Festival File: Graham Cunningham reflects on the 2025 Cheltenham Festival

Nothing feels like Cheltenham

The strapline for this year’s Festival rang true in various ways but the 2025 edition will resonate just as strongly for shock and awe reasons.

Shocks came thick and fast, with various bankers blown away and a Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle won by horses who could easily have been otherwise engaged.

And the awe came from winners who supped from Cheltenham’s magic well while acknowledging that the wider world can be a hard, hard place.

Spoiler alert: You won’t be shocked to hear that most of the well suppers had Irish accents.

Charlie McCarthy reflecting on how the thought of Kopeck Des Bordes winning the Supreme helped him through cancer surgery then dedicating his success to fellow Cork man Michael O’Sullivan and saying: “It’s wonderful to be alive today.”

Barry Connell speaking powerfully of an absent friend and former comrade in battle after Marine Nationale blossomed in the Champion Chase.

Henry De Bromhead celebrating a Thursday double capped by the mercurial Bob Olinger then leaning on the anguish of losing a young son to tell RTV viewers “there’s a lot more going on here.”

Bob Olinger’s owner Brian Acheson echoing the thoughts of many by insisting “this place is mystical.”

Jonjo junior enduring the loss of Springwell Bay then driving Jagwar home before touching on former lodger Michael and saying: “Every time I think of him, I cry.”

JP McManus dealing with twin imposters after a dramatic Gold Cup, Gordon Elliott breaking down as the Friday curtain fell and a heroic John Hunt back in his BBC box saying: “I am thinking about the individuals who illuminate this sport.”

The modern Festival is a very different beast but there is still nothing quite like Cheltenham – and those in the eye of the storm conveyed that more vividly than any marketeer could this week.

Walking in a Willie Wonderland

How do you think the chat went during the traditional Mullins dinner party on Gold Cup night?

Galopin’s Gold Cup defeat was surely high on the agenda – along with rueful reflections on State Man, Majborough and Ballyburn – but you know you’re breathing rarefied air when you match your previous Festival best of 10 winners and still go to bed thinking some big fish slipped the net.

But those fish will rise again and, with Kopeck, Lossiemouth and the swaggering Fact To File leading the charge, this was another mighty show of strength from the Closutton colossus.

You can jaw all night about whether his domination is good for the overall health of the game – and there is merit in arguments on both sides – and it won’t go unnoticed that half the Mullins haul sported the silks of British-based owners.

But the most ruthlessly efficient operation in jump racing history marches on. And, with Aintree and Punchestown looming, there is no sign that Willie’s influence is waning in any way whatsoever.

‘It’s the Gold Cup’

Well, maybe just the odd sign.

Gavin Cromwell summed up his crowning moment in four short words after Inowthewayurthinkin bounded clear under Mark Walsh and a deeper dive confirms that the softly spoken Meath man has developed into a superb target trainer.

Stumptown dominated his fellow cheese-wedgers in midweek and a raft of stablemates excelled in defeat, with Only By Night (1.3), Thecompanysergeant (1.66) and Sixandahalf (an agonising 1.04) all going close after trading very short in-running.

Cromwell is a fine advert for giving up the sauce and runs his burgeoning business on the simple belief that “if you’re not growing, you’re dying.”

He’s growing, alright. And a lot of folk are now dying to see if Inowthewayurthinkin will bid to become the first Gold Cup winner to follow up in the National since Golden Miller in 1934.

Layaway Gordon leaves it late

Andy Murray never looked back after being moved to tears on Centre Court and tough hombre Elliott – along with superb strapper Holly – rose in my estimation with their emotional reactions after ending a turbulent week with a bang.

Gordo and his Cullentra gang went into the Martin Pipe winless from 47 runners during the week, with Brighterdaysahead bombing in the Champion as former pupils Jazzy Matty and Caldwell Potter excelled for new handlers.

Wodhooh lifted the mood by pasting her Pipe foes – and Turners runner-up The Yellow Clay has many a bright day ahead – but Gordon’s decision to put his aces at the bottom of the deck with March in mind isn’t paying off and I suspect there might be a change of emphasis next season.

The Stat Pack

So much for the notion that the gap between Britain and Ireland is narrowing.

Yes, we saw shafts of light from The New Lion, Golden Ace and Jango Baie but two of those three wins owed plenty to luck and, after a Gold Cup day greenwash took the final score to 20-8, the home team suffered the second heaviest shellacking in Prestbury Cup history.

Ireland had the first five in the Supreme; four of the first five in the Mares’ Hurdle; the first seven in a Brit-free Brown Advisory; four of the first five in the Champion Chase and the first three in the Bumper.

They also had three of the first four in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle; the first three in the Ryanair; the first six in the Stayers’ Hurdle and the first three, two and four in the Mares’ Chase, Albert Bartlett and Gold Cup respectively.

The Britpack

It looked good at 4-3 up after day one and we were still in there pitching at 5-5 after the Coral Cup but it all went tits up for the plucky Brits thereafter.

Joking apart, and the Golden Ace drama apart, it’s still largely a case of the usual suspects for the home team.

