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Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Cheltenham racecourse, where all feels as it should do on the first day of the festival meeting despite the track’s admission over the weekend that the crowds are not (yet) flooding back to the meeting as many would have hoped. This is the first year of a new-look festival, with more handicaps to boost competitiveness and field sizes, and also several new measures to improve the “customer experience”, and it will presumably not be until this time next year that we get much of an idea of how it all worked out.
One of the key indicators of customer experience, of course, is whether they emerge from the most concentrated four days of betting all year with their noses in front, and Tuesday’s opening card will be a potentially crucial first engagement between punters and bookies as all four of the Grade One events have a short-priced favourite.
Bookies’ PRs have been falling over themselves for the last few days, trying to come up with increasingly eye-catching estimates of how much the industry will lose if all four favourites oblige. As ever, their numbers should not be taken at face value as a. no-one will be checking the books and b. they get paid for mentions, not historical accuracy, but it would certainly put the punting fraternity on good terms with themselves if the four-timer– which currently pays around 7-1 – were to come up on day one.
That, of course, also suggests that it is around 1-7 that at least one of the supposed good things will be beaten, but if Constitution Hill can justify his odds-on price in the Champion Hurdle at 4.00, then any pain felt as the result of a defeat of a favourite or two earlier in the day will be largely erased. He is already rightly hailed as one of the greatest hurdlers of all time, but a second Champion Hurdle, after he was forced to surrender his crown without a battle 12 months ago, would be one of those festival moments that no-one who is there to see it will ever forget.
It’s possible to think that Constitution Hill is the likeliest winner this afternoon while also believing that Brighterdaysahead, his main market rival, should be a fair bit closer to Nicky Henderson’s gelding in the betting. A magnificent race is in prospect, in the midst of a card that has something for everyone with three ultra-competitive handicaps also in the mix.
There was, a little surprisingly, around 3.5mm of rain at the track overnight but Jon Pullin, the clerk of the course, reports that the turf has “taken it really well”. As a result, the meeting will open – as it generally does – on good-to-soft, and while daytime temperatures are unlikely to get back to the double-figures we all enjoyed last week, there is little or no rain in the forecast.
Some thoughts and picks for the first day card are here, the wonderful Don McRae’s recent interview with Harry Skelton, the clear leader in the race for the new £500,000 David Power Jockeys’ Cup is here, and we’re set fair for another thrilling week of action in the Cotswolds. As always, you can follow all the action and reaction as it happens here on the blog, with race previews, links to video form, news, live commentary and more. The famous Cheltenham roar is now just a few hours away!
