​The star of day one, at least for me, was Shishkin. My immediate thought after the race that here was yet another Nicky Henderson Champion Hurdle horse, such was the acceleration he shown in very soft ground in getting to and passing Abacadabras from between the final two hurdles and up the savage hill. Yet, no, both jockey and trainer can’t wait to see him over a fence, so Nicky Henderson has yet another Arkle and Champion Chase horse. The future replicating the present and the past.
A point I would like to make is the jumping antics of Asterion Forlonge. Now, not for one minute do I apportion any blame on Paul Townend for his mount jumping badly right throughout the race. Nor do I suggest that either jockey or trainer should be reprimanded in any way for the waywardness of Asterion Forlonge. But, as corroborated by the Racing Post, he scythed down (virtually knocked over) his stable companion Elixir D’Ainay, who in turn brought down Captain Guinness. If this incident had occurred after the last hurdle, Asterion Forlonge barging into Elixir D’Ainey, who in turn interfered with Captain Guinness, the stewards would have intervened, with Asterion Forlonge disqualified and Paul Townend given a suspension. In truth, what actually occurred was far more dangerous, with two horses and jockeys ending up, albeit unhurt, on the ground. This horse, by all accounts, has always jumped to his right and may always do so, thereby making him a liability in all his future races. In my opinion, in the short term, he should have been disqualified from his fourth place finish and in his future races he should be monitored by the stewards and if his jumping does not improve he should be barred from running until it has been proved by his connections that what has caused his erratic jumping has been solved.
I am the first to admit that I got the Champion Hurdle all wrong. Nothing new to report there then. Epatante was a good winner, with no excuses for any of the beaten horses. I would imagine the deciding factor yesterday was the soft-to-heavy ground and I have no doubt that the mare will be vulnerable if we ever return to good ground.
Finally, before I pour over the lamentable performance of my tips from day one, comment should be made about the Mares Hurdle. Firstly, it was a superb spectacle, providing the finish we all hoped-for. I remain, though, firmly convinced that two of the best horses running at the sport’s number one meeting should not be competing in a race with lower prize-money than the Amateur riders race and in sporting term’s it is a scandal that Cheltenham will come to an end without any of us knowing whether Honeysuckle could have got close to or defeated the new Champion Hurdler or whether Benie Des Dieux might have dethroned Paisley Park. Cheltenham always used to crown champions, even if on occasion the champion won by default or divine chance. Now that is not always the situation and that is to be regretted. Is Epanante the best hurdler or did she become champion simply because Honeysuckle was guided towards a lesser race? The Mares Hurdle is perhaps not the abomination I have described it in the past but if the conditions allow this sort of thing to happen year on year then we might as well have a 5 or 6-day festival as the devaluation of both the meeting and the championship races has already set in.
Now, yesterday! It’s hard to imagine there is a better novice hurdler around than Shishkin, so I cannot claim that Captain Guinness would have won if he avoided the fallen horse. But he was in with a fighting chance and third would most likely have been where he would have finished. A horse with a bright future.
Cash Back ran too free. About the issue of whether mares should receive a gender allowance in Grade 1 races: I think they should accrue penalties for winning Grade I’s, perhaps 2Ibs for each Group 1 won, with a 1Ib penalty for their final Group I before they reach parity with the geldings. It is unfair that Epanante, for instance, or Honeysuckle, should always receive 7Ibs when they are so obviously better than the geldings they race against.
Big River finished fifth in the Ultima, staying on from quite a way back. Scottish National looks right up his street. Brilliant that David Bridgwater has a festival winner, though Kildisart may be the horse to take out of the race especially if they chance their arm in the Grand National as he was giving the winner 11Ibs.
Petit Mouchoir ran the race I expected and beat, with the exception of Darver Star, all those horses I mentioned when suggesting he was the most over-priced horse in the race.
Benie Des Dieux was beaten by as a good a ride as you will see at Cheltenham this week. When asked why Rachael Blackmore was so good, or why she was winning so many top races, Ruby Walsh replied ‘because she has mastered the art of race-riding’, and then she went and demonstrated how right he was. Oh, and she is so successful because she is backed by people who have total faith in her. If Frost, Fuller and Worsley had equal backing they too would be riding better quality horses in better quality races.
de Plotting Shed was an aberration. Enough said.
