​It is true; there is not a lot to write about. Today is all about anticipation; what is to come. It is all about tomorrow; reflections on yesterday. Will Constitution Hill be anointed into the pantheon of great Champion Hurdlers? Will he win with an authority that suggests there is a possibility he can join Sir Ken, Hatton’s Grace, Persian War, See You Then and Istabraq as a three-time winner of the Champion Hurdle? Or will the mare rain on his parade?
I have no doubt Constitution Hill is a better horse than Brighterdaysahead but is he 7Ib superior to her? Visually, at least, Gordon Elliott’s mare was a wonder horse at Leopardstown and on the basic form of the 2023 Champion Hurdle, when Constitution Hill was an impressive winner, though he did not beat State Man without having a real race, it is hard to imagine that even he would have got within ten-lengths of Brighterdaysahead, not conceding that infernal 7Ibs. But this is Cheltenham with its ups and downs, and, though nobody is suggesting it, the mare’s only defeat was at Cheltenham by the opposing Golden Ace in last season’s Mares Hurdle. Perhaps she, too, (Jonbon) cannot turn on the style on the gradients of Cheltenham?
State Man will have cheekpieces on for the first time and who can say if they will giddy-him-up enough to be on the heels of his main rivals as they ascend the final hill? I believe a fast pace will suit him, even if he is twenty-lengths adrift of the mare. As long as he has Constitution Hill only a length or so in front of him he will be dragged along, the heady pace sure to keep his mind on the job and not, perhaps, on looking forward to the freedom and summer grass of his holidays. At his current price, given he is the defending champion, 10/1, I believe, he is the value in the race as he is the most likely to finish second if either of the top two bomb out for any reason.
Unlike those who know better, I refuse to rule out Burdett Road as I expect to see him settled in rear, with the prospect of him finishing out the race with a flourish. He could easily have finished second at Kempton on Boxing Day if he had not sprawled on landing at the last and ignore the Wincanton race as the track was too sharp and the ground too tacky for a galloper like him. 
The bold approach taken by the owner of Golden Ace deserves some reward; I doubt though the fates will look kindly on her.
I believe the mares allowance will determine the result today, a diminishing one-length victory for Brighterdaysahead. That said, I would love it if Constitution Hill were to prove me wrong.

What is wrong about the day is that Lossiemouth, who Willie Mullins has repeatedly said was a two-year project for the Champion Hurdle, at the last minute has been re-routed to the Mares Hurdle. If Cheltenham do not do something to prevent connections of the top female hurdlers from by-passing the Champion Hurdle for easier pickings they will be doing the Festival, punters and the sport in general a huge disservice. As I have said before, I believe there should be a Champion Mares Hurdle in the racing calendar. Just not at the Festival.

For information purposes only, for those that care, my selections for the day are as follows: Irancy, each-way in the first. L’Eau Du Sud to topple the favourite in the Arkle. Katati Dori to continue his winning ways in the Ultima. Joyeuse to win the controversial Mares Hurdle. Given how well she won the big handicap at Newbury, with fingers crossed the longer distance will suit, she has the potential to be a very good mare indeed and I can easily imagine her putting it up to Lossiemouth from the last hurdle. As I have proposed, Brighterdaysahead to win the Champion Hurdle. Beyond Your Dreams to win the Fred Winter. Captain Cody to top and bottom the day for Willie Mullins.
As I said earlier, not a lot to talk about today.

​The punter’s best friend, Tom Segal, will wait until the final race of this year’s Festival for his best bet, Wodhooh in the Martin Pipe. He may be right as I have thought since last season that the mare has the potential to be better than the races she has thus far competed in.
What must it be like for Martin Pipe to witness his name attached to a race at the Cheltenham Festival? Kim Muir would never have known that he was honoured after his death by having a race run in his name year after year, the race now more famous and remembered the man it is named after.
It is fitting that a man who achieved so much in the sport and who changed the way horses are trained, should be alive to witness the race named in his honour, to know that he will be remembered long after he leaves us. A far-flung hope, I know, but if I could choose the day to pop my clogs, it would be the same day and the same moment as Martin Pipe as the journey to the after-life, if I could accompany him, would flip the shock of death into a journey of enlightenment.

