Cheltz Fest 2021 Behind Closed Doors ?

[Spectre]

There are two problems I have with a move to 5 days. Firstly 6 race cards, and secondly, and more pertinently, 7 race cards that are further diluted by irrelevant races.

Neither should be an option, and neither are something I'll mellow to.

[Istabraq]

Spectre I imagine you are a similar age to me so you will remember that just about every card in the 80s was 6 races.
I too hate a diluted festival but that’s been happening for a while, we’ve debated this to death over the years but if there were to be 5 days of 6 races there only needs to be two more created and if they reprieve the one that is about to be lost they need only create one more.

Like I said, keeping the current format would be my preference but if it was to move to five days then a Mon-Fri festival would work best for the calendar...

[Saxon Warrior]

I think the Festival needs an additional race for horses that arent good enough to win a Festival race.

[Istabraq]

I think the Festival needs an additional race for horses that arent good enough to win a Festival race.

They just created that SW....

[Saxon Warrior]

They just created that SW....

The Mares Chase.

Surely we should know which race is being dumped by now.

[Spectre]

I suspect so Istabraq. A fine vintage we are too!

I was resistent to the 4 day Festival too, and still have an issues with the Fred Winter, and the two and a half mile novice chase too. And whilst I understand the breeding angle to the mares races, I'm not keen on them either. If those races are to exist they shouldn't get a 7lb allowance in the open races.

To be fair I'm okay with 4 days now, but the dilution still wrankles. 5 days is just unnecessary. The reason The Festival has the status it has above all other Festivals is the quality of racing, and they're in danger of making a decision that takes away from what they have, and makes it what it is.

If it were ever to go to 5 days, I would also want it to be Mon to Friday, but there's no way they'd resist the Ascot approach I suspect.

[BigChaang]

I noticed on coral's site , they've now ' sorted ' all the races into order.
The Mares chase is shown as 1-30 on the Wednesday.Do they Know ??.

[Lobos]

I noticed on coral's site , they've now ' sorted ' all the races into order.
The Mares chase is shown as 1-30 on the Wednesday.Do they Know ??.

Yep, the Ballymore is being dumped.

[Middle_Of_March]

Yep, the Ballymore is being dumped.

Good on Cheltenham for acquiring to those Mares that have been choosing that novice hurdle route rather than all aged chasing. Clever.

[Faugheen_Machine]

Officials at Cheltenham hope to announce which race will be dropped for a mares' chase at next year's festival by the end of the month.

The plan to introduce the 2m4f Grade 2 was announced in August 2019 and it will replace an existing race, with the Kim Muir, Fred Winter, Martin Pipe and 2m4½f novice handicap chase under consideration.

"We're getting close and should be able to announce the decision this month," said Ian Renton, a regional director of The Jockey Club.

"We've discussed the move with most interested parties, including British and Irish trainers, and the decision will be based on that, as well as various statistics such as the quality each race attracts.

"We've always taken the view that there was no huge urgency and originally planned to make a decision around this time. We've done a fair amount of consultation this summer but would probably have consulted earlier and in person had there not been a pandemic."

Ian Renton: "There is a need to be prepared, but we're looking forward to the festival, which is going ahead"
Ian Renton: "There is a need to be prepared, but we're looking forward to the festival, which is going ahead"


The majority were supportive of the move but some, including Ben Pauling and Willie Mullins, sounded notes of caution about a race being scrapped and the likely competitiveness of the new contest.

"Introducing a mares' race was never going to be popular with everybody but I think all the professionals understand the requirement for it and the way it benefits the industry," added Renton, who has been in charge of Cheltenham since 2012.

"It was encouraging that there was no massive united response saying we had an awful race we needed to get rid of. Nobody really wants to lose any race at the festival, which is far better than there being half a dozen they'd all like to see the back of.

"To have a large proportion of the horse population not having the opportunity to race at the highest level can't be right and contrasts massively with Flat racing. We've always been supportive of the BHA wanting to introduce a mares' chase but the timing had to be right.

