it is over for another year.

​We will draw a veil over my inadequate and quite frankly embarrassing attempt at finding winners this Cheltenham Festival. It’s over. We move on. There is still Aintree to look forward to, after all, and there I might redeem myself. If I can bare face the challenge again.
I believe the best horse won the Cheltenham Gold Cup. We cannot be 100% certain of the obvious as Ahoy Senor fell when travelling bold and well, badly impeding A Plus Tard who, according to his jockey, was equally travelling within himself. Yet, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is a steeplechase and the fences are there to be jumped and Galopin Des Champs did that better than all the rest.
Keeping up my fine record of being wrong throughout the week, Galopin Des Champs did not falter up the hill, as my instinct-driven mind’s eye kept assuring me, but stayed on stoutly as all Gold Cup winners must do. I would not yet, though, hang the mantle of greatness on him as this year’s Gold Cup might have appeared to have a great depth of quality about it, the race fell apart a wee bit with Minella Indo running so poorly (some of de Bromhead’s horses were withdrawn earlier in the week due to coughing, so that might explain his lethargic run), Noble Yeats was out-paced and then ran on like a horse in need of 4-miles, Ahoy Senor fell when looking full of running and A Plus Tard was virtually taken out of the race by the melee that also robbed the race of Sounds Russian. The less said about Stattler the better.
Unless Willie Mullins has one waiting in the wings that the public know nothing about, apart from Bravemansgame I cannot see any credible opposition around to prevent Galopin Des Champs equalling Closutton’s A Boum Photo’s haul of 2 Gold Cups. Of course, ill-tempered fate is always the main combatant that steeplechasers must overcome during their short careers as racehorses and hopefully luck will be on his side as the sport is in short supply of his quality of horse.
I boldly predicted that home-based trainers would do better this year than in previous few years. 18-10 suggests I was as equally wrong as I was with all other selections this week. Yet, I will contend, the Champion Hurdle was won by a British trainer and ‘we’ had the runner-up in the Gold Cup, a marked improvement on previous years. And, thanks to Paul Nicholls, one of the Grade 1 novice chases and one of the novice hurdles, was not won by an Irish-trained horses. Again, a marked improvement on previous years. ‘We’ even kept the Foxhunters at home, and won by a genuine point-to-point outfit. It is always comforting to see ‘an amateur set-up’ get one over the professionals.
It was galling that the Irish were more successful in the handicaps than in the past, though Dan Skelton took two of the most competitive handicaps and the Greenall/Guerrieo partnership announced their arrival in the big-time by winning the Martin Pipe. As a keen supporter of the female jockey, it was especially pleasing to see Bridget Andrews win the County Hurdle for a second-time, fending off in a photo-finish none other than Davy Russell.
I suspect we have seen the last of Russell on a racecourse. His ‘contract’ with Gordon Elliott was, I believe, only due to extend until Cheltenham and with racing going a bit quiet until Easter and, with Jack Kennedy to be back riding in the period between now and Aintree, there seems no reason for him to carry on.
Finally, if there is one aspect of Cheltenham that can legitimately be criticised, it is starts. This nonsense of horses lining-up so far away from the tapes must end. Where is the sense in giving revved-up horses and competitive jockeys such a long distance to keep to a walk? My solution is this: a yard or two before the tapes set out, using sawdust or even a laser line, a box ten to fifteen yards square. Set the horses slightly behind this box and then raise the flag. As long as every horse is in the box, no matter which way they are facing (that will be the jockeys responsibility) and whether they are walking, jogging or in canter-mode, the tapes are flipped. At the moment the starter has too much say in how horses are ridden before the race has even begun. Give jockeys more responsibility to achieve a fair start and stop thinking horses are machines that can be controlled when their blood is up. It is just so embarrassing that in this day and age we cannot start a race at first-time of asking!