In a poll carried out by the National Association of Racing Staff and voted on by racing staff, Newbury has come out as the five-star winners, while Newmarket came fourth bottom and are shamed for their poor performance. As it was thought that the way racecourses were formerly assessed made it too easy for courses to achieve five-star status, it was made harder this time around, so only 8 racecourses were ranked as five-star, down from 23 in 2023. York finished 2nd, and Lingfield 3rd. Ascot, Carlisle, Doncaster, Hamilton and Ayr were the other courses to be awarded five-star citations. At the bottom of the pile, to my surprise, were Kelso, Hexham and Cartmel. Along with separate changing and showering facilities for female jockeys, good food, a complimentary meal on arrival and single room hostels should be a priority for racecourse during the next 12-months. Indeed, a racecourse that stages Group 1 or Grade 1 races, should be liable to lose those races if they do not provide Grade 1 facilities for jockeys and racing staff.

So it begins, though in truth the build-up to the Cheltenham Festival began the day after last year’s Festival and already I am looking forward – at my age looking forward is what ambition is to a younger man – to The Jukebox Man taking Galopin Des Champs crown away from him in 2026.
In today’s Racing Post, the Cheltenham duel considered by whoever compiled the list of best duels down the ages, was the feast provided by the two immortals, Denman and Kauto Star, the day I thought I had seen the best steeplechaser since Arkle. In his pomp and at his age, perhaps there were grounds for my ambition for Denman, though, as with my other ‘best steeplechaser’ since Arkle, Sprinter Sacre, heart problems derailed what I believed to be his destiny, leaving him with a solitary Gold Cup on his c.v., plus three close calls. For information purposes only, I concede that second to Arkle is Kauto Star. 
Was it too much to ask the gods to have allowed these two great racehorses a long and happy retirement?
That is the thing with Cheltenham compared, say, to Royal Ascot. Once the Royal five days are over, it is over, with a brand new incarnation of the event in 12-months, with little in the way of last year crossing over to the next year, except perhaps in the Ascot Gold Cup. Whereas the Cheltenham Festival is interconnected to the previous Festival and the one before that, with Denman’s Gold Cup and Istabraq’s Champion Hurdles still as fresh as paint in our memories, with Constitution Hill on-course to regain his Champion Hurdle supremacy and Galopin Des Champs odds-on to defend his crown once again
And there will be a shock or two, with a similar number of odds-on favourites beaten. I believe Marine Nationale will take down Jonbon and L’Eau Du Sud will beat Majborough. Though I may be wrong. It does happen. Unlike J.P. McManus I doubt 51% of my decisions will prove correct this week. In fact, I will be happy with 25%. Or just coming up with a single winner.
Not that any of that matters. Cheltenham is to enjoyed for what it is – the best horse racing of the year. I hope every horse returns to its stable and every jockey departs Cheltenham as fit as he or she started the week. My only real hope for the week is that British trainers accumulate a score between them that is in double figures. 11.

​Davy Russell’s good thing for Cheltenham is Ballyburn. He can see no other result in the 3-mile novice than a Ballyburn demolition of the opposition. Now, as great a jockey as he undoubtedly was, this is the same man who said many times prior to Cheltenham last year that he had no worries about the way El Fabiolo jumped. Also, due to government restrictions on liberty, in the computer-generated Grand National, Russell gave Tiger Roll an atrocious spin round, hitting the front when in winning years he kept his powder dry until between the last two fences. If I were Davy, I would have sued for defamation of character and ability. Somebody should have sued on behalf of Tiger Roll’s reputation!
Until the ground began to dry up, I quietly fancied Dancing City. Now, I am not so sure.

I am both disappointed and yet pleased that L’Homme Presse misses the Gold Cup due to a setback on no great importance. To me, he always had a better chance of winning the Aintree National than the Gold Cup and in missing Cheltenham, he has enhanced his chance of winning at Aintree. 
There are only ten left in the Gold Cup, with three British trained. Although I cannot see how Galopin Des Champs can be beaten, after a wind-op and with firmer ground conditions, I am expecting a big run from Ahoy Senor. In fact, if good ground should prevail, I would not be surprised to see The Real Wacker finish in the frame. Royal Pagaille I give very little chance to.

