marketed as a triple crown?
 
These Novice Hurdles, can we give them their registered names (Supreme, Baring Bingham and Spa) when they`re under discussion? Someone started a Ballymore Properties thread last year and I was never quite sure if it was the long distance or two and a half miler that was being debated.
 
Connections of top horses avoiding other top horses during the season is not a recent thing, so much so that it is not a 'thing' at all! What I mean is, this has always happened.

In days gone by there were many more conditions races over fences and hurdles, top horses ran a little more often, winning at 1/6 and providing a great spectacle to racegoers who got to see really good horses hacking up. The top horses avoided each other by picking around these little races or occasionally going into handicaps with huge weights.

Nowadays most of those old conditions races are either gone from the program altogether or have been dumbed down into handicaps bearing little relation to their previous life. Shortsighted those decisions have been as less chances to avoid each other means they quite often just dont run at all !

You can't force the connections of the top horses to take each other on. Have a little patience.

I actually believe that the Alfred Bartlett ( Spa Hurdle , 3m novice) is a real good addition to the Festival and is not yet fully recognised as such. Many horses are put up as heading to the festival for the Ballymore Properties ( SunAlliance, 2m4 novice) almost as if they have forgotten the longer race exists and quite often it is clear thats where they ought to be aimed rather than being forced into a different type of race altogether. I dont think the two races are that similar that they clash.
 
The "Winter Festival" is an interesting idea Warbler...take a bit of getting used to and I would imagine there would be plenty of negative reaction from certain quarters. But an interesting one none the less.

This "Cheltenham be all" has been around for years now and it seems the norm that all Grade 1's before hand are simply preps for the Cheltenham features.

UG do the top horses race less often now than in the past? The likes of Kauto Star and Moscow Flyer (two of the modern greats) were hardly wrapped in cotton wool.
 
Gal, I think maybe a little more often, though there are obvious exceptions and, to be fair, some of the top horses from other eras barely ran.

On balance I think it used to be easier to run often and avoid other top horses, whilst nowadays there are less conditions races and consequently more of the top horses in Britain have a more sparingly plotted course.
 
It brings the best of Irish together. It had no problem attracting Best Mate previously and Denman last year. Price money is great. There is no reason why more British trained horses don't make the trek
 
Galileo said:
The "Winter Festival" is an interesting idea Warbler...take a bit of getting used to and I would imagine there would be plenty of negative reaction from certain quarters. But an interesting one none the less.
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I'm sure there would be, and I think it would depend on Kempton being turned into a housing development in the next 10 years in truth. But you'd have a right handed challenge, possibly run on ground softer than Cheltenham declares (although heaven knows what Ascot might turn up). Off the top of my head there's enough quality races in the 3 week period to run a 3 day festival

Tingle Creek (2 mile chase)
Henry VIII (2 mile novice chase)
William Hill H (2 mile handicap Hurdle)
Some 3 and half mile staying chase at Sandown
Xmas Hurdle (2 mile Hurdle)
King George (3 mile chase)
Feltham (3 mile novice chase)
Long Walk Hurdle (staying hurdle)
Novice Hurdle (think theres a 2 mile one on Ascots December card?)
Silver Cup (3 mile H'cap Ch)
and possibly bring the Scilly Isles forward as its dying a death in its current slot, to give us a 2.5 mile chase.
Need a juvenile race?

Throw in a few handicaps and you have a damn good 3 day festival with good attendences at Ascot, or as I said, alternate it with Sandown, although I'd be surprised if the Esher track could race 3 consecutive days in December
 
Oh Warbler, don't be such a tease!! The thought of Kempton being turned into a housing development gets me all excited...!

(even better, built the estate on the AW track and let the jumps track go around it!!!)
 
If trainers want to run for big cash in the winter there's always the idea of running East of Fakenham - not that any of our insular NH trainers would bother with that novel idea, particularly at £120,000 per Grade 3.
 
As I've pointed out before, Kempton now belongs to people interested in maximising their take from / control over a/w racing, and is likely to be kept for that purpose. Imo it's a pawn in another game. But so long as jump racing brings in money as well, it will be safe there; but I don't think jump racing as such interests these guys. Cash, esp 'monopoly cash', does. I don't think their game plan includes co-operating with other courses in the interests of NH racing LOL! - what a quaint old-fashioned idea
 
If trainers want to run for big cash in the winter there's always the idea of running East of Fakenham - not that any of our insular NH trainers would bother with that novel idea, particularly at £120,000 per Grade 3.
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Me no unnerstan.
 
HS, it is the jump racing at Kempton which makes the place viable! Without the King George meeting the place would surely fold - that and the NH cards are about all that attract any punters.

So the idea that they don't care about the jump racing at Kempton is a no-brainer, I'm afraid.
 
In fairness, the levy payments Kempton get for their sparsely attended floodlit cards are probably a large contributory factor in their survival, but they are absolutely crucifying racing as an enjoyable experience. I nearly chucked myself off the stand last night, it was so depressing.
 
Of course the levy payments are helping them keep afloat, or more likely the money they are receving from TurfTV for showing the races.

However it is also undeniable that the jumps cards are pretty much the only ones being attended (with the odd crowd fluked occasionally for the AW) and I believe it is daft to think that the management aren't interested in NH racing - the track would surely go under without a jumps programme and most especially without their huge revenue spinner, the flagship King George meeting.
 
rorydelargy said:
In fairness, the levy payments Kempton get for their sparsely attended floodlit cards are probably a large contributory factor in their survival, ,,,.
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Exactly, and as I've pointed out at least three times already, it's not attendance figures these guys are after anyway. There are other things going on, 'political' and financial
 
Its not a bad idea but i prefer decent races spread around a little. Ascot is the least appealing jumps venue out of the three mentioned. I like the new stands ansd so on, but Kempton is a top class fair course with the best going at that time of year and Sandown is naturally spectacular. We should be celebrating the diversity

I think you would also lose quite a large number of occasional punters who turn out on these traditional days. The anoraks on here would probably be happy with that, but i think it would be commercially a backward step

I agree with original point that Cheltenham is far too much the focus.
 
Headstrong, crowds don't just contribute to attendance figures, strangely enough. Sorry to have to point it out to you, but they also generate large amounts of revenue, not least through increased attendance of retailers, food outlets, bookmakers and so on and so forth - even down to actual bookings in the usually deserted restaurant and the existnce of such punters lending some sort of stability to the betting market.

You've been ignored three times since what you are saying makes no sense - if you think that Kempton don't care about their NH cards you are frankly living in cloud cuckoo land.
 
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clivex said:
Its not a bad idea but i prefer decent races spread around a little. Ascot is the least appealing jumps venue out of the three mentioned. I like the new stands ansd so on, but Kempton is a top class fair course with the best going at that time of year and Sandown is naturally spectacular. We should be celebrating the diversity
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Pretty much agree with the gist of that.
 
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