Lord Du Mesnil ran a blinder and was just ran out of it up the hill.
For horses to avoid for today I refer you to yesterday’s blog.  

​Yes, I am getting ahead of myself. Bear with me.
Firstly, by way of a diversion from the excitement to come, I am beginning to understand why Matt Chapman is known as a ‘Marmite’ man. You either like him or you don’t. I have always thought kindly of him but I am beginning to understand him a bit better these days and he seems to have a deep-seated inferiority complex, which might seem an astonishing and foolish character description of him. Yet he is a man who must have the last word, even when he is in the company of people whose experience of the sport at its cutting edge far exceeds his own. There seems little point having someone on the panel of experts as knowledgeable as A.P. McCoy or Ruby Walsh if Matt is intending to belittle them, to shout them down, to impose his own will on any discussion. Shut-up, Matt and show the great men the respect their careers deserve. At least once in a while.
Now, I am one of the worst tipsters on the planet. No one should take any notice of of my ‘fancies’. Sometimes, though, and I surprise myself when it happens, I possess insight, as with advising readers to follow Japan throughout the season after his run in the Epsom Derby, and of course nominating Pinatubo as a horse to follow after he won the Woodcote at Epsom. You might say, that sometimes I get lucky.
So, to advertise fully my inept tipping skills I intend to tip a horse in every race at the Cheltenham Festival. I do not expect to hit the bull more than once or twice. Read yesterday’s blog for Champion Hurdle Day tips, including Captain Guinness in the first and Petit Mouchoir, each-way, in the big race.
I think Envoi Allen should be taken on in the Ballymore and for a long while I have been sweet on The Big Getaway of Willie Mullins. If I could 100% trust Battleoverdoyen’s jumping he would be my choice in the R.S.A. but as I can’t I will go with the flow and suggest Copperhead, even if I am disappointed with the Tizzard camp for not sticking with Jonjo junior after he gave him such a good ride last time out.
The Coral Cup is a pin-sticking job and having no pin to stick with I will point you in the direction of Gordon Elliott’s Black Tears.
The 2-mile Champion Chase has of course been thrown into disarray by the injury to Altior. It is perfectly possible that he will trot up sound come tomorrow morning. It’s only a knock to a splint bone and if the race were at the weekend Nicky Henderson would not be greatly worried. My problem with Altior in respect of this year’s renewal is that it is questionable if he would have won if Defi Du Seuil or Chacon Pour Soi (damned French language names!) had been in opposition. In fact, I am not convinced any one of the top three will win as I am quietly confident that Dynamite Dollars will upset the apple-cart. I was hugely encouraged by his come-back at Newbury behind Altior and am minded to remember that Paul Nicholls assured everyone that the horse would come on leaps and bounds for the race. Originally, I thought Dynamite Dollars a solid each-way bet but in a 7-runner field that is not acceptable. So, its Dynamite Dollars to win.
The Glenfarclas should be a stroll for Tiger Roll, as it was last year. I don’t think I have ever seen a jumps race won with such ease as his victory parade last year. Can’t even nominate a danger.
I don’t think the Irish juveniles are a match for the British this season and though they might have one ‘thrown in’ in the Fred Winter, the two I like are Alan King’s Blacko and the Philip Hobbs trained Zoffee, with the latter my selection.
The Bumper is another pin-sticking job, with every runner having some sort of credential for winning. Because he is a 4-year-old and because of the weight allowance he receives 15Ibs from Appreciate It and others and because it is telling that David Pipe has booked champion-jockey elect Brian Hughes, I am siding with Panic Attack to start to repay his enormous purchase price.
 

​On February 1st at the Dublin Racing Festival, Petit Mouchoir finished 1-length third behind Honeysuckle and Darver Star, giving the winner 7Ibs, with Supasundae and Sharjah in behind. On December 19th at Leopardstown, Petit Mouchoir was beaten 3 and a bit lengths by Sharjah, with Coeur Sublime 8-lengths and more third. On November 19th at Punchestown, Petit Mouchoir was second to Saldier, beaten one and a half lengths.
Am I attempting to make a case for Petit Mouchoir winning the Champion Hurdle? No. I am attempting to convince the reader, and perhaps myself, that the race this year is up for grabs and that Henry de Bromhead’s horse has every chance of finishing 2nd, 3rd or 4th. He is, after all, not exactly a winning machine, even if he has accumulated over 300,000 in prize-money during his career.
