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Cheltenham Festival opinion: Ed Chamberlin's five wishes for the week

By Ed Chamberlin

Horse Racing

Sun March 12, 2023 · 2y ago

Our columnist has five Cheltenham wishes - and a nightmare scenario he hopes to avoid in front of the ITV cameras.

1. Let Tuesday shine

My first wish is for day one to be a sparkling start to the Festival. On paper it has the lot. It opens with an intriguing Sky Bet Supreme, then a proper Ireland v Britain head-to-head in the Sporting Life Arkle with El Fabiolo against Jonbon.

It’s then onto a wide open betting heat in the Ultima which ITV punters will love and then Constitution Hill could absolutely light the place up in the Unibet Champion Hurdle. It doesn’t even stop there.

Straight after that you have the best-ever renewal of the Mares’ Hurdle as we say farewell to Honeysuckle. Whatever happens both she and Rachael Blackmore will be given a rousing reception by the Cheltenham crowd. I’m sure she’ll do a lap of honour around the Cheltenham parade ring, win, lose or draw.

It promises to be the most extraordinary day and we need it to be one because the build-up to Cheltenham has hardly been plain sailing. It’s been far from a vintage season, in fact it’s been a bit of a struggle particularly with the weather, the stop-start nature of the campaign with the frost and abandonments.

We’ve seen small fields that have resulted from a lack of rain and all the negative headlines that have accompanied the new whip rules. It feels like the equivalent of in my football days they decided to change the offside rules just before the biggest event in the sport, a World Cup say.

Let’s hope Tuesday can lift everyone’s spirits and show off this great sport in the best possible light.

2. A true champion in the Champion

I hope that Constitution Hill does something spectacular. This sport has proved the thing that sells it to the British public above anything else is the horses. They are the stars, they are our showcase, what we need to promote and in Constitution Hill we have one who could resonate far beyond racing.

He’s not there yet, not by any means, but has taken some good steps towards it and could be very, very good but Tuesday is his day of reckoning. We need him to strut his stuff, power clear up the hill and beat State Man with ease from my point of view. Just like Sir Henry Cecil who had Frankel in the twilight of his career, Nicky Henderson could have found the one. This could be the landmark horse in the twilight of his own career and we could be about to witness something very, very special.

"HE'S A MONSTER!" | Cheltenham Festival preview: Day one

3. David to triumph again

The Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase is the most intriguing tactical battle of the week, I can’t wait for Ruby Walsh and the team to get their teeth stuck into it.

It’s a rematch from the Clarence House where all the talk beforehand was that Paul Townend had a marker on his back for Tom Cannon and it looked set up for Energumene to be stalked by Edwardstone and that’s exactly what happened.

He beat the Irish raider but hadn’t reckoned on Editeur Du Gite being so brilliant from the front and it was just that second effort to get to the leader that told on Edwardstone as he wasn’t cherry ripe for the race.

The reaction afterwards was very telling. I like Alan King but he would be one of the worst losers in the training ranks yet he was smiling and made no secret that he felt they’d lost the battle but would win the war and I think Edwardstone will indeed land the Champion Chase. He’s one of my bets of the week and I’m going to bill it on ITV as David versus Goliath.

The two owners of Edwardstone say they have bred lots of slow horses and are charming and engaging for us and are up against the might of Closutton and Willie Mullins plus Brighton owner Tony Bloom. I hope David can slay Goliath again.

4. Another Golden Hour please

We’ve been spoiled on the Thursday in recent years on ITV. We’ve had Flooring Porter, his syndicate owners and Danny Mullins which has been great fun. Prior to that we had the Golden Hour when Bryony Frost and Frodon won the Ryanair and just as you were wiping away the tears Paisley Park and Andrew Gemmell had you going again.

Paisley could raise the roof again and I’ve already mentioned Honeysuckle but can you imagine the reception Emma Lavelle’s charge would get if he could sneak into a place again in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle and return into that incredible amphitheatre like the hero he has been.

Before that we have Shishkin in the Ryanair and he’s a public horse. He has done it twice at the Festival before and is a horse the people know.

They also know he went through that rocky period and bounced back at Ascot and if he cana win – what let’s bet fair isn’t a vintage renewal of the Ryanair, he’ll get a pretty special reception as well and Cheltenham takes Nicky Henderson to its heart. It could be a wonderful moment.

5. A Gold Cup that ticks every box

I’ve already got my wish for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup – it’s the perfect renewal for terrestrial television. People will open their newspapers on Friday morning and see a big field. I can almost guarantee the bookmakers will come out and play with brilliant place terms and this is what the sport needs.

We want big field sizes, each-way betting and the sort of race people want to get stuck into and that’s what we have here.

For me I have great stories to tell too. We have a potential superstar of the sport in Galopin Des Champs, a defending champion ridden by Rachael Blackmore which is a big plus, a Grand National winner in Noble Yeats who everyone knows too.

There’s the fairy-story in Hewick, a horse bought for 800 quid who was won awards in America, a US Grand National, a bet365 Gold Cup and Galway Plate. Victory for him would be some story. Conflated goes for Gold this time for Gordon Elliott and the O’Learys and is a big player.

There’s a King George winner in Bravemansgame forming part of a strong home defence which is great. Ahoy Senor for Lucinda Russell and Peter Scudamore would be hugely popular and the Skeltons come to the party with Betfair Chase winner Protektorat.

It’s a Gold Cup with everything and as much as I’d love to see Galopin Des Champs blow the race apart and emerge as a genuine superstar, I’ve had each-way bets on Stattler and Noble Yeats so would love them to run well too!

It's the best Gold Cup we’ve had on ITV – it’s got the lot.

PS My biggest fear...

I don’t want a disqualification – or even talk of one. I don’t want to mention the whip all week if I can possibly help it because it hasn’t come to the public’s attention yet and has been very much a racing story that we’ve got hot under the collar about within the sport.

It hasn’t reached the public and I don’t want it to – it’s potentially so harmful for racing. If we can get through he Festival without talking about it I'd be so relieved but unfortunately a little surprised too.

I’ve been anti disqualifications for the whip since day one. We’ve talked about it a lot on the Sporting Life Podcast and I see moving the decision down the road to the Whip Review Committee as the lesser of two evils.

I’d much rather they did that than trigger disqualifications on the day but let’s be honest we’re watching these big races at the moment and counting, which is so sad. I just hope the jockeys play ball this week, I’m sure they will, or hope they will at least. But if it’s close to 11 strikes we’ll have to highlight it on ITV – from a journalist perspective it’s our responsibility to do that if we get to the stage where we could have a disqualification in one of the big races.

To analyse the use of the whip is a nightmare but I fear it may happen over the week and even worse me having to voice a presentation and thinking those connections know full well they’re going to lose that prize on Tuesday.

That's my biggest fear but there's so much to look forward to as well. I can't wait for it arrive now.

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