Although as a rule I dislike restrictions on maximum field sizes, I hope, as least for an experimental period, the Cheltenham executive take the advice of J.P. McManus and reduce field sizes for next year’s Festival in order to improve competitiveness throughout the season by forcing trainers to run horses more often to ensure they get a run at the Festival. The only race where I would like to see the maximum number remain as it is, would be the Princess Royal National Hunt Handicap, the 3-mile 6-furlonger, as it will only be in its new guise for the second-time next year and should be given longer to bed-in.

On the subject of J.P., the more I know of him, the more I come to like and respect him. He is an eminently sensible and level-headed man who throughout his life has accumulated knowledge far beyond his education. He is the feature in today’s Racing Post and I advise anyone reading this nonsense to buy a copy of the paper as the article on J.P., written by the excellent Lee Mottershead, is worth the exorbitant cover price on its own. J.P.’s mother once advised him that money was made flat so that it could be built upon and he reckons that if he had started with £1-million in his bank account he would not have learnt anything. He is a man we all could learn from. Apart from Majborough, I hope he has a successful Cheltenham.

The joy of ownership can be plainly divined by the people who own Kopek Des Bordes and Idaho Sun. The former is owned by the Macarthy family and when the horse runs the whole family is there to cheer him on. Idaho Sun is owned by a man who when he sold his roofing business, his first thought was to buy a racehorse. Already twice a winner, the horse is one of Britain’s leading hopes for the Bumper and a coach has been hired to convey 16-members of his family to the races. What other sport has the potential to bring families together like that?
Two more sleeps and the dream-popping begins!

​The Racing Post’s Betting Editor – I often wonder the chores a betting editor must pursue to warrant the title – Keith Melrose, is the latest expert chosen to put his head above the parapet in the ‘best bets’ section of the paper. He plumps for Jagwar, though it is unclear which race he will turn up in at the Festival next week.
I really should be keeping a list of all these apparent ‘good things’ in order to see who proves successful and who to avoid in the future. I remain wedded, by the way, to The New Lion, despite what Mark Holder said about him in his question and answer column in today’s paper.

I am disappointed in Catherine Macrae, though in her defence it may be the editor who should take the flack. He might have commanded her to write 600-words on the five breakthrough females in Cheltenham Festival history. As a young gal, I was surprised Catherine remembered the exploits of the enigmatic, and would we not love to have her in the sport nowadays, Dorothy Paget, owner of Golden Miller and bane in the lives of most of the people who trained her horses. Caroline Beasley had to be included as she was the first female to ride a winner at the Festival. Jenny Pitman, too, was a shoo-in to be included, being the first woman to train a Gold Cup winner. If the piece was not centred on the Cheltenham Festival, the inclusion of Lizzie Kelly would have been well-merited, and though she was the first female to win a Grade 1, that was at Aintree, not Cheltenham, and her only Festival success was in a handicap, it was though a brilliant derring-do of a ride. And any written word on the subject of female riders has to include Rachael Blackmore, perhaps one of the top ten female sportspeople in the history of sporting endeavour.
But here comes the moan, Catherine. It was faint praise to mention Bryony Frost’s contribution to the female jockey and the Cheltenham Festival as ‘her lofty achievements’. She was, and for ever will be remembered as, the first female to win a Grade I Chase at the Festival. She also won a Foxhunters, the only female to win there as both an amateur and a professional. And ahead of Lizzie Kelly in the Festival Female Stakes is Gee Armytage who rode two winners in two-days at the Festival.

If Lossiemouth runs in the Mares Hurdle on Tuesday, as David Jennings so eloquently and bullishly writes in his column, Cheltenham will be cornered into changing the conditions to force the connections of high-class mares to run them in the Champion Hurdle. Jennings is one of those writers whose words and sentiment reach out from the page and sit the reader down next to him. He is 100% correct in his analysis of this debate and the immensely likeable combination of Willie Mullins and Rich Richi will deserve the vilification that should come their way. If the fall at Leopardstown has affected her confidence in any way, it is as likely to cause her downfall in a big field Mares Hurdle and a small-sized Champion Hurdle. If that Leopardstown fall has affected her, she should not be on the boat crossing the Irish Sea.

