IF the BHA and Cheltenham executive were testing the water by issuing a ‘revelation’ that consideration is being given to moving the Cheltenham Festival to begin on Wednesday and run into Saturday, then they got quick and decisive opinions offered.
For a meeting that every jumps fan is talking about from the previous October, it seems strange that attendances were well down last year and that was against the trend of pretty much every other racing festival in the UK.
The Wednesday attendance has fallen in three years from 64,431 in 2023 to 52,387 in 2024 and 46,771 this year. A figure of 17,600 over three years. The ITV drone shots last season showed it quite empty around the parade ring for the bumper.
The two arguments used in favour of a move were that people found it difficult to get off work mid-week, so Saturday would be more suitable (are Royal Ascot and York not the same?) and that the Saturday could be a new improved ‘family’ day, pulling in more younger racegoers. I have little doubt that people who wanted to take time off for the jumps highlight could do so, if they wanted.
I didn’t work in racing for a good portion of my working life, but those three or four days were always booked when a holiday roster came out in January and I never missed seeing a Cheltenham Festival live.
Value for money
In recent years, it is the experience, the expense, in travel and accommodation, that made the Festival less value for money and kept people at home.
It’s interesting though when you see that Royal Ascot, possibly the most expensive meeting of the year, did have improved attendances. Racegoers felt what they were being asked to pay was still worth it, when everything was taken into account.
Groups of British racing fans went to Spain on holiday during Cheltenham week last year, if you believed what you see online.
It would be plain daft to move the final day, Gold Cup day, to a Saturday and get lost amid events that interest general sports fans, a Six Nations finale - England play France on the day next year - or a big Premier League match as the season moves into its final quarter, Liverpool play Tottenham next March.
The Friday had a prime TV slot on ITV instead of ITV4 and no competition, something that bookmakers have remarked on. It often times got the front page of daily newspapers. How much would you pay for that? It would not get front page on a Sunday following a Six Nations match.
Mares’ Hurdle
Will the changes to the running order, moving the Mares’ Hurdle, improve the Thursday attendance and still keep the Tuesday as the second most popular day?
Personally, I liked the Mares Hurdle on the Tuesday, and the change in the running order there is less appealing. Will the more stamina-requiring New Course push a more talented mare into the Champion Hurdle?
You can cynically see it might be beneficial to bookmakers not to have that four Grade 1 short-priced multiples running up on day one.
And why move one of the weakest races of the week to a prime TV slot. Who wants a ‘meh’ race like the Hallgarten and Novum Wines Juvenile Handicap Hurdle before the Champion Hurdle. The what? That’s the Fred Winter or Boodles or whatever you still call the juvenile handicap.
It’s a bit like serving the cheese board before the main course. It’s not appetising.
One online suggestion that the Saturday could become a lesser ‘handicap’ day might be interesting, though, by condensing the Grade 1s over the three weekdays or just move the Triumph and Mares Hurdle there, like Punchestown’s Saturday, could be interesting.
IT seemed this week that leading owner Kia Joorabchian must have somehow added something to the water supplying the Haggas premises in Newmarket!
He had called out the racing industry saying: “It’s part of a problem with the game, no one wants to hear the truth.”
And then, behold, over the last week, both William and Maureen Haggas came out telling it as they saw it. On the Luck on Sunday show, William said that champion jockey Oisin Murphy had been “getting away with blue murder” on the track all season,
Rides on Corinth at Sandown and Royal Playwright at Goodwood and a drift on Giavellotto at Kempton were definitely pushing the boundaries. On the plus side he was deservedly the top jockey at Royal Ascot.
Maureen Haggas held nothing back on Racing TV on Wednesday, saying the ride Zac Purton gave Lake Forest in a Randwick Group 1 was, “the worst ride I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I was appalled”. Purton had earlier in the day won the Everest on Ka Ying Rising and was quick to reply as the reaction spread over two continents.
Irish readers will remember Australian Bloodstock’s Luke Murrell’s disparaging remarks about Sheila Lavery when New Energy was bought. (He won one handicap in 11 runs since).
There was news this week that Dylan Browne McMonagle was replaced by Mark Zahra on Al Riffa in the Melbourne Cup. As the spotlight next week hits Australia, it’ll be interesting discourse between locals and Europeans!