The Cheltenham Festival – A Fine Week of Sport
It's a week where all Horse Racing fans come together and appreciate their fine sport. The Cheltenham Festival, so often labelled as the standard bearer for all things horse racing, didn't disappoint on its lofty reputation with a magical four days of top notch action. There was the expected drama and shocks which even made the un-informed engrossed and it's safe to say that come the week of the Cheltenham Festival, nothing in sport beats it.
Speaking of shocks, we didn’t have to wait long for our first one when the usually problematic starter Labaik decided Tuesday was the day he felt like racing. The 25/1 grey charged clear of the well regarded Melon to win quite readily, not a bad start to the festival for 17 year old rider, Jack Kennedy and red hot trainer, Gordon Elliot. Altior duly obliged in the Arkle but in less than impressive and unsatisfactory style. In fact it was his stablemate Buveur D'Air who stole the show on Day One when bounding clear of his rivals in the Champion Hurdle to record Nicky Henderson's sixth winner in the prestigious contest. Not only did he saddle the winner but Henderson also produced likeable veteran My Tent Or Yours to come second for the third time in this race. 'Tent ran a smashing race' were the trainers first words when interviewed about the winner, a testament to his long serving yardstick hurdler. If it was the Champion Hurdle to provide the class edge to the first day, one couldn’t find a grittier winner in the week then the former Willie Mullins trained mare Apples Jade, who battled gamely to deny the two current Mullins star mares Limini and Vroum Vroum Mag in a titanic three way battle up the hill.
Day Two loomed with an odd feel to it, the go to combination of Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh had drew a blank on Day One, the first time in nine years for that to happen. Their luck wasn’t in either when Bacardys was stopped to a near standstill by the fatal fall of Consul Du Thaix and subsequently played no hand in the Neptune. However, favourite backers were also deprived when 'good thing' Neon Wolf was ultimately outbattled by a tough front runner in Willoughby Court. A front runner who was also not to be denied was Might Bite who despite giving his legion of followers a few heart issues when wandering badly on the run in, managed to battle back to deny Whisper by the shortest of short heads. Then, the unthinkable happened. the seemingly invincible horse Douvan was turned over after injuring himself at one of the first few fences, he ran no race and was found lame afterwards having finished a very tame 7th. This couldn’t take anything away from the winner Special Tiara who galloped all of his rivals into submission to win well. The day hadn't ended before Gordon Elliot added two more to his festival tally to add to his three timer on the opening day. Festival specialist Cause of Causes produced the goods over the banks and Fayonnah recovered from a desperate start to win the Champion Bumper.
Day Three dawned and now things were getting uncomfortable. Another blank from Mullins and Walsh and even Douvan was beaten. 'Something wrong in the yard' was the scapegoat response to the questions asked by the punters. It scarcely seemed possible that the Irish Champion Trainer could go through the festival winless, however such worries were quickly eroded on the third day. Yorkhill was the horse to break the duck, he made a mockery on anyone who doubted his jumping. In a beautiful rhythm throughout, the chestnut Presenting won with a lot more in hand than the winning margin suggested, normal service had finally been resumed. Then came Un De Sceaux, stamina problems were questioned but never one to allow doubters have the final say, Un De Sceaux was at his exuberant best and tore a strong Ryanair field to pieces from the front. If that double wasn’t enough for the duo, they broke English favourite backers hearts when dismantling the reputation of Unowhatimeanharry with a picture perfect hold up ride from yours truly, Ruby Walsh, on board eight time Grade 1 winner over hurdles Nichols Canyon. The day couldn’t get better for the double act, but actually it could. They combined to produce Let's Dance to win the Mares Novice to complete a four-timer on the day. Doubt was vanquished, Ireland's leading trainer was back.
Gold Cup day had arrived with the Irish having drubbed the English on Day three and had all but wrapped up the Cheltenham sub-plot in the Prestbury Cup. However it was finally the English to have a brief time in the sun when Defi Du Seuil stretched clear readily to notch up the Triumph hurdle under a typical strong ride from champion jockey, Richard Johnson. Mullins, now with heavy wind in his sails, notched up a quickfire double on the final day, under reserve jockey Paul Townend. The talented second string to Walsh produced carbon copy rides to deliver the goods on the returning Arctic Fire and the progressive Penhill. Then came the climax to the week, the Timico Gold cup and with his relentless momentum now no one would have put it past Mullins to get Djakadam back to win the Gold Cup. This time however, the Champion trainer had to sit in the shadows as the ultra-progressive Sizing John stormed clear for Robbie Power to give Jessica Harrington her first win in the race from her first horse saddled in the prestigious event. There was no hard luck stories, no what ifs, Sizing John sat prominent before turning on the afterburners and showing that speed gained from his two mile days to win readily. At no point did the extremely game Sizing John ever look like fading or wavering on the run to the line. If it wasn’t enough for the Harrington/Power combination to have a Gold Cup winner, they also supplied the winner of the Grand Annual and Coral Cup in the form of Rock the World and Supasundae.
In terms of sub-plots in this year's festival, the demolition of England in the Prestbury Cup was a major talking point with Ireland notching an unprecedented nineteen winners at the festival. Included in that figure was seven out of the ten festival handicaps, telling us that our previous worries over Phil Smith's handicapping were uninformed ideas. Such a confession was even made by Davy Russell after his win on Presenting Percy in the Pertemps Final who hacked up despite his severely higher UK rating. As Richard Hoiles on commentary said 'If he was running off his Irish mark, he would have won by a half a furlong'.
So the curtain closes on another enjoyable and interesting festival which despite a high profile list of absentees, managed to conjure up the same excitement and plenty of quality. In fact, these absentees may have paved the way for new stars of the future and it'll be interesting to see these new pretenders face off with the older guard when they return next season. There are definitely some mouthwatering clashes in store.