Ruby Walsh: Cheltenham is a monster because it deserves to be
MONSTER: I have never stood alone and appreciated the venue. I have experienced all its magic, heartbreak, devastation, and elation, but I have never stopped and thought about what it represents.
On Thursday morning, I sat in glorious sunshine in front of the Princess Royal Stand at Cheltenham and stared out across my favourite sporting venue. It was 8am, and only the Irish runners for the weekend ahead shared with me the silence and peace of National Hunt racing's heaven.
The rise up the back straight in the shadow of Cleave Hill, the descent down to the home turn, and climb back to the winning post as the track runs between the grandstands and Best Mate Enclosure to a cul-de-sac in front of the stable yard.
The smell of freshly cut grass, rolled and manicured like Wimbledon, and the wrap-around stands and elevated walkway encircling the parade ring to make it feel like Wembley.
The vast tented enclosures to the bottom end drift off like the corporate settings of St Andrews or any golf course hosting a Major to bolster the various restaurants and bars that permanent structures can facilitate. I am biased, but this place feels like it has soul.
I have never stood alone and appreciated the venue. I have experienced all its magic, heartbreak, devastation, and elation, but I have never stopped and thought about what it represents.
I have felt the crowds: Positively and negatively. Recently, I have joined the cheers and added to the groans where I once generated them, but I always assumed it was all about the occasion and never about the event or the fabric of where we were.
I couldn’t have been more wrong because this place is worth seeing and feeling even in isolation.
Perhaps I have more memories here than most. Still, I don’t believe it's that simple either, because whatever happens at Navan today or here in the foot of the Cotswolds, and next weekend at Haydock, Punchestown, or Ascot and the following weekend at Newbury or Fairyhouse and after that at Sandown or Cork, it will all lead to here.
They are occasions that matter and days that will bring memories, but they are championship games in the rounds that lead to the final. Yet, this is the final, where there is no qualification other than believing you should be there. Well, that was until 2026, but still, only a few have to qualify.
What happens from now until mid-February will entertain us, inform us, thrill us and disappoint us as all sport should, but ultimately, spring, particularly the second week of March, will define the season.
Moan about it, ridicule it and judge it, but don't knock it until you stand here in the bowels of Cheltenham and all it represents, the history, the dreams, the drama, and the disappointment. Clones, Killarney, and Thurles are great, but they ain’t Croke Park. Neither are Villa Park, Old Trafford, or Anfield the same as Wembley.
This place is a monster because it deserves to be. If it could talk, it would tell you why it matters most and why most of those racing this weekend are auditioning to be here in March.
At 1.35pm this afternoon in Navan, Declan Queally will send I’ll Sort That out to bat for him in the For Auction Novice Hurdle, a race first run in 1997, and named after the 1982, 40-1 Champion Hurdle winner. I don’t know if I’ll Sort That will emulate For Auction, but I do believe he will win today.
Ten minutes later, the recent Limerick winner, July Flower, will be the favourite for a red-hot novice chase in Cheltenham. She was brave and bold on her chasing debut on Munster National Day, and if all of the forecast biblical rain falls on Prestbury Park, then it only enhances her chances of beating Burdett Road and Be Aware.
The Yellow Clay will start his bid for a Stayers' Hurdle crown at 2.10pm in Navan, and staying over the smaller obstacles, rather than going chasing, did surprise me. Looking at it in the cold light of day, Gordon Elliott has probably made a shrewd call, and this edition of the Lismullen Hurdle looks his for the taking.
Last season's Festival Plate winner Jagwar has to shoulder top weight in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at 2.20pm, but when you scan the whole field, he does look like the only horse in the field who could still be ahead of the handicapper.
For some, the thoughts of lugging top weight around in heavy ground will be a complete no-no, but to me, the extra burden on stamina that a slow surface will create is a plus for this six-year-old. His victory in March came on the stamina-laden New Course, so anything that slows the field on the sharper Old Course is a help.
Marine Nationale starts out on the road of defending his Champion Chase crown at 2.45pm but will do so on ground that is far from ideal. His trainer, Barry Connell, wants his stable star to be the first horse to win three Champion Chases, but racing up the long Navan home straight today will be a slog. He could be vulnerable to race-fit opposition, yet only last year's winner, Found A Fifty, is that.
That rival has to prove that he has recovered from Down Royal two weeks ago, where three miles looked beyond his stamina, and the Fortria is a classic example of a race to watch rather than invest in.
The clash of Brighterdaysahead and Kopek Des Bordes has not materialised in the Beginners’ Chase at 3.20pm, and for the better in my opinion. Let them both win their beginners’ and clash in a bigger contest at Christmas is how I believe it should be.
Willie Mullins’ Cork-owned Supreme winner should have little trouble collecting here and heading for Leopardstown on St Stephen’s Day for a bigger assignment. However, please don’t get lost in the euphoria of what Kopek does at Navan and forget the 3.30 at Cheltenham because Tony Martin has waited for 12 months to unleash Hamsiyann again, and today should be his day.
