Dineen's best bet, supremely ridiculous, earlier declarations, god bless Mr. Henderson, Spain for Cheltenham! & the new lion.

​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.