Change is coming as money matters
Much of the word at Prestbury Park this week has indicated that, within two years, it will start on Wednesday and finish on Saturday.
Traditionally it was a three-day affair — Tuesday to Thursday — but money talks and that was extended to four.
This is, reportedly, being driven by the organisation known as Racing For Change. Their job is to promote racing and to attract new customers to the game, especially the young.
Many traditionalists were utterly opposed to adding a day, on the basis it would very much dilute a quality product.
That Cheltenham is now about quantity as much as quality, is beyond dispute. But, overall, one has to accept that, purely on a commercial basis, the additional day has been a huge success.
Attendances this week have more than held up and racing on Friday has developed into a massive cash-cow for the Cheltenham executive. However, the fare served up on the Thursday has become something of a joke among the professionals.
This Thursday was no different, with four hopeless handicaps on a six-race programme. But it made no difference whatsoever to punters.
It was a card which would not have been out of place at Kilbeggan on a Friday night — ok, I exaggerate, but you get the point.
And yet the lure of this extraordinary festival proved irresistible to patrons and they arrived in their thousands.
Just over 50,000 paid though the gates on Thursday, up 3% on 2009. It was a truly astonishing figure and defied all logic.
Racing For Change and Cheltenham supremo, Edward Gillespie, now realise they can literally do what they like with the festival and it will almost certainly work.
The racing purists may throw their hands in the air in desperation and frustration, but it will cut no ice, because the public, as sure as night follows day, will come in droves and that’s all that counts.
This is what will happen. The Gold Cup will continue to be run on the Friday and Thursday’s awful offering will be moved to Saturday. And that, if the experience of Royal Ascot is repeated, will prove a bonanza. They used to race on the Saturday at Ascot, but it wasn’t part of the Royal meeting.
But a bit of a rejigging and adding a few more races now sees Royal Ascot end on the Saturday, rather than the Friday. And Saturday, hardly surprisingly, has become the best attended day of the week.
The Saturday crowd are completely different to those who attend for the rest of week. Clearly that appears to be influencing the thinking on Cheltenham. Saturday will attract a much younger audience and allow people, who have to work Monday to Friday, to get there for at least one day.
Oh, and a crowd on a par with Gold Cup afternoon, in the region of say 65,000, would be anticipated.
But will the ‘change’ stop there? Well, for the moment that will be the case. One source, however, told me: “Do not dismiss the notion it will, in the future, be a five-day Festival.”
He said there is no talk of it now, at least not openly, but thinks it could be on the agenda in about five years.
Ruby Walsh is adamant it should never happen. “The more racing the better as far as jockeys are concerned, but five days would ruin the festival”, said Walsh.
“There has been much said about me beating Pat Taaffe’s record, but I have won five races which weren’t even there when Pat was riding. I’ve won two Ryanair Chases, two Mares’ Hurdles and a Fred Winter, and they were unheard of in his time.”
Perhaps, it will never happen. But remember Galway started with two days and developed into a seven-day extravaganza. You have been warned.
