Cheltenham Afterthoughts

[The Duke]

So Cheltenham has been and gone for another year, whats everyones thoughts on The Festival?

Plenty of thoughts for discussion, the abandonment of Day 2, the class of horses turning up, and the big Gold Cup turnover?

Not to forget the impressive display from Master Minded in the QM Champion Chase.

I'm gonna do an article on this for the main site. Will be up on Sunday

[Micky]

Having had to work all week and seeing no races live, i was gutted...

But you cant beat the festival...quality race after race....

Crack Away Jack on Tuesday was impressive......

They maybe should cram 10 races a day and make it 3 days next year

[Norton]

I'm with Micky!

Tues - Weds - Thur - 8, 8 and 9 races sorted

[skydog]

Thoughts are that they did a good job to cram all those races into 2 days after the abandonment on Wednesday. Like Micky,I didn't get to watch any of the races live & had to put up with Radio 5 commentary.I will hopefully get to watch some of the replays again over the next few days.

Obviously Master Minded was very impressive as was Denman but Inglis Drevers 3rd World Hurdle win was my highlight, what a horse!

Stupid stewards were probably the low point (they couldn't stop talking about it on 5 live!!) & they really need to get a grip!

Only one fatality was a plus point but I know that will mean nothing to the connections of Whispered Promises who was tragically the 'one' killed in action,RIP lad.Let us never forget how brave these horses are for the purpose of our pleasure.

As usual, a lot will be written in the next few days about various horses & other things but I choose to ignore a lot of this,believe what you see & not what you hear/read.

Roll on Aintree & I might even go for one of the days this year.At least us Northerners should get a bit more joy from a training point of view.Looking forward to seeing Monets Garden run & think Nicky made the right decision waiting for Aintree.

Finally I am glad I stuck to my plan of keeping my bets to a minimum as I came out with the smallest of losses after the 4 days.

[Thommo]

Thought it was good.

Sickener its over again as after Aintree its onto the boring racing and its then time to go into hibernation.

[Bally]

Was a decent festival overall for watching. For backing it was frustrating. Dont think i've ever had so many bad rides within 3 Racing days which was topped off with a shocker from Ruby on yer bet of the festival!

Tidal Bay I had alot of faith in all season even when everyone was criticising him and was ecstatic when he won, Mainly because it paid for me ale all day and night while I was out. . .

Master Minded was the best performance of the festival for me, Easily. He looks a superstar.

Great to see Inglis win his 3rd World Hurdle. Im seriously gutted I never backed him as I was saying the week before it was the time to get on him his price was bigger than it should of been because of the apparent form of his stable, Yet all the runners that week ran well and had one or two winners which went unoticed. But silly me left it alone and abcked Aitmatov who got a shocker from Stevie Wonder.

I think it could of been abit better like but it was made better with the more races in one day like.

[Thommo]

Its easy to doubt the big winners imo.

This aint my natural opinion but seems to be the talk on a few forums.

The fact Neptune Collognes was so close in the gold cup is worrying tbh.

And Voy Por Ustedes, proven horse but it is acceptable as to what he beat in last years Champion (Dempsey) and he has dissapointed all season. Master Minded looks very good but he wasn't facing anything of previous champions, such as Moscow Flyer for example.

EVS for next years Champion is a joke and has OVERHYPED written all over it.

Taken off the betfair forum btw but I agree with them tbh.

[Bally]

Neptune Collognes has improved alot and I wasn't suprised to see him finish so close. But for me Denman & Kauto didn't run to their true form. But Denman showed more than Kauto on the day.


I dont get how Master minded can be overhyped. He is a 5yo who has just slammed a good field all over the place, Easily. I didn't think Voy Por Ustedes would win, I said that but even I was suprised by how easily he beat him and Voy Por Ustedes ran right upto his form for me. Ok Twist Magic didn't run to form and you could argue Tamarinbleu but for me he just couldn't handle the pace over this trip and I said before hand he should of went for the Ryanair for me. But at least you have a solid base to rate Master Minded from.

[The Duke]

I'd better get my finger out methinks.

I'm off to play abit of snooker shortly, but will return with something tonight - or possibly tomorrow morning.