"We wanted to be aligned with the broader improvement in the mares' chasing population rather than bring something in and have to wait two or three years for the quality of the race to improve."

There were two mares-only races at this year's festival: the Grade 1 Mares’ Hurdle and the Grade 2 Mares’ Novice Hurdle.

Cheltenham was one of the last tracks to host spectators last March, and Renton is hopeful a limited number of racegoers could be permitted to return for its first meeting on October 23.

"The indications remain that crowds could return from October 1 but we know any change to the Covid-19 situation would quickly reverse that," said Renton. "We're trying to plan for every scenario.

"Nobody knows the answer but we're hopeful of a limited crowd at our first meeting. We'll put plans in place to allow what we believe will be the maximum number of racegoers to safely attend."

[Hardy Eustace]

Good stuff FM. Given the trainers reluctance to lose a race, maybe this does add weight to Spectre's argument of one 8 race day next year.

It's a yes from me.

[Saxon Warrior]

That’s headlines in the Racing Post today.

So the four in the firing line are the Northern Trust, Kim Muir, Boodles and Martin Pipe.

I really would hate to see a Chase race replace a Hurdles race, that would imbalance things too much IMHO.

There are currently 13 Hurdle races and 14 Chase races, and losing the Boodles or Pipe would make it 12 hurdles and 15 chases which seems wrong if we are trying to encourage horses through the disciplines.

If the Boodles were scrapped then the whole of the National Hunt programme would lose the only main Juvenile Handicap of the season - which seems very wrong, and a big turn-off for 3yo’s moving from the flat into NH racing.
Bad for the horses in training sales too.

Looking at the initial entries for handicaps in March 2020, there were:

Northern Trust 61
Kim Muir 89

Martin Pipe 145
Boodles 57

If the closed-rated (0-145) Martin Pipe went, it would hit a lot of entries/fees with that race having 145 entries in March 20.
They couldn’t squeeze any more into the open-rating Coral Cup as they had 148 entries of their own in 2020 (though of course, a number of those rated 145 and below were double entered in both races).

The closed-rating Kim Muir (0-145) had 89 entries, and is linked to the Ultima over the same trip, where the Ultima is the open-ended handicap (and double-entries across the two occur for horses weighted at 145 and below).

I would hope it’s the Northern Trust that goes, as the runners are often 140-145 rated and could go into the same trip in the Brown Plate or the Marsh Chase.
A lot of horses running in the Northern Trust seem to stop running when their rating hits 140-145, which wouldn’t happen so much if they would have to target the Plate or the Marsh.

My own personal choice to go would be the Kim Muir or the Northern Trust.

[Istabraq]

I agree SW, I can’t imagine they have ever considered losing a hurdle race and creating the chase.
The M Pipe is for conditionals and is the only 20f hurdle race all week, I’m not sure why that has even been mooted to go whereas the pointless 20f nov chase on day 1 has the Marsh, Plate and even Ryanair as alternatives.
I can’t believe they would consider losing an amateurs race either so it all points to the day 1 race for me...

[Saxon Warrior]

I agree SW, I can’t imagine they have ever considered losing a hurdle race and creating the chase.
The M Pipe is for conditionals and is the only 20f hurdle race all week, I’m not sure why that has even been mooted to go whereas the pointless 20f nov chase on day 1 has the Marsh, Plate and even Ryanair as alternatives.
I can’t believe they would consider losing an amateurs race either so it all points to the day 1 race for me...

That’s probably why the sponsors slithered away from it last year, and sponsored the Mares Hurdle instead.

[Rhinestone_Cowboy]

No doubt I’m being influenced by what I’ve been told but always find it interesting seeing the difference between the actual quotes and the headlines and the non-quotes and assumptions being made in the rest of the article. Perhaps there are clearer quotes on this elsewhere but the ones in FM’s post do not actually confirm a race will be dropped.