Cheltenham Festival Suggestions - PLOG (Punter's Blog) from Roy Waterhouse Steeplechasing

EVERYONE said it wasn't a good idea. Now, five four-day Cheltenham Festivals later, I'm not sure there's anyone who wants it to go back to being a three-day meeting.

However, is there anything that can be done to improve things further? After all, how do you build on something of the magnitude of the National Hunt Festival, the crowds that it draws, the revenue that it generates, the television audience?

My belief is that there are things worth considering. No need to do things to attract new people to it, as the Festival already does that. For as long as there's a Champion Hurdle, a Champion Chase, a World Hurdle and a Cheltenham Gold Cup to keep people thinking about the jumps game over the Summer and looking forward to March, there will always be new people taking an interest in steeplechasing and hurdle racing.

My suggestion is a few tweaks to the supporting programme, so here are my ideas:

Make the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices' Handicap Hurdle open to older novices
Looking at the winners for the five runnings of the Fred Winter, the new race for four-year-old hurdlers has proved a race in which a juvenile not good enough to win the Triumph Hurdle, can achieve a Festival victory. The handicap marks of the five winners of the race to date were 124, 124, 130, 133 and 125 (the 133-horse was Crack Away Jack, who carried 11-10 and could have at least placed if he'd run in the Triumph and was fourth in the latest Champion Hurdle).

Novice hurdlers five and older, who are deemed not good enough to win the Supreme, are currently denied an opportunity to compete in a novices' handicap at the Festival, and I would recommend opening the Fred Winter up to this group of horses.

Other benefits to such a move would be:
- Juvenile hurdlers versus their elders;
- Connections of higher-rated four-year-olds - the Crack Away Jacks - may be tempted back to the Triumph rather than take on older novices, thus increasing the competitiveness of the Triumph (and you can't deny that it is less competitive since the introduction of the Fred Winter).

Increase the distance of the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase to 3m4f
Even though introducing a 0-140 ratings limit to the Kim Muir in 1999 proved a success, some folk still argue that there is no opportunity at the Cheltenham Festival for those staying handicap chasers who need further than 3m to be competitive (whilst ironically, if you have a four-mile novice in your yard, you've the National Hunt Chase to go for). Also, there are those who'd like to use the Kim Muir as a Grand National trial and don't want to ruin their chances at Aintree by running over four miles on soft ground in the Midlands National at Uttoxeter on the Saturday.

I feel that no damage would be done to this race, or to the competitiveness of the Midlands National - a 'target' race for some every year, rather than something at Cheltenham or the National - if the distance of the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Chase is increased.

Increase the distance of the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle to 3m (or further)
I'm really going to town here! The new race for up-and-coming young jockeys, named in honour of one of the greatest trainers National Hunt racing has ever seen, restricted to horses rated 0-140 and run over 2m4f110y, was an instant hit with 114 overnight declarations. So why change that?

With the introduction of the Martin Pipe, there were two handicap hurdles over the 'middle distance' (around 2m4f) that were open to non-novice hurdlers - the Coral Cup and this new race. I feel that there would be a lot of benefits if the Martin Pipe was increased in distance, to at least three miles - maybe a mite longer than that.

Here are the cases for:
- Trainers of staying hurdlers can run their horses in a 3m-hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival without having to enter them in a Pertemps Qualifier first;
- If it was increased to further than 3m, maybe as far as 3m4f, it would create an opportunity that has fewer similarities to other races (a 3m4f hurdle race would be something that the Festival has never done before);
- The longer race would mean that the conditional riders can enjoy their experience of riding at the Cheltenham Festival for longer!

Whether these, or any other changes to the programme, are made, the intensity of the competition at the Cheltenham Festival has never been stronger, and everyone will look forward to those four days in March 2010.

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