The betting suggests that form should not be relied upon. Sharjah, who Petit Mouchoir has finished in front of twice this season, is currently around about 9/1 to win the race. Darver Star is 10/1. Coeur Sublime is 12/1. Supasundae is also 12/1. Honeysuckle would have been favourite if her connections had the balls to run her.
Petit Mouchoir is any price you care to ask for. 33/1 and others in a race where some bookies will pay out on the first five.
If you are one of the dreamers who thought Honeysuckle would have dotted up if given the chance, I suggest you ask yourself this: would she have won if she was not receiving the sex allowance (I wish they would change that phrase to the gender allowance)? Mind you, without the 7Ib allowance I doubt if she would have run. I remind you, and I accept Darver Star might be improving, even if he is an eight-year-old, that he is one of the favourites and Petit Mouchoir, beaten only half-a-length by him, is any price you like. The value, as Mark Chapman likes to tell us, is with Henry de Bromhead’s horse, not with any of the above-mentioned.
Who will win the 2020 Champion Hurdle, you ask? No idea. To my way of thinking, not one horse in the race has the form of a credible Champion Hurdle winner and that includes the favourite, Epatante. You have to be real optimist if you think beating the gallant old stick Silver Streak 5-lengths at Kempton represents the required level of form to win even a moderate, if competitive, Champion Hurdle. Having said that, the same opinion can be expressed about all 17 of the intended runners. If you were to put a gun to my head, I would suggest Pentland Hills as the possible winner on the basis that he has run respectfully all season and as a five-year-old has the potential for improvement.
My tentative 1,2,3, would be: Pentland Hills, Coeur Sublime, Petit Mouchoir, with the latter by far the best value.
Although I doubt Rachael Blackmore will win any of the major Grade 1’s this year, I have an inkling she might win the opener on Captain Guinness, as appropriate a winner as Cheltenham could throw-up. I like Cash Back in the Arkle. Big River in the Ultima. de Plotting Shed in the novice handicap and Lord du Mesnil in the messed-about National Hunt Chase.
Oh, and I have not forgotten the intriguing Mares Hurdle. To my mind this race is an abomination, at least as the conditions presently stand, as mares of the quality of Benie Des Dieux and Honeysuckle should not be allowed into the race. It is not a championship race, even if it is a Grade 1 and should be restricted to mares with ratings below whatever the ratings achieved by the big two. Either of the favourites could turn-out to be superstars of the sport, if they are not already, and here they are fighting it out for a race won last year by Roksana, as nice a mare as she is. This race seriously undermines the true championship races at the Festival and needs to be reconsidered. There is a need in the calendar for a championship hurdle for mares over 2 and 3-miles but not at the Festival. I would suggest one such race could be staged at Cheltenham in December and the other at the Dublin Racing Festival, thereby spreading the quality races around a bit and not allowing the big yards the opportunity to devalue the championship races by running their best horses in what by comparison to the Champion and Stayers Hurdle is an egg and spoon affair.
Benie Des Dieux will win, by the way, Kenny Alexander will be left bemoaning ‘only if’! and Ricci Rich will be as happy as if he has won a race that in the pantheon of the sport actually matters, which it doesn’t, sadly, even if, this year, it may be the race of the meeting.
 

​As I repeatedly say, the names of racehorses are important. They are the portal from which outsiders cross the divide from racing illiteracy, people who perhaps only accompany devotees of the sport to the racecourse but possess no affinity with any aspect of the sport, to being captivated by the intrigue and splendour of the action. Why the B.H.A. will allow silly or disrespectful names when the full gamut of the English language, as well as all the languages of the world, are on offer, not to mention all the names that can be made from adding one word to another, Spanish Steps, for instance, or Desert Orchid, causes me great annoyance. Though only a fraction of the annoyance the re-use of the name of a famous horse from the past.
