i'm disappointed: can we move on?

​Goshen! Goshen! Goshen! What is your problem? I could have taken being beaten, if only with a mild degree of good grace. Okay, Honeysuckle was a good winner, the best for a few years, even if the gender allowance gave her a distinct advantage. If you had gone down by five-lengths, fighting, straining every sinew, I could have excepted my fate as a poor judge of a racehorse. But to run off the course as if spooked by ghosts of Cheltenham-past; to give poor Jamie such a horrible journey round, to bring shame on your stable ……
To my mind, Honeysuckle aside, the most impressive winner on day 1 was Appreciate It. To win a race at the Festival, albeit from a thin field of 8, by 24-lengths is some achievement and the world is now his oyster, even if the debate at Closutton will be whether to keep him hurdling or go chasing. He will be 8 next year; I would be inclined to go chasing. The gender allowance will always put a gelding at a disadvantage in the championship races.
Shishkin was awesome without setting the pulses racing. Hopefully by the season’s end he will get in a race where he will find some competition. Not having Energumene in the Arkle destroyed the race from an informative point of view. Energumene, by the way, is French for oddball. I looked it up; I haven’t changed my mind on the bloody awfulness of these tongue-twisting French names.
Wasn’t it pleasurable to see Vintage Clouds get his day in the sun? And Aye Right cannot be far from his big payday, too. An admirable horse deserving of winning a National, even if it is more likely to be at Ayr rather than Aintree.
Rachel Blackmore now owns the honour of being the female jockey with the most important win in the history of British and Irish horseracing as the Champion Hurdle trumps the King George. She won by six and a half-lengths so would most likely have won without the gender allowance, a topic that needs to be debated as it is ridiculous that the best hurdler in Britain and Ireland will always receive 7Ib from even the most moderate of geldings. Honeysuckle is not 7Ib inferior to her male rivals; if anything, she is a similar amount superior.
At least I gave Black Tears a favourable mention, even if I was confident in my opinion that she would find Concertista too good for her. I managed to mention the wrong one of Noel Meade’s in the Boodles, having thought to select Jeff Kidder when I looked at the race on Sunday. Cross my heart and hope to die if I am telling a lie!
Now, let’s be honest. Black Tears will go down as Denise Foster’s first Festival winner but as with Galvin, the winner of the National Hunt Chase, their preparation was all due to Gordon Elliott. The man is both a twat and a genius and in having Galvin primed after a racecourse absence of 5-months to win a competitive staying chase says everything that needs to be said of him as a trainer of racehorses.
Today, on all known form, Bob Olinger, Monkfish, Chacon Pour Soi, Easysland and Kilcruit are all good-things. But only backing them in multiples with big money will change your bank balance in the right direction. Alternative selections would be Bravemansgame, Sporting John, First Flow, Balko Des Flos and Sir Gerhard, a horse I was always going to select and my nap of the day.
My each-way selection for the Coral Cup is Tea Clipper and in the Grand Annual I am torn between Ibleo, my original choice, though the ground may have firmed-up too much for him and Not That Fuisse.
Good luck and may your God walk hand-in-hand with you.