Yes, we are spoilt throughout the year with fantastic racing meets across Britain.
But there is no week like Cheltenham week, the jumps season builds up each year to this very moment, the holy grail of national hunt racing. The meeting where every trainer, owner, wants that winner.
Thousand upon thousands turn up each year in expectation, that Cheltenham roar, the lively beer tents, the excitement of the betting rings, the atmosphere of that fantastic parade ring. You really don’t get much better than Festival week.
A exciting four days ahead started of with a bang on day one with some mouth watering match ups.
The excellent Ruby Walsh and his mount Footpad cruised to a very eye catching performance in the Arkle, even though at one point many had thought he had no chance after a bad mistake down the back straight. It was fantastic way to get things going.
The well fancied Buveur D’Air came up trumps in the Champion hurdle, after defeating a very gutsy horse in Melon. The two battled it out in the final two furlongs in testy conditions, but Henderson’s charge came out on top after being giving his first real test since the Festival last year. Ex-champ Sir AP McCoy, who doesn’t look happy at most times, was in sheer delight when seeing the seven-year-old pass the line in front. And was soon to congratulate his good friend JP McManus.
Mister Whitaker travelled like a dream for jockey Brian Hughes in the Handicap chase, a perfect ride from Hughes who timed his challenge in good fashion to just nail Rather Be in the final strides. This was a run that left many people excited to see what will come next for the six-year-old.
Day two was the day the Irish came over in their thousands and dominated the Festival with some excellent horses.
The hype around the Irish horse Samcro was huge before the off, and the six-year-old did not disappoint, even though owner Michael O’Leary played down his chances. Whilst this is something he seems to do quite a lot, O’Leary was left eating is words. Samcro stalked his rivals when turning the bend, then jockey Jack Kennedy pushed the button to assert clear on the run-in and to notch another grade one victory for himself and Gigginstown.
Probably the best story of the day was Irish Jockey Davy Russell winning on potential Gold Cup horse Presenting Percy. A fitting story, Percy was an extremely gutsy horse that gave Russell another Festival winner. On the week of his mother’s death Russell brushed himself down and turned up in top form, dedicating his win aboard Presenting Percy to his late mother. Raising his arms to the heavens to say “that was for you mum” a superb race, beating some excellent horses like Monalee & Black Corton in extremely good fashion.
The beast that is Altior was back in action was back in action in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, but the hype was all around the return of Douvan. The exciting prospect of the match-up against Henderson’s eight-year-old. But sadly, we didn’t get the tussle we were hoping for, as Douvan crashed out despite looking like he was travelling extremely well on the terrible ground conditions. But Altior was not to be denied on the home straight where Min just didn’t have to speed to deal with the powerful eight-year-old who then forged clear to win the valuable prize for the Seven Barrows team.
Day three, the stand-out performer for me has to be Penhill who won the Grade One Stayer’s hurdle, after being off for a year it was some serious training performance by Willie Mullins who got his seven-year-old in fantastic shape, in testing conditions. An excellent run, it saw the horse beating Supasundae who last time out made a mockery of arguably the best horse in past years, in Faugheen.
Another one of Mullins’ runners was Laurina who ran in the Mares Novices Hurdle, the fiver-year-old went off as odds on favourite and after seeing the performance, I can understand why. Jumped fluently, cruised into the lead and simply demolished the field and left a good taste in a lot of people’s mouths to see what happens in the future with this exciting mare.
The final day, and it was the big one that everyone had been waiting for – the Timico Gold Cup.
It ended up being an almighty struggle in the final few furlongs between Might Bite and Native River, one of the best duels I have ever seen in racing. Might Bite was stalking Native River for the majority of the race and when it came to the crunch point on the home straight, Henderson’s charge simply could not get past Native River, determined and gutsy. Fending off the battle from Might Bite, River went on to assert his dominance in the final furlong. It was simply a fantastic ride from champion jockey Richard Johnson, as ever so aggressive in the saddle. A fantastic race to end four days of brilliant horse racing at the highest level.
Roll on next year – but next stop, the Grand National in April.