Chris Cook takes Racing Post readers back to the 1964 running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the day Arkle, in beating Mill House ‘the best since Golden Miller’, became the legend that has and forever more will rule over our sport as the greatest racehorse of all-time. Of his three Gold Cups, such was his domination, this was the only one in which he needed to exert himself. In one of those quirks of history, as when Rachael Blackmore won her only pony race by beating Paul Townend in a bob of heads finish, Pat Taaffe had been the first to put a leg over Mill House, and also hunted him before he was put into training. In his wonderful autobiography ‘My Life, and Arkle’s’, he rated Mill House as the second-best horse he ever rode, ahead of Flyingbolt.
To have those days again; not that there will ever be another Arkle.

​In a year when Galopin Des Champs will join the pantheon of great Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, one should not forget horses in the past who had similar career highs. Cottage Rake won the Gold Cup in 1948, 1949 and 1950, the only three-times he contested the race.
He was not an ordinary Gold Cup winner as he is possibly the only Gold Cup winner to have won both the Naas Handicap and the Irish Cesarewitch on the flat, and I doubt if many Gold Cup winners won a steeplechase carrying no less a burden as 13-stone!
He was a 10/1 shot when he won in 1948, beating Happy Home and Coloured Schoolboy more easily than the length and a half and ten suggests. In open company, Cottage Rake was not the most fluent of jumpers. It was his speed between the fences and especially his speed after the last fence that made him the great horse his record suggests he was.
Experts of the time thought Prince Regent to be his superior, though as Tom Dreaper’s first great horse was restricted to running in his homeland when in his prime due to the 2nd World War, British racegoers had to take that view on trust. He did win the 1946 Gold Cup and finished 3rd in the Grand National of the same year beaten 4-lengths and 3 by Lovely Cottage and Jack Finlay, giving 25Ibs to the winner and 31Ibs to the third. Yet the record books cannot be argued with. Cottage Rake won 3-Gold Cups, with the aid of the maestro Vincent O’Brien as his trainer, and that puts him on a theoretical par with Arkle, Best Mate, and by next Friday evening, Galopin Des Champs. One of the races at the Festival should have his name as its registered title as tribute to one of Cheltenham’s former star attractions.

R.T.E. and Racing T.V. broadcaster, the adorable Jane Mangan, has gone rogue with her best bet at the Cheltenham Festival. Twinkle-eyed lovely Jane has gone for British trainers having 10-winners at the Festival, losing 18 to 10 in the unnecessary Prestbury Cup. Other than that off-the-wall good thing, it is favourites all the way for Jane.

The Baring Bingham has attracted 23 entries, 19 trained in Ireland and 4 trained in Britain, and this race is our best chance of getting one over the Irish, with Potters Charm and my good thing of the meeting The New Lion.
Along with the Broadway Novice Chase which has only 9 entries, 7 of which are Irish trained, with the 2 British-trained entries more likely to take up other options at the meeting, a wake-up clarion should be sounding at B.H.A. headquarters as it is clear to all that the system in this country for our novice hurdlers and chasers is not working. With economics in mind, we might just as well save the Irish the expense of transporting their horses to Cheltenham each March by running all the novice hurdles and chases at a racecourse named for the day Leopardstown sur Prestbury.

They are watering at Cheltenham in order to keep moisture in the ground, mainly the New Course. The Cross-Country course remains heavy in places. I understand that for safety and welfare grounds good-to-soft might be considered the golden ticket but when did good ground become the new good-to-firm? Back in the day the overriding belief was that good ground would do no harm to any horse, yet now we must have soft in the going description. Shakes head and moves on to other matters.

All sports events have their ups and downs. Cheltenham reached its zenith and has now plateaued. If Cheltenham want to climb from where it is now, on the downslide to a large extent, and back to pre-government restrictions, accommodation and ticket prices must fall, even if that means a diminishing in prize-money for a few years. The sport’s golden egg is rolling towards a cliff-edge, I am reliably informed by those with first-hand knowledge of Cheltenham now compared to Cheltenham past, and everyone seems to know the answer except those best placed to do something about it.

​Johnny Dineen, star of the podcast ‘Upping the Ante’, apparently, along with the hard-working David Jennings, has as his best bet at the Cheltenham Festival Dinoblue in the Mares’ Chase. J.P.’s mare may well be the winner, personally though I believe the best value in the race is Lucy Wadham’s Telepathique. I might even have a few shillings on each-way myself.

