A Mug's Game: The only way is down after unusually strong start to the week

The Festival may not be what it once was but there's still money to be made, it seems.

Tue, 12 Mar, 2024 - 19:17

As the University Challenger presenter likes to announce at the start of the show, you’re too familiar with the rules and regulations for them to be stated yet again. (Okay. Four days, €50 a day to speculate and let’s see will it be champagne or Clonmel chardonnay come Friday evening. Or water.) This year there’s a caveat, the same one that’s been ventilated all over the place. It’s hard to get bulled up about Cheltenham 2024. It is not the festival of old, or even the festival of 10 years ago.

Too many small fields. Too many short or odds-on favourites. Little chance of a nice 8/1 or 10/1 winner. Negligible chance of an even nicer long-odds each-way acca coming in.