Festival reflections

Well that's another Festival finished. And a tremendous one it was. As for our tipping competition, I've finally decided what the prizes should be. I've settled on making the prize for the biggest level stake profit a thousand pounds, with the same prize for the most wins. Fortunately, though, I'm saved a big pay-out, courtesy of, ah-hem, heading both tables in what was a rare feat of successful tipping. A pound on my selection in each of the 25 races would have yielded a profit of 33.37; Gemma came second with a profit of 0.50. We were the only two in profit, with Martha propping up the table with a loss of 25.00. As for individual winners, I had seven, with Gemma, Jamie and Emma next best with three each. I'm sure you really wanted to know these facts; well, maybe not - but I certainly wanted to pass them on.

As we know, Don Cantillon wins training award for the week, but for the riding awards I'll stick to Cheltenham. After the Stayers' Hurdle, I felt sure that Denis O'Regan was home and hosed, but now I'm not so sure: Davy Russell's effort on Naiad Du Misselot has to be on the short-list, but overall my vote goes to Ruby Walsh on Fiveforthree (yes, these were all winning selections for me; and yes, the jockey always rides well when he wins for you; but even so Walsh's ride was superb - the horse's inexperience really was counting against him for most of the way, and a ride which was merely very good would not have been good enough to get the horse home in front). Blunder of the week had to be Paul Carberry's overconfidence in the last which meant that his mount Psycho failed to reel in the winner Silver Jaro, which was a shame because his winning ride on Crack Away Jack - a rare example of a well-judged ride on a day on which, almost without exception, all the jockeys rode as if the winning post was at the bottom of the hill, rather than two furlongs later - was a cracker. You'd be feeling pretty sick if you'd backed Psycho, and I guess backers of Refinement might be ruing the fact that Tony McCoy put down his whip a stride before the line - but set against that the fact that he'd worked overtime just to get the mare, who looked booked for an unplaced result for most of the race - to the front in the first place.

Slight disappointment of the meeting turned out to be the Gold Cup, which was a shame. It was, of course, a tremendous event. And it was won by a magnificent horse who turned up in superb condition and romped home like a champion. Bascically, after the pre-race build-up, as long as one of the big two saluted, it was going to be a succcess. If they ran one-two, it was going to be a huge success. And, sure enough, they did run one-two, but it was just such a pity that it was so one-sided a contest. The problem was that the media had given the race so much pre-race hype that we were expecting the ultimate duel, so a tremendous solo display, instead of being a treat, became a slight let-down. To my eyes, Kauto Star just wasn't himself: the horse who flew his fences in the King George with Walsh reining him back between them wasn't the one who showed up today. Like so many horses at every Festival, he looked as if he was at the end of a hard season: he never really travelled, jumped awkwardly throughout and never threatened to get close enough to Denman to provide even a short-lived duel. It was only his courage and his class which meant that he was able to secure second, by a short-head, in a race in which we'd assumed that there would be a distance between second and third. So we had a tremendous display of galloping and jumping by Denman, who is a champion, as every Gold Cup winner is. But, really, it was no more special than his equally dominant performance in the AON Chase, and less special than his win in the Hennessy - and this after we'd been told to expect the race of the decade - and it told us nothing other than that Denman is a top-class horse and that the there was no depth at all in the Gold Cup. It didn't tell us which is the better horse; and as, unfortunately, the two are in the same stable, we're probably going to have to wait twelve months before they meet again, because I presume that they are likely to be kept apart through the bulk of next season too.

So, while we were expecting that the Gold Cup would produce the performance of the meeting and the most special race of the meeting, I'd say that Master Minded - who was the last horse to win one of the Festival's championship steeplechases on the bridle? Arkle? - takes the former honour and Inglis Drever's success takes the second.

Stallion honours, of course, go to Accordion with three wins and, from far fewer opportunities, Germany with two. And, in addition to our lovely Gold Away (Minnie's Mystery was scanned still in foal to him at 24 days today) winning with Crack Away Jack, another of France's top-class and top-value stallions, Muhtathir, also merits a mention in dispatches, with Kruguyrova's ultra-brave second in the Arkle being followed by Silver Jaro's success in the County Hurdle. I think it's worth observing that eight of the 25 races were won by horses sired by sons of Sadler's Wells: three wins for Accordion, one for In The Wings, one for Old Vic, one for Oscar, one for Galileo, one for Saddlers' Hall. It's possibly also worth mentioning, if I'm going to make this chapter err on the dry side, that four of the winners were by stallions from the Sharpen Up sire-line: two by Germany, one by Muhtathir and one (the wonderful Mister McGoldrick) by Sabrehill.

I can't close without mentioning my disappointment that Racing UK appears to have picked up Channel Four's anti-foreign jockeys bias. I got fed up with hearing that Davy Russell was riding badly, particularly when he wasn't. He gave Forpadytheplaster every chance - far more chance than the numerous English-based jockeys who made too much use of their horses too early in the race during the meeting - but if you hadn't watched the race and had merely listened to the post-race analysis, you'd think he'd slaughtered him. But it was the expressions of horror at Christophe Pieux's use of the whip in the Stayers' Hurdle which took the biscuit. I don't think that the leading French jumps jockeys are as good as their British or Irish equivalents - it would be a major surprise if they were, because they have far fewer opportunities to practice - and the accepted manner of using the whip in France is different than in this country. Pieux's whip use certainly contravened the British rules - as did the whip use of numerous other jockeys over the Festival, such as Robert Thornton (repeatedly) and Ruby Walsh - but the horror and distaste with which the Racing UK team discussed his failure to give his mount the opportunity to respond between strikes (which is an entirely bogus offence, one created solely as a method of policing perceived over-use) during the last half-furlong gave the erroneous impression that, instead of merely being guilty of the extremely common fault of failing to adhere to the British rules, he'd either harmed his horse or failed to give his horse every encouragement to try to win the race. If one hadn't watched the race but has just listened to the analysis, you'd have thought it had been a replay of T.J.Ryan or J.P.Byrne c.1980, instead of a normal example of a good French jockey successfully trying to give his horse every chance in a tight finish.

But overall, I've thoroughly enjoyed the coverage of Cheltenham. I watched a bit of Channel Four, but mostly I watched Racing UK, and I really enjoyed the show.