19 are declared for the Supreme Hurdle, of which 17 are trained in Ireland, with 9 of those trained by Willie Mullins. Is that both scary for the industry in Britain and ridiculous which ever way you look at it? And, of course, not only will half the runners stem from Closutton, but in Kopek Des Bordes Mulllins has many punters good thing of the week. And in Salvadore Mundi, he has the previous favourite for the race before Kopek Des Bordes blew everyone away with the demolition of his opposition at the D.R.F. Let us hope Fergal O’Brien’s Tripoli Flyer runs and does himself justice, as the Paul Nicholls runner is merely making up the numbers.

I heard someone suggest that for the Cheltenham Festival, declarations should be a week in advance of the start of the meeting. For punters this would be a great service, as it would be for all the podcasts and Cheltenham preview events around the country. Someone also put forward the idea to have a limit on the number of races a horse can be entered in at the Festival, again to make the picture clearer for punters and tipsters alike. Springwell Boy, for instance, is entered in 6 different races, which can only make the job of choosing the right race for the trainer 5-times more difficult than it need be. And as he has two trainers, father and son, both of whom might have a different view on the subject, it might make for a bit tension for a day or two at Jackdaws Castle.
The first suggestion should be taken forward as a possibility as the benefits outweigh the negatives, at least to my uneducated mind. The second proposal I am not so keen about as it is an owner’s prerogative to waste their own money in any way they choose to.

I hope Nicky Henderson has plans to stay amongst the living for another decade or more, as what we would do without him is too daunting to consider. Come Cheltenham, he carries the heaviest weights for our industry, and though he claims to hate watching his equine stars during their races, the whole Cheltenham thing seems to fascinate him as much murder fascinated Agatha Christie. Again, this year, it is Nicky verses Ireland and if the unnecessary Prestbury Cup is to anything like a contest depends almost entirely on Seven Barrows winning a batch of races numbering higher than 3. We have Dan Skelton waiting in the wings to take over the baton as the most dependable British trainer at the Festival, and though I expect him to win 2 races this year, he has long hill to climb to equal Nicky’s achievements down the decades. I admire Nicky Henderson to such a degree I feel a bit of a turncoat tipping the downfall of Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle. Anyway, God Bless Mr. Henderson, who, if there is any justice in the world, will be knighted long before he hands in his trainers’ licence.

I am an oddity in this world in that I neither have a passport nor a mobile phone of any persuasion, so you can understand why I think it abhorrent that anyone should choose to watch and celebrate the Cheltenham Festival from a bar on the Costa Del Sol or Tenerife. Yes, Cheltenham is an expensive event to support for even a day, especially if overnight accommodation is required, but surely there are bars and even hotels around the Union where the racing can be watched. Why not organise a Cheltenham party at home; invite your neighbours and friends, relatives, even. Royal Ascot watched from under a burning sun I can understand but not a winter sport.

The weather forecast for the next week suggests dry weather and drying ground, both of which leads me to believe that The New Lion is a good thing for the novice hurdle on Wednesday, especially with whispers that due to the ground drying out, Final Demand might be swapped into the 3-mile novice hurdle.

​Professional punter and worst dressed man in racing (his dress sense suggests he mugs teenagers for their awful t-shirts) Neil Channing, has laid his colours to the mast of Katate Dori in the Ultima as his best bet at the Cheltenham Festival. He has also lumped-on big on Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle on the belief that the odds short be far shorter than they are.

