Cheltenham raised a cheer – but fatalities and fallouts tainted bounce-back festival
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<p>Attendances and British-trained winners were on the up but low points included more starting trouble and jockey spats</p><p>Attendance: up. British winners: up. Bookies’ profits: through the roof. Punters will wince at the last of those after a ferociously difficult four days at Cheltenham, with winners at 66-1, 50-1, 40-1 and 33-1 among the biggest skinners for the books. The Paddy Power client in Ireland who was paid €558,000 (£484,000) after putting Friday’s first six win
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Cheltenham raised a cheer – but fatalities and fallouts tainted bounce-back festival Greg Wood Attendances and British-trained winners were on the up but low points included more starting trouble and jockey spats A ttendance: up. British winners: up. Bookies’ profits: through the roof. Punters will wince at the last of those after a ferociously difficult four days at Cheltenham , with winners at 66-1, 50-1, 40-1 and 33-1 among the biggest skinners for the books. The Paddy Power client in Ireland who was paid €558,000 (£484,000) after putting Friday’s first six winners into a 50 cent each-way Lucky 63 would be a very worthy inductee into the Cheltenham Hall of Fame. With the betting blinkers off, though, this was very much a bounce-back festival, for the track and British racing as a whole after three years of declining crowds and a decades-worth of embarrassing pastings for the home team at the hands of the Irish. The 3.7% rise in attendance over the four days, 8,130 extra tickets sold, is modest, but encouraging. It was perhaps a case of going for the low-hanging fruit as the biggest jump, from 41,949 to 46,317, was on the second day, which was in danger of dipping below 40k on recent trends. A rebrand as Ladies’ Day contributed to a 10% rise and you can be sure Cheltenham’s marketing department will be working the database with added zeal over the coming months to build further back towards 50,000 next year. The week’s total of 13 British-trained winners exceeded the most optimistic predictions. The home side certainly fancied their chances of improving 2025’s eight wins, but an additional five, which put them in with a chance of a tie until Henry de Bromhead took the Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle at the end of Friday’s card, was at least two beyond any reasonable expectation. It was refreshing, too, for the British successes to be spread around, with nine yards getting a winner on the board. But there was still no one within hailing distance of Willie Mullins , who...
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