I cannot explain why, as when Trelawny was humping huge weights to victory at Royal Ascot and winning what is now the Stayers Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival I was but five or six-years-old, but the name has stuck in my memory with the fondness of a long-lost love. When the name is referenced in print, or if the name Trelawny is used in reference to ‘The Song of the Western Men’ – ‘A good sword and a trusty hand, A merry heart and true’. …etc. Or the 3rd Baronet Sir Jonathan Trelawny, one of the 7 bishops tried for seditious libel by James 2nd, referenced in these parts more often than you might think, my one-track mind recalls the horse, never the poet Hawker or the Trelawny who inspired his famous poem, the national anthem of Cornwall.
In his ‘Masters of Manton’, Paul Mathieu saw fit to devote an entire chapter to Trelawny, which is quite an honour to bestow when you take into the account all the classic winners trained there over the centuries by Taylor the elder and younger and Joe Lawson, especially when the preceding chapter was titled ‘The Good Horses’. Trelawny was not good in that respect but more of a legend, a peoples horse, as Tiger Roll has become.
One of the remarkable aspects of Trelawny’s career as a flat horse is that he didn’t really get going until he was six, having been trained by Fred Rimell, as George Todd refused to run him over hurdles, where he was placed four times, including in a division of the Gloucestershire Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. When he was returned to Manton, George Todd set about training him for the Ascot Stakes, a race he had never won, having been placed 2nd or 3rd on eight occasions. He started his preparation by running him in the Chester Cup where he finished 3rd, having won the race when trained by Syd Mercer two years before.
The same season as he showed so much promise in winning the Chester Cup, Trelawny was badly injured in the Goodwood Cup, to the extent that the professional advice was that he should be put down. His owners decided to persevere and eventually he made a full recovery and Jack Colling, who took over his training when Mercer retired, ran him eight times, winning the Brown Jack at Ascot by 10 lengths. Yet even as Colling was taking the saddle from Trelawny’s back, Mrs.Carver, the horse’s owner, was starting a dispute with her trainer that resulted in the horse being transferred to George Todd, reputedly the best trainer of stayers in the country.
He didn’t stay long at Manton, as the Carvers (they owned E.S.B., the 1956 Grand National winner) wanted the horse run over hurdles, hence his detour to Kinnersley and the Rimells.
On his return to Manton, George Todd had his way and achieved a small ambition by winning the Ascot Stakes, Trelawny carrying a near weight-carrying record of 9st 8Ibs to victory by 4-lengths. A few days later Trelawny completed the ‘stayers double’ by winning the Queen Alexandra Stakes, the first time it had been achieved in 25-years. He won the same two races the following season, though in the Ascot Stakes he carried a welter burden of 10-stone. The same season he won the Goodwood Cup. It was his final win in a flat race.
The Carvers decided to relaunch Trelawny as a hurdler but George Todd refused yet again to agree and the great horse once more was dispatched to Kinnersley where he proceeded to win three races in a row, culminating in the Spa Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, the race Paisley Park will doubtless be winning next week. He also won the Coronation Hurdle at Liverpool, his final victory as his form from then on deteriorated. The Carvers, adopting the principle of getting as much blood out of the stone as they could, demanded Fred Rimell run Trelawny over fences. He refused, even though he had schooled, as Mercy Rimell recorded in her autobiography ‘Reflections on Racing’ ‘quite brilliantly’. Mercy had known Stella Carver most of her life and considered her ‘a difficult owner’ and Fred, fearing Trelawny might suffer a horror fall, stood firm and insisted the horse deserved to be retired.
He got his retirement but he did not get his deserved long and pampered life, with a gravestone to mark his final resting place. But in the Carvers he was not blessed with owners of sentiment and he lived for only two more years with his body fed to the hounds as if he were nothing but a dead sheep or cow.
Nothing of what I have written has come from my memory. It is all to be found in ‘Masters of Manton’, a really fine racing book. So why does the name Trelawny conjure so much fondness in me. I wish I knew the reason why. But for a long time, I thought I’d name my first-born Trelawny. Or my first dog. Or house. None of which has thus far come to pass.
I hope that when I die, I go to a place where horses such as Trelawny and Spanish Steps live a life of equine luxury and I’ll be able to pat their graceful necks and try to explain to them what they meant to me when we all toiled on this unforgiving plane of existence.