In today’s Racing Post, Chris Cook sets out the story behind the reasons for Cheltenham electing to increase the Festival from 3 to 4-days. It is a finely balanced example of how to write about a contentious issue without allowing the reader to know his own thoughts.
I was surprised the 4-day Festival was established as long ago as 2005, meaning that after 20-years some people are still prepared to voice their opposition to the 4-day Festival. Even those who still moan about the fourth-day must admit the decision was taken for all the right reasons. Jockey Club Estates needed to raise revenue; it was also a boost to the local economy, and it gave more owners, trainers and jockeys opportunity to have a Cheltenham winner. The decision seems to have been proved right, though many would disagree.
I was in favour of the fourth-day, though I wished they had kept the Gold Cup for the Thursday to allow the fourth-day to be come a day of reflection and for the racing channels and Channel 4, as it was at the time, to conduct a full analysis on the following day. I was also in favour when Cheltenham mooted the idea of a fifth-day, even though the majority thought it the maddest idea since care in the community.
Nowadays, with the smaller pool of top-class horses available, I believe the Festival should return to three-days, though I would like to see the races ejected from the Festival included in an expanded ‘Trials Day’ meeting at the end of January and rebranded as a ‘Spring 2-Day Festival’, though making sure no two races are the same as those run at the D.R.F.. I would particularly like to see a Champion Mares Hurdle as the centrepiece, allowing the best mares to run in both a Mares Hurdle at the ‘ Spring Festival’ and a Champion Hurdle in March.

It is always pleasing when someone far more knowledgeable and respected than oneself agrees with your thoughts on a particular subject. My reaction to Booster Bob winning at Newbury last Saturday was that I had just witnessed the ride of the season by Sean Bowen. The much used expression ‘came from a different parish’ hardly does the ride justice. Even Olly Murphy was of the opinion that Sean would have been within his rights to pull-up at halfway. The horse was last even coming into the straight, yet with rigorous riding but no over-zealous resort to the whip, Booster Bob ended-up a cosy winner. So, yes, I was greatly flattered when reading in today’s Racing Post Mark Holder’s take on Bowen’s tour-de-force.
Incidentally, I have come to admire Mark Holder’s content as he sees the sport from a different angle to most other commentators. He is more in the mould of Ruby Walsh than someone like Neil Channing or Paul Kealy, who I also admire. Kealy that is, not Channing. How can anyone admire a man who dresses like a teenager.

​It is on. Finally, we are released from our tenterhooks – God Bless the O’Leary brothers for allowing Brighterdaysahead to run in the Champion Hurdle rather than the cheap option of the Mares race. Cheltenham is alight with the anticipation of the best Champion Hurdle since the days of Brave Inca and Harcibald.
A Champion Hurdle with four legitimate contenders, even if most people think Constitution Hill is home and hosed already. We have the reigning champion, remember him, State Man and we have two of the best mares over the Champion Hurdle distance since Annie Power. And we have Constitution Hill, lord of the dance, lord of all he surveys.
If the big four all turn into the straight with a chance of being first past the winning post, one, possibly two, of them will wilt, giving one of the outsiders the chance to run on for a place. I hope James Owen has a change of heart and runs Burdett Road, given he might have easier race being ridden to pick up the pieces than he will have trying to carry top weight in the County Hurdle, and on Christmas Hurdle form, he is no forlorn contender to spring a major shock. If someone as bold and terrier-like as Nigel Twiston-Davies were training Burdett Road, he would line-up in the Champion Hurdle as he would not accept one defeat, giving weight to top-class mare, on ground that did not suit and a track that did not see at his best, as reason enough not to be brave.
Golden Ace will now go for the Mares Hurdle, which would be a wise decision, even if I would have taken the decision to have one shot at true glory with a mare who obviously comes right at this time of year. Lossiemouth I believe will run in the Champion Hurdle as Willie Mullins has said several times that the mare has been trained for 2-years with the Champion Hurdle in mind, and on Kempton form, again on a course that did her few favours, she is bang there with a winning chance.
I believe, as long as he is back to his best, that a strong gallop would suit State Man every bit as much as it will suit Constitution Hill and Paul Townend might again side with him over Lossiemouth.
It is an intriguing contest and to me it all boils down to whether Constitution Hill is 7Ibs superior to Brighterdaysahead? I have no doubt that at level weights Constitution Hill is the better horse. Yet that 7Ib sex allowance and the ferocious gallop she maintained at Leopardstown, if deployed again at Cheltenham, has me thinking she may hang on up the hill. But who cares who wins. I just hope the big four all run and each one does himself and herself justice.

