A modern-day Cheltenham Festival involves 28 races and about 400 horses, supports a significant cottage industry of preview nights in the months beforehand and is the only thing on the mind of most racing fans once the Christmas decorations are packed away, if not before.
With so much to consider, it is fair to say no one has seen much need for something new and divisive to argue and fret about in the run-up to the biggest meeting of the year.
The British Horseracing Authority, however, apparently thinks differently. It could have introduced its new rules on the use of the whip from the start of summer jumping in May or even the start of the Flat campaign on turf at the end of this month and run this year’s Festival as the last under the old regime.
Instead, it took a deliberate decision to ensure the new rules would be in place for this year’s meeting, and the wisdom, or otherwise, of that choice will become apparent over the next four days, though it certainly feels as though scarcely a day has passed since the turn of the year without a trainer or jockey criticising the move.
Paul Nicholls, the 13-times champion trainer, said recently he has been “livid all along” about the timing of the new rules’ introduction, adding that the BHA needed to “show some backbone” and stand up for the sport, rather than “appease people who don’t understand the game”. Richard Patrick, who starts an eight-day ban on Friday, suggested “everyone [in the weighing room] is petrified about using the stick”.
Stratford-on-Avon
1.30 Greenrock Abbey
2.05 Bo Zenith
2.40 Rakhine State
3.15 Galice Macalo (nb)
3.50 Time Leader
4.25 South Omo Zone
Taunton
1.40 Despereaux
2.15 Dancingontheedge
2.50 Mardoof
3.25 Golden Sovereign
4.00 Western General
4.35 Estate Italiana (nap)
5.05 Ingennio
Plumpton
1.50 Hermes Du Gouet
2.25 Bolsover Bill
3.00 Kenny George
3.35 Midnightreflection
4.10 Ramore Will
4.45 Martin Spirit
Wolverhampton
5.30 Come On John
6.00 Timewave
6.30 Captain Dandy
7.00 Hoornblower
7.30 Frame Rate 8.00 Visibility 8.30 Los Camachos
The whip could yet become an issue that dominates discussion throughout the meeting, not least if it appears a rider has gone the four strokes over the limit of seven that should trigger a disqualification by the Whip Review Committee next week. Two strokes over would probably be enough to rule a jockey from Ireland out of the Irish Grand National meeting at Fairyhouse during Easter.
Or it could, as Julie Harrington, the BHA’s chief executive, suggested to the Racing Post last month, prove to be “an opportunity to make the sport look better” when the closing stages of races such as Friday’s Gold Cup appear on news programmes. Until there is a close finish, perhaps at the end of the three-mile Ultima Handicap Chase on Tuesday, no one can be sure.
The signs from the most recent meeting of the Whip Review Committee look promising. Eight of the nine suspensions handed out last week were for very minor breaches of the rules, attracting the minimum suspension of four days. Most encouragingly of all, there was no advance on the two riders whose mounts have been disqualified after they went four strokes over the limit.
The racing between 27 February and 5 March, is as low-key as it gets. Whether riders will be able to keep to rules in the white-hot competition of the Festival remains to be seen and riders based in Ireland could be forgiven for thinking the Brits are on their case.
Their counterparts had the benefit of a three-week bedding-in period before the new regime came into force and there were still bans aplenty, plus those two disqualifications, in the first fortnight. It is expecting a great deal for them all to keep strictly to the limit from a standing start.
They are, after all, also likely to be very much to the fore in many of this week’s races, with Ireland’s domination of the meeting in recent years apparently certain to continue. The bookies are offering nothing better than 1-12 on the Irish getting a majority of the winners. With annual interest rates on savings still paying little more than 2%, a near-guaranteed return of about 8% in four days could be tempting for some.
If British trainers are going to put up any kind of a struggle, the key figure, as so often in the past, will be Nicky Henderson. Tuesday’s opening card will surely be pivotal, too. Henderson saddles Constitution Hill, the hottest favourite of the week and already one of the top-rated hurdlers of the past 50 years, in the Champion Hurdle, and has big chances with Jonbon, in the Arkle Trophy, and two runners, Epatante and Marie’s Rock, in the Mares’ Hurdle.
If, on the other hand, Willie Mullins has a good day, then it promises to be a longer week than ever for the British stables. Ireland’s perennial champion set a record of 10 wins at last year’s meeting and is odds-on to at least equal that this time around. It is entirelyconceivable he will beat the British by himself.
This being the Festival, however, there will undoubtedly be shocks and surprises along the way. Fortunes will be made and lost, triumphs celebrated and sorrows drowned. And hopefully, by this time next week when the Whip Review Committee is preparing to hand down its decisions, nobody will give it a second thought.