​I have my own thoughts on the coronavirus epidemic, if that is what it is, and they go like this. It is a variation on influenza, an outbreak of which after the 1st World War killed more people world-wide than the 4-years of conflict that preceded it. So, I appreciate the dire consequences that potential lie ahead of us. Thus far, and again I appreciate that the numbers will increase in the coming days and weeks, as of yesterday (March 1st) only 39 people out of a population of over 6-million are afflicted with the disease, and given how little information is forthcoming about the ages and health of these people or whether they are seriously ill or are just presenting symptoms similar to the ‘ordinary’ bad cold of flu, it is almost impossible for the public to gage if the situation is as critical as reported in the media. I suspect that what is currently going on is an exercise or experiment in controlling the populace. Which is why it bewilders me that no one is questioning why, at this present time, it is being considered prudent to put a stop to outside events, such as the Cheltenham Festival.
My gut feeling, unless coronavirus takes hold in many thousands of people over the next week, is that the Festival will take place, though I am unsure if we will be as lucky with the Grand National meeting and even, if the predictions and guesswork of shutdowns, lockdowns and the cessation of all normal life for up to six or eight weeks come to pass, the Guineas and early summer flat festivals.
I can envisage a Cheltenham made famous for all-time by the compulsory wearing of face-masks and the brow-beating of whether jockeys should ride in them, with the racecourse deep-cleaned every night after racing. Last year, of course, it was the horses who were being scrutinised for signs of equine flu, now it is the turn of the human population. Anyone see the signs of a pattern emerging? A gathering of a quarter-of-a-million people throughout the four-days would offer a good opportunity for the Health Service to take swabs or whatever they must do to diagnose how many people are cultivating the coronavirus, or indeed have the condition already, as inconvenient and annoying as that will prove for people who just want to have fun.
It would be good practise if race-goers who have travelled to and from Asia and Italy, as well as other countries worst affected by the epidemic, to be advised not to attend Cheltenham this year and for anyone who suspects they may have associated in any way with someone who has recently arrived back from Asia, Italy, etc, to volunteer themselves for testing for the virus. Perhaps in an effort to protect the Festival from postponement Cheltenham could contact the National Health Service and ask if they see any benefit in doing as I suggest.
Until Tuesday I also suggest you do as I do: pray to a deity I don’t believe in that the Cheltenham Festival does not become a victim of a virus that could have as easily escaped from a Chinese laboratory as it might just be a controlled exercise for a long-term goal we cannot imagine.
 
Recently, the Racing Post’s former editor, Bruce Millington, wrote an article that mirrored my own thoughts on the mind-twisting proliferation of horses bearing names that require the ordinary racing man to have a passing knowledge of the French language. He, of course, put his thoughts more succinctly than I could ever hope to achieve and he also offered a very sensible idea of how to overcome what I perceive as a problem. When one of these young horses come to our shores it should have its name altered or changed into something English. It could be as simple as merely translating the French into English.
I suspect I come across quite anal about the naming of horses. Since a child the names of horses have fascinated me, with names I had forgotten all about lighting a memory when I come across them in books. Yesterday in ‘Masters of Manton’ I came across I Claudius, a horse whose career I scarcely recall. I could not have even told you it was trained by George Todd, the master of Manton I most easily recall. Yet in seeing his name on the page it brought a soupçon of pleasure, a feathered leap back into a past I hardly remember. The names of racehorses, I contend, are important. As a child I could not understand why such a noble animal would be given a silly or disrespectful name and as a man receding into dotage, I cannot understand why the authorities think there is sense in horses having names that in the future no one but linguist will remember.
And that’s my argument: as with Arabic names, in years to come people taking part in a quiz asked to name the winner of a major race in 2020 or some year in the past decade, will have every aspect of the answer floating around their head, the owner, jockey, trainer, the name of the pretty groom, but not the name of the horse as it is so familiar to so many other unpronounceable names around at the time. The odd French name is perfectly acceptable, as has been the case down the generations but now the race-card is awash with them. It almost a plague of foreignness. An epidemic of linguistic gymnastics. A pandemic of tongue-twisting. An entanglement of hangy-bits above or below a letter that somehow or other alter the pronunciation which only the university educated understand or indeed care about. I fear that in the near-future I.T.V. will be employing Sally-Anne Grassick to translate French names into English and then we will all know not only how to pronounce A Plus Tard correctly, without embarrassing ourselves with our lack of conviction to the subject, but also the banality of what it means in English. (The deity I don’t believe in help us if the Norwegians or Icelanders take an interest in breeding National Hunt youngstock!)