Cheltenham Festival 2024: Three things we'll learn on day one
RUDE HEALTH: Trainer Nicky Henderson poses with Shishkin (left) and Sir Gino at Seven Barrows, near Lambourn
The ‘will he, won’t he’ saga surrounding Constitution Hill's participation in Tuesday's Champion Hurdle became tiresome in the lead up to the festival and it nearly came as a blessed relief when Nicky Henderson announced the horse wouldn’t be defending his crown. Disappointing of course that the world’s best hurdler was confined to barracks but at least the chatter returned back to racing from chest infections.
Then lo and behold, Henderson’s other superstar, Sir Gino, a juvenile hurdler of infinite promise and short-priced favourite for the Triumph Hurdle on Friday took a walk in the market, drifting from odds-on to 5/1 and ‘horse health hell’ broke loose again. The trainer turned up on tv Sunday morning and reassured worried ante-post docket holders that all was well with Sir Gino. But a doubtful niggle remains, despite his insistence. Smoke has been seen, so a fire must be burning somewhere and the performances of Jeriko Du Reponet, (Supreme Novice) Iberico Lord (Champion Hurdle) and Marie’s Rock (Mares Hurdle) should be closely scrutinised Tuesday. These are Henderson’s first runners of the week and all three are talented horses that should be capable of a podium finish. If they fail to fire and finish down the field it might be advisable to keep Nicky at arms length this week. And you might want to use your longest arm.
When Bravemansgame finished second in last year’s Gold Cup he ran in the purple and white colours of the John Dance who owned the horse in partnership with Bryan Drew. Six weeks later when he was third to Fastorslow in the Punchestown Gold Cup he was bedecked in the orange with a black star indicating he was now racing in the sole ownership of Drew. All hell had broken loose in the interim when Dance’s fund managing firm, WealthTek was shut down following the discovery of ‘serious operational and regulatory issues’ and that it had been run with a significant shortfall in client’s assets over a prolonged period of time. His large string of horses was banned from competing by the BHA and a criminal investigation continues.
So, it came as a surprise to many that the BHA were far more pliable when it allowed Monbeg Genius compete in Tuesday's Ultima Handicap Chase (2.50). The horse had been given to Doug Barrowman as a birthday present from his wife, the Tory peer, Lady Michelle Mone. She and Barrowman have been in the spotlight because of the controversy surrounding a contract worth £202million for personal protective equipment awarded to their firm Medpro PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK government have instigated proceeding against Medpro in a bid to recover taxpayers’ money and a court order in January ‘froze or restrained’ £75 million of the couple’s assets. The BHA satisfied themselves that the horse is not subject to the restraint order and is clear to run today. If the Jonjo O’Neill trained eight-year-old improves a couple of places on his third in the same race last year the warmth of their reception in the winner’s enclosure could be interesting.
There is a great deal of tortured debate going on in the background this week, (as well as the middle ground and foreground) on the health and wellbeing of the festival structure and whether it will continue to be fit for purpose in its present state. At one end of the argument lie the catastrophists who believe it’s a goose that’s been squeezed of most of its golden eggs and at the other are those who believe that everything is ‘just grand’ as it is. The Jockey Club and the wider authorities will be anxiously reviewing their business indicators in the coming weeks to try to establish if there is an existential threat to the festival in its present form. One of the recurring complaints is that the extension of the festival to four days diluted the quality of long-established contests. The opening day card is a case in point. It’s possible that without the addition of new races over the last couple of decades that Ballyburn, Brighterdaysahead and Jade De Grugy would be running in the Supreme Novice, Lossiemouth in the Champion Hurdle and Grey Dawn, Ginny’s Destiny and Facile Vega in the Arkle.
Undoubtedly those races would be better for their presence but their absence doesn’t detract too much from an intriguing opening day race card. With the exception of odds-on favourites State Man in the Champion Hurdle and Lossiemouth in the mares, every race is layered with uncertainty and the betting markets are much more interesting for that. It's quite unusual to have 7/2 favourites for each of the first two races on Tuesday. For the first day at least, everything looks just grand.
