Previews becoming a pre-requisite for punters’ Festival planning
For many punters there are still many searching questions to pose before their pencils are sent into action on betting slips throughout the land and you can be sure millions of euro will be lost on last-minute changes of mind.
For some, though, such decisions have been set in stone for many days now. They have listened to those 'In The Know' and are willing to act on their every word.
This is not some inner circle, however, it is a growing band of National Hunt fans that number in the thousands and who make their attendance at one of several Cheltenham preview nights across the land a pre-requisite for their Festival planning.
Over 1,200 of them gathered at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork last week to hear an esteemed panel of racing's finest assembled by local bookmakers, Cashmans, divulge their innermost thoughts, hopes and potential nightmares on the coming week's racing.
It is an impressive group, chaired by racing commentator, Des Scahill, and representing a formidable cross-section of the National Hunt community. Ruby Walsh, Barry Geraghty and Norman Williamson are there to give the inside track on their latest work on the big race fancies with the trainers' views put forward by Edward O'Grady and Willie Mullins.
Retired English trainer David 'The Duke' Nicholson was also on hand while racing journalist Michael Clower was present to temper over-optimism and run a sword through excessive modesty or caginess.
It was a fascinating mix. With Cheltenham the most-eagerly waited racing festival of the year, the buzz around the vast hall staging the event was tangible, the expectation coursing through the crowds equivalent to that feeling fans of other sports get on the morning of a cup final or the dawn of a new season: that anything could happen, everything was still up for grabs and in this case, no money had been lost yet.
"This is the sixth year we've done one of these," bookmaker Paul Cashman says. "We started out in the Grand Hotel in Fermoy and it's gone on from there. We did three at the Silversprings and this is the second at the Rochestown.
"I suppose the acid test for the nights is that we've increased our crowds every year. There were 1200 there on Tuesday night and that's feedback enough for us. They all want to back the horses that are mentioned on the night and that shows in the money we received in the shops in the following days."
Indeed, a word from a racing insider one night can result in a significant market move the next day. Take Willie Mullins' advocacy of his Supreme Novices Hurdle outsider Archstanton on Tuesday night.
That saw his price cut from 33/1 while another horse the whole panel were very bullish about, Barrow Drive, has been cut from 14/1 to 10s in the SunAlliance Chase betting.
Perhaps most remarkably, Ruby Walsh's nap for the Festival, Stormez in the National Hunt Challenge Cup, was followed up by a bet of 20,000 to 8,000 the following morning.
This is an influential gathering. And an entertaining one. The people paying their 10 entrance fee are not afraid to voice their opinions either.
Cashman recalls the year trainer Noel Chance had to jock Norman Williamson off Looks Like Trouble for the Gold Cup after the owner had been unhappy with the jockey's ride during the King George the previous Christmas.
"I happened to have Norman and Noel on the top table that year and it was all we could do to stop every question asking Noel why Norman had been jocked off.
Every time there was a chance a hand went up. The Duke got quite irate with it all.
"And then there was the year that yer man stood up and told Charlie Swan that if Istabraq didn't win the Champion Hurdle he was never to come back to Cork!
"It's only five years since we had Dunwoody over and it seems like a piece of history already, doesn't it? And poor old Adrian Maguire, he was here only three years ago and he was the pinnacle. It just shows how this game changes."
The newest kids on the block this year are Walsh and Geraghty. They sit next to each other on the top table, joking with each other like schoolboys at the back of the class as the big screen shows previous races of the leading contenders.
The contrast between them and the relatively elder statesman Williamson is stark. As they giggle, he eases back in his chair and nonchalantly puffs on a cigarette.
But all three are more than willing to voice their opinions. In fact when Walsh starts talking up the chances of Hussard Collonges for the Gold Cup he is interrupted by a shout at the back.
"But can he stay?" comes the question to which Ruby retorts with a mixture of bemusement and contempt: "Can he stay? He won the Sun Alliance didn't he? How much more do you want him to stay?"
And it's not just between punter and expert that sparks fly. Most of it is knockabout stuff, but you could sense hackles being raised when Willie Mullins disputed all the favourable talk for O'Grady's Back In Front for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle.
When Mullins was handed the mike he said: "I see my horse (Archstanton) is 33/1. I'm just thinking back to 1995 and Ventana Canyon and Tourist Attraction," before casting a theatrical glance towards O'Grady five seats down.
It was O'Grady's hot favourite Ventana Canyon who was outclassed by Mullins 25/1 shot Tourist Attraction that year and Mullins had just thrown a very subtle grenade.
The Duke is on top form as well, publicly complaining about O'Grady's cigarette smoke upsetting his equilibrium and deserving the Tipperary trainer's comeback: "If the Duke doesn't kill himself with something out of a bottle my bit of smoke is hardly going to do it."
Nicholson's shoulders shake with laughter and he is soon back in business with a character assassination of French jockeys.
Then there are ooohs and aaahs when the Englishman tells the crowd he thinks Commanche Court is "gone" and Ruby Walsh sticks up for family honour with a raising of the eyebrows clear enough to be seen at the back of the hall.
It's all good, not-quite-clean fun and Geraghty, for one, likes being there. "I enjoy doing them," he says. "Jockeys are renowned for being terrible tipsters but sure that's not really our job anyway. Maybe we know too much.
"But these nights are very informative. It's nice to get other people's opinions. You've David Nicholson here, and Edward O'Grady and Willie Mullins and a lot of different journalists.
There are a lot of views being aired and it gives you another insight on what other people are thinking and broadens your own thought on it then.
"You do pick up a lot along the way. It kind of widens the tunnel vision, throws a different light on things you mightn't have noticed. It's hard to see everything when you're travelling all the time between England and Ireland so much. I enjoy them very much."
He can only do so much, however, and admits: "This is my sixth (preview night) of eight in two and a half weeks which is probably a bit too many, a bit too much talking. I'll be glad to get back to the horses."
Amen to that, for this year at least.
