- Last year, there was a danger of complacency at the Festival and a deflating feel
- Lavender, Cheltenham’s new chief executive, has been everywhere thie year
Crowds have been down at Cheltenham over the last couple of days but you would never have guessed it, judging by the buzz.
More people came through the doors 12 months ago for the Tuesday and Wednesday but I came away from them as deflated as I had been about the Festival in a long time. It led me to compare Cheltenham to Manchester United on these pages and warn about the danger of complacency.
There is no doubt that Cheltenham’s hierarchy had started taking things for granted and it came back to haunt them when we ended up broadcasting pictures on ITV of issues such as spectators’ vehicles being towed out of swamp-like car parks.
Perhaps the experiences of 2024 have led some people to stay away but I’m confident they will be returning soon from what I have seen in the last 48 hours. Guy Lavender, Cheltenham’s new chief executive, has been here, there and everywhere since the Festival started and he has set the right tone.
If you don’t act, you end up in a situation like United, who have hit the headlines for doing such things as taking food away from their rank-and-file staff. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has an enormous task trying to turn around that oil tanker but Lavender, a forward-thinker, is making gains quickly.
The best analogy I can use is having a bad meal at your favourite restaurant. You turn your back on it for a couple of years but then hear from a friend the menu has changed, the food is great and suddenly you are back and it is like old times.
The buzz has been back at Cheltenham Festival following the deflated feeling of last year
Fewer people have come through the gates in the last couple of days but it is not obvious
If you don’t act, things will go downhill quickly, but racegoers have been very positive
Cheltenham’s new CEO Guy Lavender has been here there and everywhere to set the right tone
It can be that way for Cheltenham, without a shadow of a doubt. The racegoers I’ve spoken to on course have been overwhelmingly positive about everything, such as the greeting they received on arrival to the ability to walk around the course and the ability to buy food and drink.
You can feel that positivity in the atmosphere. If it keeps going like this — and I’ve no doubt Lavender, whose previous role was with cricket’s MCC, will ensure that is the case — then I’d expect stories about people wanting to go to Benidorm instead of the Cotswolds will disappear in due course.
Why would you not want to be on course when you get treated to days as emotionally charged as yesterday? Marine Nationale and Jazzy Matty, the horses who gave the late Michael O’Sullivan a double two years ago, winning back-to-back races four weeks after his death was extraordinary to behold.
Willie Mullins may have had five winners but there has been nothing predictable about his results — 20-1 shot Lecky Watson landed the Brown Advisory while Jimmy Du Seuil took the Coral Cup at 16-1 — and the stories are being shared around owners and jockeys. Let’s keep it that way.
On to Thursday and, after The New Lion’s thrilling triumph in the Turners Novices’ Hurdle, I’m tipping with some confidence. This would be my least favourite of the four days and, if I’m brutally honest, I don’t want to see Teahupoo retain his title in the Stayers’ Hurdle.
Teahupoo has run just once this season — on December 1 — so how can racing fans warm to him? I know trainer Gordon Elliott has to do what is best for owners Robcour but how can a horse be enjoyed by the public if he is seen as often as a Christmas Day turkey?
There could be some long-priced winners, so I’m going to give SHANAGH BOB — an old favourite of mine — a chance in the Pertemps Final (2.40pm). Among the well-fancied horses, they say SIXANDAHALF is working well ahead of her attempt to win the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (1.20pm).
My strongest fancy is WALKING ON AIR in the Kim Muir (5.20pm). He was so unlucky on January 25, when he fell at the last at Doncaster. He’d have won that race by 10 lengths. With Alan O’Sullivan, Michael’s younger brother, booked to ride, I hope he gains compensation.
Ed Chamberlin is a SkyBet UK ambassador
