Around Cheltenham with the man who knows best
Tuesday and Wednesday is the old course.
You’ll see a lot more horses winning on the pace in the first two days because it’s a tighter track.
And even though the old course is on the outside, after you climb Cleeve Hill on the far side, you turn for home a furlong sooner than you do on the new course. The new course keeps going on and comes down way down further away, and then even though it comes back on the inside, it’s obviously coming back the same distance again. So it’s nowhere near as sharp as the old course.
You get more interference on the old course as a result, especially at the top of the hill and especially in hurdles between the fourth last and third last. It gets quite congested with horses coming back in front of you. You need a lot of luck in running. You need to be travelling at that stage.
If you’re off the bridle you’ll get killed up there.
You can often be struggling, get into trouble there and stay on really well late. People will say ‘where the hell was he?’ He got screwed at the top of the hill because he wasn’t going well enough.
The guys that are going well enough are able to dictate where they want to go, they guys that are struggling a bit get ruined. And that’s what happens.
The new course is a way better track to ride.
It’s not as undulating, the climbs are slower, the descents are slower and it’s way stiffer.
When you turn into the straight you’ve that extra furlong and a half of the hill to climb.
It really is more stamina-sapping so that’s for the Stayers’ Hurdle and the Gold Cup. The Champion Chase and Champion Hurdle are the speed races so they’re run on the speed track, the old track, and that’s why you have to be up there.
The gradient is much stiffer on the new track. The hill down the back is much steeper but you’re coasting down there.
You’re racing up home.
They’ve moved the last hurdle closer to the line to its winter position, which doesn’t make the run-in as stiff as it used to be. You used to have a longer run-in which made it easier for the horse coming from behind and harder for the horse in front.
You can’t miss the last now and win at Cheltenham over hurdles.
You really have to jump the last unless you’re riding Big Buck’s against Time for Rupert and we won’t have that luxury this year!
It’s a good track to ride. There are a lot of runners, especially in the handicap hurdles, so it can be very tight.
There are a couple of trappy hurdles. The first down the back is tricky as it’s slightly downhill. The third last can be tricky, and the second last, for whatever reason, can often cause horses to look at the inside wing. You’d often see them running around in front of it.
Over fences, the second last has been moved on the old course and the last two are in the straight now.
I haven’t had much experience of it but it looks fine on television.
It used to be trappy but you were running out of petrol and just knuckled over.
And horses that were going too well knuckled over because they hurdled it a bit.
I’ve had a few falls on horses there that were going well, better than people thought.
Citizen Vic last year, for example, was still travelling very well but he had a fatal fall unfortunately.
The best horse wins more often on the new course than the old course. You can get lucky on the old course, not be on the best horse but get a good run. On the new course the best horse always wins.
