the festival.

​Before I begin, before I forget: Rachael Blackmore rode 5 seconds from 6-rides at Navan on Sunday; is this a record? For a female jockey, undoubtedly and she led at the last in 3 of those races.

Recently, Ruby Walsh gave his approval to the idea of a 5-day Cheltenham Festival, suggesting it should run from Monday through to Friday. I am more swayed by his first point than I am his second.
I have written many times on this subject, both on this site and in letters to the Racing Post. In fact, I was expressing my favour for an extra day long before it actually became a subject for general discussion. My view has not altered over the years and taking into account the savaging of the sport’s finances through the needless banning of spectators on racecourses by government, any additional revenue by way of a fifth day should be grasped in both hands.
I have suggested that the Midlands National at Uttoxeter should be run a week earlier as along with the Imperial Cup at Sandown this would provide a great betting prelude to the Festival. I propose this change as I would extend the Festival to the Saturday, either, as Ruby Walsh advocates, to extend the meeting to a fifth Festival day or as I advocate to have what I term a ‘Heath Day’, as used to be the case for Royal Ascot before it was extended to five-days.
My argument for a fifth non-Festival day is this: this extra day would cost less in prize-money than if it were to be a bone fide Festival day; it would allow the Cheltenham executive to trial races before they were slotted into the Festival proper, as might have been the case with the new race this year, the mares chase; the additional day would be a safety-net in circumstances where a day’s racing is lost to the weather, as in the year of the great wind, if you remember, when a day’s racing had to be shoehorned into the final two-days; and it would ensure that races sacrificed from the main four-days to allow for the introduction of new races, as with the novice handicap chase this year, would not disappear but would be found a home on the Saturday.
I would quite like the Cross-Country Chase to be moved to the Saturday to be the feature race, with the prize-money increased to make it the most valuable race of its kind in Europe. The Glenfarclas is the one race at the Festival designed with the intention of attracting horses from across the English Channel and in the main it does not attract the very best cross-country horses from France and elsewhere and Cheltenham owe it to the race and its sponsors to go all out to get the very best cross-country racehorses in Europe to Prestbury Park in March. As it is, if it were not for the Irish and J.P.McManus in particular, the Cross-Country race would be a very sad event.
As for the races that would comprise my ‘Heath Day’ – the compensation races presently run at Kempton for horses balloted out of the big handicaps would make for good betting heats and in my design would be shoe-ins for acceptance. I would also include the sacrificed novice handicap chase, the return of the United Hunts 4-mile hunter chase and some kind of champion hurdle for mares, either over 2-miles or 3. 
Obviously, even though the sport would appreciate any extra revenue it can lay its hands on at present, it is too late to institute change for this season and we can only grasp at straws that the government will come to its senses in the next few weeks or months and allow spectators back into the sporting arena which would give Cheltenham a welcome opportunity to make a profit on this season’s Festival. The hole in the sport’s finances will remain for many years to come. It may lessen as time passes but I believe recovery to the point of what we consider now to be normalcy is many years into the future. Which is why, taking into account the profound difference in circumstance between last season and this, a fifth day should be brought to reality as quickly as possible, even if sponsors cannot be found to finance the extra races required. There is no danger of a fifth-day underwhelming fans; the fifth-day will be as packed as any of the preceding four-days and the town of Cheltenham and all the local hotels and hospitality venues would welcome a fifth day with open arms. Indeed, it might be racing’s duty to the locality to help build back local businesses. We need them every bit as much as they need the Festival. Are we not all in this together?