Tom Segal, Newbury tops, newmarked shamed & another cheltenham.

​The punter’s best friend, Tom Segal, will wait until the final race of this year’s Festival for his best bet, Wodhooh in the Martin Pipe. He may be right as I have thought since last season that the mare has the potential to be better than the races she has thus far competed in.
What must it be like for Martin Pipe to witness his name attached to a race at the Cheltenham Festival? Kim Muir would never have known that he was honoured after his death by having a race run in his name year after year, the race now more famous and remembered the man it is named after.
It is fitting that a man who achieved so much in the sport and who changed the way horses are trained, should be alive to witness the race named in his honour, to know that he will be remembered long after he leaves us. A far-flung hope, I know, but if I could choose the day to pop my clogs, it would be the same day and the same moment as Martin Pipe as the journey to the after-life, if I could accompany him, would flip the shock of death into a journey of enlightenment.

In a poll carried out by the National Association of Racing Staff and voted on by racing staff, Newbury has come out as the five-star winners, while Newmarket came fourth bottom and are shamed for their poor performance. As it was thought that the way racecourses were formerly assessed made it too easy for courses to achieve five-star status, it was made harder this time around, so only 8 racecourses were ranked as five-star, down from 23 in 2023. York finished 2nd, and Lingfield 3rd. Ascot, Carlisle, Doncaster, Hamilton and Ayr were the other courses to be awarded five-star citations. At the bottom of the pile, to my surprise, were Kelso, Hexham and Cartmel. Along with separate changing and showering facilities for female jockeys, good food, a complimentary meal on arrival and single room hostels should be a priority for racecourse during the next 12-months. Indeed, a racecourse that stages Group 1 or Grade 1 races, should be liable to lose those races if they do not provide Grade 1 facilities for jockeys and racing staff.

So it begins, though in truth the build-up to the Cheltenham Festival began the day after last year’s Festival and already I am looking forward – at my age looking forward is what ambition is to a younger man – to The Jukebox Man taking Galopin Des Champs crown away from him in 2026.
In today’s Racing Post, the Cheltenham duel considered by whoever compiled the list of best duels down the ages, was the feast provided by the two immortals, Denman and Kauto Star, the day I thought I had seen the best steeplechaser since Arkle. In his pomp and at his age, perhaps there were grounds for my ambition for Denman, though, as with my other ‘best steeplechaser’ since Arkle, Sprinter Sacre, heart problems derailed what I believed to be his destiny, leaving him with a solitary Gold Cup on his c.v., plus three close calls. For information purposes only, I concede that second to Arkle is Kauto Star. 
Was it too much to ask the gods to have allowed these two great racehorses a long and happy retirement?
That is the thing with Cheltenham compared, say, to Royal Ascot. Once the Royal five days are over, it is over, with a brand new incarnation of the event in 12-months, with little in the way of last year crossing over to the next year, except perhaps in the Ascot Gold Cup. Whereas the Cheltenham Festival is interconnected to the previous Festival and the one before that, with Denman’s Gold Cup and Istabraq’s Champion Hurdles still as fresh as paint in our memories, with Constitution Hill on-course to regain his Champion Hurdle supremacy and Galopin Des Champs odds-on to defend his crown once again
And there will be a shock or two, with a similar number of odds-on favourites beaten. I believe Marine Nationale will take down Jonbon and L’Eau Du Sud will beat Majborough. Though I may be wrong. It does happen. Unlike J.P. McManus I doubt 51% of my decisions will prove correct this week. In fact, I will be happy with 25%. Or just coming up with a single winner.
Not that any of that matters. Cheltenham is to enjoyed for what it is – the best horse racing of the year. I hope every horse returns to its stable and every jockey departs Cheltenham as fit as he or she started the week. My only real hope for the week is that British trainers accumulate a score between them that is in double figures. 11.