Cheltenham Festival: All set for a week to remember

Mar 9 2009 By Paul Castles

IT’S FOUR days of merry mayhem and the finest equine spectacle in the world and for disciples of the Cheltenham Festival it is what they dream of from one year to the next.

And when the tapes ping up to launch the traditional Williamhill.com Supreme Novices’ Hurdle curtain raiser at 1.30pm tomorrow the roar will reverberate from Prestbury Park right across the Cotswolds.

While many have suggested that the economic climate may deter some Irishmen from making their annual pilgrimage across the water, rest assured there will be enough of their countrymen present to give the Festival its traditional Celtic swagger.

Racegoers from both sides of the water will just be hoping for the full Festival this year having lost one day to freak weather conditions 12 months ago.

That resulted in an extraordinary nine-race Friday card the highlight of which saw the mighty Denman dethrone his stable companion Kauto Star in the week’s feature, the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Third that day, to provide champion trainer Paul Nicholls with a remarkable 1-2-3 home, was Neptune Collonges, but few would have thought then that a year later it would be Denman going into the Blue Riband as the outsider of the three.

But that’s the position we found ourselves in as the champion has only had the one run this season and that came last month at Kempton where he ran a listless race and was trounced by the progressive Madison du Berlais, trained by David Pipe

If the Denman bubble has burst then can Kauto Star wrestle back the crown or will there be a shock as there was when Nortons Coin came down from the valleys to win the great race at 100/1?

Although some may contest the point, the Festival is of course about much more than just the Gold Cup.

And the expanded four-day meeting now offers us all even more races in which to land a touch, or as tends to be the case for most, lose a few bob.