changes on trial.

​It is not yet October, the Cambridgeshire is tomorrow, the Arc de Triomphe is just over the horizon, but we must focus on the Cheltenham Festival in March 2025. Pray, I live to see the drama unfold.
What must be taken into consideration is that the reason we are talking so feverously about the Cheltenham Festival long before the National Hunt season has got into fill swing is because we care about it; it is the home of our memories and to owners, trainers and jockeys it is home to their dreams. Cheltenham in March matters because horse racing matters. It is our hearts they tread on when it is criticised and used for self-interest, as the O’Leary brothers have chosen to do this week.
Cheltenham could not be allowed to remain as it was last March, and because everyone of us holds opinions as to how to breathe new life into the championship meeting, there was always going to be criticism and plaudits flying around the racing media. On September 27th 2024 we are all correct in our opinions; March 2025 will tell us how many of us were wrong, and that is the truth of it.
I did not get what I wanted from the change to the National Hunt Chase, though I got half of what I wanted. It is to become a handicap, which I do not favour, though it is better than leaving it as it was, though the restriction on amateur riders has been lifted and from this season it will be open to professionals. To my mind, the race should have been upgraded to a 4-mile Champion Chase and perhaps in time that might happen, especially if Cheltenham want the Festival to be seen as the home of quality.
People forget that for most of its history the National Hunt Chase was for maidens. It never was a race to attract quality even in the days when it was the marque race of the meeting. When the National Hunt Festival was inaugurated, the top jockeys were, in the main, still from the amateur ranks. Today, although there are many high-class amateurs, there are just not enough of them these days to have the experience to fulfil the qualification to ride in the race. Surely, if we want the best horses running at the Festival, we also want the best jockeys riding them. Amateurs still have two-races to display their skills and they should be happy with that quota, especially as, except for the Martin Pipe, in theory amateurs can ride in every other race that comprises the Festival.
I would have transferred the Turners to Trials Day, though I applaud the decision to make the race a handicap at the Festival. I think the other changes, as with no penalties for the mares novice hurdle, merely tinker round the edges. I would have restricted the top-rated mares from running in either the Mares Champion Hurdle (the title it should have) to encourage connections of the next Honeysuckle to run in the Champion Hurdle or the Mares Chase. To my mind, every effort should be made to ring-fence the 2-Mile Champion Chase, the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, by making it a hard choice for trainers to bypass these races in favour of easier options at the Festival. Again, I think it would be a good idea to start a discussion as to whether the mares only races should be transferred to ‘Trials Day’ and turning that meeting into a 2-day affair, and reverting the Festival to three-days, at least until there is both an increase in horse numbers in training and people attending race-meetings. 
When a five-day Festival was mooted, I was fully in favour of giving it a go. But that was then. Now I think for many reasons it should revert to a 3-day meeting. In fact, I would suggest, as ‘Trails Day’ is often a damp squib, at least in comparison to the Dublin Racing Festival, that there might be two Festivals, a two-day affair in late January/early February, and then the main Festival in March. And do not bat down this idea because Nicky Henderson and others would not want to run their top horses twice in six-weeks! If Galopin des Champ and State Man can win at both meetings, then so can Constitution Hill and Sir Gino.
When the ship is sinking, tinkering around the edges of the drama is rarely likely to succeed in righting the ship. Radical, quick-minded decisions are needed to save the day, and that is my main criticism of the changes announced this week. Do they go far enough?