Those people who have been contacted by their bank – Santander seems to be the culprit – about their gambling habits, should seek an interview with a bank manager, explain the whys and wherefores of their visit and begin the process of changing banks. Only by explaining why you are closing your account and moving elsewhere will banks understand how their overreach offends its customers. Then, though perhaps not as they are no doubt acting in collusion with government, they might seek to mend their ways. If you do not stand up for your right to freedom and privacy, they will not stop at friendly e-mails that hint at something far darker. The government are behind this latest assault on our freedoms, with an agenda that will eventually allow them oversight on all our banking and spending habits. At the moment, government spies are data-gathering, as they did through covid, on the pretext of keeping addicts from harming themselves and their families, when in reality they are on the look-out for money-launderers. If only they would not hide behind concern for the welfare of people, perhaps we would all be more willing to be helpful to them.

The tipster-maestro, as I call him, Paul Kealy, has Absurde as his best bet at the Cheltenham Festival. I think it is absurd to think that a horse will win the County Hurdle two years in a row, though I am not the tipster-maestro; Paul Kealy is.

​As we all know, even after the establishment of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the National Hunt Chase, for the longest time a race for amateur-ridden maidens, was the centrepiece of the Cheltenham Festival. It went from a maiden at starting race, to a race for horses who had not won before January 1st of the year of the race, to an ordinary, though amateur-ridden  novice chase over 4-miles (the Cheltenham 4-miler, as it was known) to the most uncompetitive race at the Festival when reduced in distance to 3-miles 6-furlongs.
I long campaigned for the race to be open to professional jockeys, though I did not advocate for the race to become a handicap, though I applaud the initiative. It is undoubtedly a better, more competitive race in its new form and will also benefit from its new title, the Princess Royal National Hunt Chase. All they now need to do now is to return the race to its traditional distance of 4-miles.
One further suggestion. It would make for a unique race in the calendar if a race of a similar nature to the original conditions of the National Hunt Chase were to be added to Cheltenham’s New Year fixture. Such a race would be a gift to amateur riders, compensation for losing one of the amateur races at the Festival, while providing a race of interest and novelty. If novice chasers are allowed to run in the Aintree National, no one should complain about a 4-mile maiden chase.

Jockeys’ agent, Kevin O’Ryan believes Gavin Cromwell’s Sixandahalf is a good thing in the Mares Hurdle. I doubt, though, she will be six and a half to one at the off.

In today’s Racing Post, Daniel Hill expresses his hope for at least one fairytale success at next week’s Cheltenham Festival. I agree. The dominance of Willie Mullins, in particular, is no longer a source of mirth and nor is the Irish domination. It has come down to a Paul Nicholls winner being something of a David conquering Goliath. Daniel Hill highlights Willie Wumpkins who won a novice hurdle at the meeting as a young horse and later in life won three Cheltenham handicaps culminating in winning what we now call the Pertemps at 13-years-of-age.
Last season, those of us who celebrate ‘fairytales’ had to wait until the Foxhunters and Sine Nomine to get the heart beating to a different rhythm.
Rachel Blackmore’s first Festival victory on A Plus Tard seems an age ago, as does Bryony Frost’s Ryanair win (the first Cheltenham Grade 1 success for a female jockey) on Frodon, followed quickly by Paisley Hark bringing the house down by winning the Stayers Hurdle, and they were trained respectively by Paul Nicholls and Emma Lavelle, two top of the tree trainers.
Not that I expect a fairytale winner this year and you would be hard-pressed even to nominate a possible tear-jerker moment for anyone outside of the elite.

