the old 4-day versus 5-day debate.

​The debate over whether the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival should evolve into a 5-day meeting, following the path successfully taken by Royal Ascot, has once again raised its beautiful head. The aspect of the debate that intrigues me, apart from the perfectly sensible arguments put forward by defenders of both sides of the argument, is that only two options are ever considered, and this is with me regularly over the years suggesting what is in fact a very good compromise.
Ever since the debate was 3-days or 4 – remember how contentious that argument was – I have championed the idea of a fifth or Heath Day, as the Saturday at Royal Ascot used to be called, when the main race was the Churchill Stakes. As an aside, given Winston Churchill in his later years was a prominent owner/breeder – and couldn’t we do with a senior politician taking a similar interest in our sport these days – it is regrettable his name is not still attached to a race of prestige.
The advantages of my proposed ‘Heath Day’ are many. More than one, anyway. The weather is unpredictable nowadays; who can say Cheltenham will not fall victim to another day of rage and fury, forcing postponement of a day’s racing. What if, God forbid, it happened on the Friday, causing the Gold Cup to be rescheduled in April! It such extreme instances the ‘Heath Day’ would come to the rescue. The Festival has grown to such prominence in the sport over the past decade that it should have some kind of safety-net, and though the B.H.A. are more flexible than its predecessors ever were and would no doubt stage the race on the Saturday, as I am proposing, as the race programme stands this would greatly inconvenience Uttoxeter’s running of the Midland Grand National, the best National outside of Aintree.
If the fabled or dreaded fifth day (or Heath Day) were to become a reality it is important that the Midland Grand National is staged on the Saturday before the Festival. This arrangement, with the Imperial Cup at Sandown the same day, would make a really interesting and bookmaker-happy weekend’s racing.
One of the other benefits of the ‘fifth day’ is that it would allow Cheltenham to trial the races vying to become part of the Festival, as with the Mares Chase to be run next season, with any race deemed surplus to requirements relegated to the ‘fifth day’. I personally would stage the Cross-Country Chase as the highlight of the Saturday fixture, bulking-up prize-money in an attempt to make it the blue riband of such races. At the moment it remains a bit of light relief from the more serious sporting endeavours at the meeting, whereas as the main feature on a still important day it will gain greater prominence.
This ‘Heath Day’ would also be the logical place for the races presently staged at Kempton for horses balloted out of the big handicaps. I also believe there are one too many races for amateurs at the Festival, as well as one too many handicaps, and would favour the Kim Muir upgraded into a conditions race for professional riders over 4-miles. You may laugh or sneer at this proposal but think about it: the biggest race of the whole year in this country is the Grand National, the biggest race in Ireland is the Irish National, indeed if National Hunt were a stick of rock it would have Grand Nationals inscribed inside it. Yet there is not one single 4-mile conditions chase, outside of the now shorter than 4-miles National Hunt Chase, in the whole of the calendar. Odd, don’t you think? An omission in need of correction. If nothing else, my 4-mile Kim Muir might be the perfect prep for the top Grand National contenders.
Other advantages for a fifth ‘Heath Day’ is that it would cheaper to stage than an actual fifth Festival day, it would provide local businesses with extra revenue, a point those against the notion of a fifth day seem to ignore, and it would allow the media, I.T.V. and the racing channels, the weekend newspapers, more time to reflect on and analyse the previous day’s Gold Cup.
The argument that a fifth day would spread the jam too thinly cannot be countered. Already with the mares races, with another mares race to be added, the championship races will too often be run without necessarily the top horses. Quevega in the past and Honeysuckle in the present are too examples that come readily to mind. Without these perfectly justifiable races, the Champion Hurdle, Stayers Hurdle, Arkle and R.S.A. chases, are already weakened, the novice hurdles, too, I suspect. The 4-day Festival is the absolute limit, I have no doubt. If the Cheltenham executive want to innovate, though, the fifth, Heath Day, is the way to do it. The advantages speak for themselves.
The Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot are not two peas in a pod. The 5-day Royal Ascot only works because of the number of two-year-old races through the week, most of which do not draw top-class horses, and the fact flat distances allow for 5,6,7 furlongs races, as well as a mile and upwards. Over jumps we are limited to 2-miles, 2-miles 4 and 3-miles, with an extra 2-furlongs at Cheltenham, plus the National Hunt Chase at 3-miles 6-furlongs as it is now.
Would it be asking too much for my third option to be considered as part of the debate?