Cheltenham reflections and Uttoxeter prospects

Well, that was another great Festival. Stand-out memories? Kauto Star, of course. But all the first three - no, make that the first four - in the Gold Cup covered themselves in glory. Kauto Star has always been my favourite, so I was delighted to see him prove himself a true champion. I maintained after his unexpected (well, unexpected by me) defeat by Denman last year that he wasn't himself that day, and I think that today's win proves that: last year he was struggling with a circuit still to go, didn't jump with his customary elan and only snatched second because of class and courage, whereas today the real Kauto Star turned up, the one who oozes class at every stage of the race. I know Denman's fans will counter that and say that the real Denman hasn't been seen since the onset of his heart trouble, and they would have a point. He's gone up in my esteem because of his brave second today. He's clearly a wonderful horse, and a very brave one too, because only the most genuine horse could bounce back from heart trouble. I just hope that his willingness to put in beyond the call of duty doesn't one day have fatal consequences. So they were both great, and Exotic Dancer is a tremendous horse too - and Neptune Collonges ran an excellent race for the second Gold Cup running. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a horse up to competing at that level? Ah, one day ...

For the rest of Cheltenham, Well Chief (pictured) would have to be the star. I know he didn't win, but to run a good second in the Champion Chase to the mighty Master Minded - who certainly didn't outclass the opposition as he had done last year - on his first run for two years and after, I think, two bouts of tendon trouble, was a very, very special achievement. Other gongs can be handed out to Tony McCoy, for riding Wichita Lineman as Peter Scudamore rode Bonanza Boy in the Racing Post Chase c.1990, and to Mr Codd, who rode Character Building as John Francome rode Sea Pigeon in the Champion Hurdle c.1980. I was delighted to see victories for two trainers who have stayed here when visiting Newmarket Sales, Tom Cooper and Charles Byrnes, the latter scoring with the inelegantly-named Weapon's Amnesty, a lovely young staying novice hurdler who already looks like a high-class steeplechaser and who benefitted from a typically excellent ride from the admirable Davy Russell.

Otherwise, the battallion of greys who dominated the Triumph Hurdle - and I include lovely Starluck in that, despite the fact that he weakened in the closing stages into fourth - provided us with a fine spectacle. The Champion Hurdle was a great race, as was the Ladbrokes World Hurdle. I'd expected Newmarket to have a winner, but I was only partially right: my fancy United could only finish second in the David Nicholson mares' hurdle, but then Silk Affair, behind whom Kadouchski ran well at Sandown last time, won the Fred Winter Hurdle, thus crediting Mick Quinlan, one of our favourite trainers, with the rare distinction of training a winner both at Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham Festival within a twelve-month period.

And I cannot finish my Cheltenham review without praising Martha, who won our stable tipping competition by a street. Like with a race at Nad Al Sheba, the form book wouldn't have been much use here, because in past years Martha had hardly found a winner, but this time it was everyone else (myself doing particularly badly) who came up with loser after loser, while Martha came up with winner after winner, including Kayf Tara's long-priced Kayf Aramis, who proved that indicating on one's hurdling debut that one has no aptitude for jumping whatsoever is no bar to eventual Festival success. "If at first you don't succeed ..." could thus be a good motto for us all. Emma, our newest member of staff, also did well in the tipping competition, which was particularly galling for me as I'd given her plenty of ribbing on the first day for selecting a horse who had been pulled up on his last THREE outings. Needless to say he did not feature in the finish - but needless to say Emma thereafter completely put me to shame as regards winner-finding.

But that's enough of Cheltenham. We now have bigger fish to fry. Well, that's not true. We have smaller fish to fry, but from our point of view they are bigger. The problem of having one's own horses is that other people's, however good they are, inevitably become of only secondary interest. But it's not that one becomes less interested in other people's - far from it, because I still love following racing in general, and have loved watching every race at Cheltenham - rather that one gets just so much interest, absorption and (one hopes) enjoyment from one's own. Thus I began Cheltenham week far more interested in and looking forward far more to the novice hurdle at Market Rasen than I was to any of the championship races at Cheltenham. As it was, that was palpitations postponed because Risky Cry didn't run - but I am now ending the week getting far more excited about the novice handicap hurdle at Uttoxeter than I was about any of the races at the Festival. That's because we have Kadouchski running, so fingers crossed for a good performance tomorrow. We might have a problem with our jockey, because poor William - who had a great ride on The Sawyer, his only mount at Cheltenham - was hurt in a fall at Fakenham today, but fingers crossed he will be passed fit to ride. There will be other good jockeys there so we won't be left high and dry if he is declared hors de combat, but I'd rather have him on board than anyone else.

And then we have Take Me There going to Taunton on Monday - but let's get tomorrow out of the way before we start worrying about that.