Yes, it’s that time of year again when fans of National Hunt racing from all around the world – and particularly the Emerald Isle – beat a path to our part of the country as they celebrate the Cheltenham Festival in their hundreds of thousands. These days, attendance at the racecourse reaches around a quarter of a million spectators over the four days, where, amongst many other impressive stats, around 200,000 pints of Guinness are drunk! And quite a proportion of this Guinness is drunk by the 10,000 visiting race fans from Ireland no doubt. Of course, the fact that the third week of March also coincides with St Patrick’s Day helps everything flow more freely. The whole thing leaves some locals somewhat perplexed, whilst others are full of enthusiasm for what is surely the greatest spectacle of National Hunt racing on the planet. In mid-March each year, this is quite simply “where it’s at” for all those who love seeing horses do battle over the jumps or hurdles. Each year, the Cheltenham betting causes a huge amount of speculation from punters on both sides of the Irish Sea and beyond. There are hundreds of millions of pounds staked on the Festival each year – with the Champion Hurdle on the Tuesday and the Gold Cup on the Friday being the two most prestigious races of all. This year, the Gold Cup happens to fall on St Patrick’s Day – so we’ll be able to hear the famous Cheltenham roar in Swindon if it’s an Irish-trained winner. Colin Tizzard's Thistlecrack was the warm favourite for this blue-riband event – a three mile, 2 1/2 furlong chase - until a tendon tear on February 21st ruled him out of the running. But the same Sherborne-based trainer also trains the now favourite, Native River and the horse now second in the betting – Cue Card, so a Dorset winner could still be on the cards. And maybe Colin Tizzard can come close to emulating Michael Dickinson’s unbelievable feat in 1983 when that trainer trained the first five home in the Gold Cup - by having the first two over the line.
But the wily trainer from County Carlow in Ireland, Willie Mullins, may have something to say about that with his capable 8 year-old Djakadam, currently third in the betting at odds of around 5-1. Mullins has enjoyed top trainer status at no fewer than five of the last six Cheltenham Festivals and is very much the man to beat. In 2015, he became the first ever person to train the first three horses home in a Champion Hurdle and in the same year, he had a record eight winners at the Festival. But he’s yet to emulate the feat of his late Father Paddy Mullins and win a Gold Cup. Paddy Mullins trained Dawn Run to win the 1986 Gold Cup to add to her win in the 1984 Champion Hurdle. She remains the only horse ever to have won both big races at Cheltenham. Meanwhile, Mullins’ preferred jockey Ruby Walsh has won an unprecedented 10 of the last 13 top jockeys at the Festival. And the 37-year-old Irishman is odds-on to make it 11 in 2017. Nevertheless, it looks more likely to be Colin Tizzard’s Gold Cup year one way or another, but the Sherborne trainer is still looking for his own first Gold Cup win whilst Paul Nicholls, based at Ditcheat in Somerset has enjoyed no fewer than four Gold Cup wins since his first in 1999 with See More Business piloted on that occasion by Mick Fitzgerald. Nicholls’ four wins included two by the legendary Kauto Star who won the race in 2007 then became the only horse in history to regain his Gold Cup crown when he won again in 2009.
"Bobs Worth" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Carine06
Caption: Bobs Worth, the 2013 Gold Cup winner
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