Victor Chandler Chase

Grasshopper said:
Conditions races and top-end handicaps with no upper rating limit both have their place on the calendar, as they represent different kinds of tests. Both provide a framework to establish the best horse on the day, however only the latter attempts to 'equalise' the chances of the participants beforehand. The attraction of seeing top horses run in big-field handicaps, is precisely because the race has been framed to make life notionally more difficult for them. And because multiple measures can be taken, such races usually provide a decent bedrock from which to assess performance.....which isn't always the case in conditions races, which can often be poorly contested (in terms of numbers, at least).

Both types of races can, and should, co-exist comfortably on the calendar, but the programme is heavily loaded in favour of Conditions events, at the expense of valuable handicap opportunites.

Perhaps there's a bit of chicken-and-egg at play too. If top trainers won't run top horses in handicaps, then you have to make the races for them somehow. But if you don't put those races on at all, then they have to run their horses somewhere.

The truth probably lies somewhere in between, but for my money, I think it's a shame that more top-horses don't run in the better handicaps. In the case of the Chandler (and I aknowledge the sponsor himself engineered the change) it was an unnecessary step too far. The Tingle Creek and Game Spirit provide ample pre-Festival opportunities to see the top 2m chasers take each othere on at levels, and heaving a third identical event into the mix, at the espense of what was always a tremendous race, has had a de-facto detrimental affect on the 2m chase pattern.

The Chandler is now just another top-end 2m chase - accurately described as a poor-man's Tingle Creek earlier in the thread - and holds nothing like the fascination that it did years ago.
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What he said. This post is spot on Grass.
 
I said it was a poor mans Tingle Creek. The Sandown feature has the pond fences and the fascination of bring the first big 2 mile class of the season. The Ascot race now has nothing going for it. What does surprise me is that another track hasn't tried to stage a new 2 mile handicap to replace it.
 
SlimChance said:
I said it was a poor mans Tingle Creek. The Sandown feature has the pond fences and the fascination of bring the first big 2 mile class of the season. The Ascot race now has nothing going for it. What does surprise me is that another track hasn't tried to stage a new 2 mile handicap to replace it.
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Doesn't Doncaster now have a quite valuable handicap over 2 miles at their late january meeting ?
 
Don't they have to get permission to stage a new race. I don't think it can be as simple as saying lets stick a new 100K handicap in next year.

I would imagine it is under very strict control.

One thing I must concede is when a horse like Desert Orchid beats a good horse like Panto Prince as mentioned above there's something special about it but apart from Denman who was a monster trainers are very wary of allowing top class horse carry lumps of weight in handicaps.

Too many races under those conditions can shorten a good horses life span and everytime a good horse falls by the wayside that can't be good for racing overall.

I reckon that could be one of the reasons all of the top Grade 1 races are not handicaps
 
I used to write some good ****.

As an aside, the upgrading of the Victor Chandler Chase to grade one was compensated with the creation of a very valuable two mile handicap chase to be run at Doncaster either the week after or the week after that. It was worth £62k to the first winner and £43k to the second winner and then appears to have been lost to the weather. Kalahari King won one of the runnings and I'msingingtheblues the other. It does not appear to exist in 2013 as far as I can see. (The old Mansion House Chase)

As a further aside, anything that makes bookmakers whinge is generally a good thing but in this case some further thinking is required. The whinge from Chandler about the upgrade would not be on behalf of the good of the jump racing pattern it would be about what is good for Chandler and a handicap would suit him better. What would suit him even better is abandonment. Mentioned in the paper all week long, all the way up to race day, on the tv, everywhere, and even in abandonment, still mentioned widely as the race that was sadly lost. Mentioned mentioned mentioned. That is the name of the sponsorship game. Giving money away in prizes is the downside, and no race at all whilst receiving the publicity of a week long debate about the potential winner is dreamland whether it be handicap or grade one, especially as a race that has no previous identifying name from anyone living in 2013.
 
likely to be rescheduled for cheltenham trials day

which will also probably be off
 
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Cheltenham today, more snow possibly Sunday / Monday

CheltSnow.jpg



Day time temps next week -2 / -3 Night times -8 / -9
 
Thanks DG.

Any idea how much rain the track has taken since the November meeting?

We all know how fast Cheltenham can drain, so it is too early to be thinking of March, but I guess it has been an unusually wet 8 weeks down there, right?
 
We had 29.10mm in December but only 2.00mm before today in January.

The frost covers were put down at the start of this week so would be under the snow now presumably so ground underneath them may be ok, trouble is as soon as they come off it will freeze.

They do race on fresh ground for the Festival though so by then ( just over seven weeks now) I am willing to bet no worse than good to soft.
 
That is correct.

But DG said 29.1mm of rain in December. We aren't talking snow. I would have thought the total December rain was a lot higher than that. Given that most places in the south west got nearly 3x the December average rainfall total. So I am checking.
 
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You are right BTB total rainfall for December 2012 was 4.14 Inches.

I googled rainfall for Cheltenham in December . I now know there is a Cheltenham in Australia :lol::lol:
 
Aragorn said:
Effortless. Geraghty asked if he's better than Moscow said " it's level pegging"
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and thats with SS in canter mode..how much better when he actually gets asked a question...amazing spectacle..as all his races are...i've never seen a NH win races and look at the end like he's cantering down to the start.
 
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