Next week, possibly on the Friday, one of the I.T.V. presenting team, when assessing how many Gold Cups might end up with the name Galopin Des Champs inscribed on them, someone will disparage the quality of the Gold Cups which were won by Golden Miller. Nobody will analyse the quality of the three Gold Cups Best Mate won or that two of Arkle’s three Gold Cups were easier won than a penalty against a blind goalkeeper. Cottage Rake will not be mentioned as he is the forgotten three-times Gold Cup winner.
I defend Golden Miller as one of the greatest chasers of all-time as he achieved something far more historic than his five Gold Cups. He is the only horse in the history of the sport to have won a Grand National and a Cheltenham Gold Cup in the same season, and he achieved the feat as a 7-year-old.
On ground that was on the hard side, after the Inspector of Courses had criticised the stiffness of the fences, six inches was lopped off each fence, making the fences as unforgiving as a stone wall. It is said fifty-six horses suffered falls at the meeting, with two out of six runners in the Gold Cup being eliminated in a debacle at the fence before the water and one falling earlier in the race. The favourite Grakle departed in the debacle, which left Golden Miller to saunter home in his own time.
In 1933, Thomond gave him a right old battle, with the two of them going hammer and tongs, stride for stride, until Golden Miller finally exerted his dominance, winning by ten-lengths.
It is true that the horses he was defeating at Cheltenham were ‘Aintree’ horses, Kellsboro Jack, Thomond, Delaneige, Royal Mail, Southern Hero, Grakle, but back in those days the top horses were all thought-of as Aintree horses as the race was by far the richest and most prestigious in the calendar. The Grand National was worth £4,000 to the winner in 1934, as opposed to £680 to the winner of the Gold Cup.
What also should be remembered about Golden Miller is that if the 1937 Gold Cup was not abandoned due to the weather, it is almost certain Golden Miller would have won six Cheltenham Golds. In 1938, aged eleven, he went down by 2-lengths to the younger legs of Morse Code.
We cannot ever know if Golden Miller would have beaten Cottage Rake, Arkle, Best Mate, Kauto Star or Galopin Des Champs, though not one of those horses won either 5 Cheltenham Gold Cups or even attempted, let alone won, the Gold Cup and the Grand National in the same year.

​The good news is that Shark Hanlon is going racing again; the bad news, if the ground comes up good at Cheltenham, is that Hewick misses the Gold Cup, with the Grand National his main target. I would like Shark to think again as Hewick could easily be the one to put it up to Galopin Des Champs on good ground, up that relentless hill, after a ferocious pace.

In the U.S., an owner is taking a jockey to court for negligence, having dropped his hands when winning looked certain and being caught on the line. The difference in prize-money between first and second was $47,500, which is the amount Gray V Train Racing wish to be reimbursed. The jockey, Luan Machedo was banned for 4-days by the Kentucky stewards and fined $1,000. If the verdict goes in favour of Gray V Train Racing it would set a dangerous precedent in all racing jurisdictions if the decisions of stewards is not the verdict some might wish it to be.

Richard Hoiles, a man to be respected where the reading and reviewing racing is concerned, has Iceo Madrik in the Glenfarclas as his best bet of the Cheltenham Festival. Just to give him cause for concern, I agree with him.

The ride Sean Bowen gave Booster Bob yesterday at Newbury was jaw-dropping. Coming from tailed-off to win cosily, without much recourse to the whip, was the ride of the season. If this ride is not on a par with A.P. McCoy’s ride in the National Hunt Handicap on -the name slips my memory – then I’ll eat a spoonful of curry, a food I hate.
Although one cannot find too much fault with Dan Skelton’s decision to miss Cheltenham with Grey Dawning in favour of Aintree, as long as the horse is okay after his long trip up to Kelso, I would encourage Dan to keep the horse in the Gold Cup at the five-day stage as good ground is possible, as is a depleted field. With his ambition to be champion trainer in mind, second-placed prize-money might become the difference from winning and being pipped at the post if Paul Nicholls were to win the Aintree National.

There is a wonderful letter in the Racing Post today from trainer George Baker on the life and, sadly, death of his horse Lucandor. And some people think trainers do not care about the horses in their care!

When, not if, Galopin Des Champs gallops to glory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in twelve-days-time, I hope commentators and journalists do not record the victory as ‘historic’ as ‘all’ he will have achieved is to have equalled the number of wins in the race by Cottage Rake, Arkle and Best Mate. History in racing was achieved when Red Rum won a third Grand National, a fete no other horse in racing history has achieved. Hence, historic.
If Galopin Des Champs goes on to win a fourth Gold Cup, which is possible, though I pin all my faith in The Jukebox Man to bring the cup back to the homeland, it will remain two-wins short of an ‘historic’ achievement, as Golden Miller, despite the naysayers claiming the Gold Cup back in the thirties was only thought of as a prep for the Grand National, won five Cheltenham Gold Cups, a record that is truly historic and the likes of which none of us are likely to see bettered.
And, of course, in the pantheon of great steeplechasers, Galopin Des Champs should never be mentioned alongside Arkle, as what Arkle achieved in a time when handicaps were considered of greater importance than all other races outside of the King George and the Gold Cup, is no longer attempted, not even by a pioneer of the reputation of Willie Mullins.