Suggested revamped four-day Cheltenham Festival

[Faugheen_Machine]

Which races are you steering clear of F.M. ??.

National Hunt Chase and Cross Country for starters. They must be looking at changing the conditions of these races and it puts me off having an ante post bet.

I think the other novice chases and graded races will stay the same.

Perhaps they'll look at the mares races too but I'm not sure they'll be brave enough to mess with them.

[AzertyuiopFan]

He's changing it to an open handicap so assume qualification rules would be scrapped and so would most likely be for professional jockeys.

I didn't specify that in my OP, but I think that may have to be the case.

Yes, the only handicap races in which novices could enter would be those geared specifically at novices - which, under my schedule, I think would only be the mares' novices' hurdle.

I don't see switching the mares races to 0-150 handicaps or 'devaluing' those races as a bad thing in any way. I think it would be a more positive development for the mares' sector than the status quo, actually, because it will give more mares a realistic chance to compete at the Festival, more competitive racing in those races, and we'd have an end to people complaining about those races being used as a get-out for the likes of your Annie Powers, Quevegas, Lossiemouths, Honeysuckle, ie genuinely class mares.

[Killiney]

I know the Pertemps is far from popular with many but I have a soft spot for it. The qualifiers allow you to build up a potential handicap long before the other handicaps even have entries. If that is a selfish view I do believe that the qualifiers also bring much needed revenue to regional tracks throughout the season. So I for one would not want to see the qualifying system disappear. Incidentally am I right in thinking that Ireland had 3 qualifiers for the 1st time this year?