Poor jumping kiboshed Constitution Hill and Jonbon but old man Hendo still snagged the Arkle and Pertemps, while surging Skelton has a crackerjack in The New Lion and Nicholls and Russell delivered in handicaps again.

But the new wave of leading British jumps trainers – Pauling, Murphy, Joe Tizz, Fergal O’B, Snowden etc – have all been around for a good while now.

That quintet have trained almost 300 winners this season – and Murphy, Pauling and Tizz snagged the odd place in supporting races this week – but the wait for one of them to produce a genuine star is ongoing.

Maybe it’s true that most of the best raw material ends up in Irish hands but the stats speak for themselves. And one simple question suggests itself. Is it the wand, or the wizard who waves it?

FWIW, my money’s on the wizards.

Harry, Potter and the Order of the Caldwell

Paul Nicholls started the week with what looked an ordinary hand but donned his old wizard’s hat and played a 700 grand joker as Caldwell Potter jumped his Jack Richards rivals bow legged under the cool Cobden.

That hefty price tag has followed the winner around for over a year and this win repaid less than ten per cent of his purchase price.

But Fergie and dem boys are giving it a right lash in the autumn of their sporting careers. It’s about moments rather than moolah when you’re over 70 and this latest one looked worth its weight in gold.

Returning heroes

A remarkable 21 of last year’s 27 Festival winners were back for another crack.

Five repeated the dose – Golden Ace, Lossiemouth, Fact To File, Jasmin De Vaux and Inothewayurthinkin – but Majborough, State Man, Ballyburn, Teahupoo and Galopin proved notably costly for those who followed the Groundhog Day system.

Ch-ch-ch-ch changes….

Turn and face the ‘good week’ file.

The NH Chase worked much better as a handicap, the novice handicap chase should never have gone away and the Cross Country was a better punting contest than usual even if switching it from set weights made no difference to Stumptown.

And what would have happened had Cheltenham declined to cull one of the three G1 novice chases? Well, a measly five runners in the Arkle and only seven in an all-Irish Brown Advisory tells its own tale.

In short, the changes did what they were intended to, though that’s not to say Cheltenham should be ‘immune to your consultations. They’re quite aware of what they’re goin through.’

Minimum Wages

Rampant Ultima winner Myretown, runaway Fred Winter winner Puturhandstogether, gallant NH Chase winner Haiti Couleurs, emphatic Coral Cup winner Jimmy Du Seuil, jumping Jack Richards winner Caldwell Potter and dominant Plate scorer Jagwar.

You can move the qualifying goalposts all you want but improvers gonna improve and all six bolted up having had the bare minimum numbers of runs needed to punch their handicapping ticket.

Oh, and Johnnywho would have been another for the minimum mob with a cleaner jump at the last in the Kim Muir.

Night-mare scenario

Maybe Lossies are only lent if you backed Lossiemouth antepost for the Champion Hurdle but this surely needs to be the last time the Festival programme dangles a juicy alternative G1 carrot in front of a potential winner of the main event.

I doubt the calls to move the Mares’ Hurdle to an April slot will come to fruition but connections of top-class females who have already won an open G1 contest surely need to be asked a different question than the one that faces them at present.

And that question is...

‘Do we want to give 7lb to the girls in the Mares’ Hurdle or get 7lb from the boys in the Champion?’

Hats off to Jer Scott for aiming high with Golden Ace but, with two old champs hitting the deck and a star filly back in her box after converting another penalty kick, we’re no nearer knowing who the best hurdler around is than we were at the start of the season.

What price a Lossie, State Man and Con Hill showdown at Punchestown? Put it this way, I’m not holding my breath.

In like a lion…

And out like a lamb for Nico De Boinville, who started with the return of Jango but ended up on the deck with Constitution Hill in the Champion and hanging on for dear life as Jonbon ploughed through the ninth fence in the Champion Chase.

Add in picking the wrong one as Doddiethegreat wore down Jeriko Du Reponet in the Pertemps and a narrow Triumph defeat for Lulamba and it was a frustrating Fez for the Seven Barrows coachman.

Bowen wait continues

A first title beckons but the man who has excelled all season remains winless at the Festival after more than a decade of trying.

Heads Up went close at 33/1 in the Bumper but the NH Chase was the one that got away, with regular partner Haiti Couleurs winning under Ben Jones after Bowen was claimed for Resplendent Grey.

Your Starter for ten

Or maybe seven or eight as false starts came thick and fast in the annual battle of wills between one man with a flag and 20-odd pumped-up riders.

The starting supremo could have been forgiven for swapping his brightly coloured ensign for a white one come the end of day three but are we in danger of shooting the messenger here?

BHA rules mandate a standing start if the starter doesn’t feel the first effort is fair and Dan Barber summed things up neatly on RTV by saying: “I don’t even think it’s a blame game, the law is an ass.”

The dreadful Michael O’Leary was his usual charming self in saying “the starter needs a root up his backside” but trainer Jamie Snowden was more constructive in suggesting the tape should be replaced with a foam line horses have to walk to.

Lydia Hislop asked the right questions to Starter Supple and Steward Parker on Friday but the answers – lowlighted by Supple digging out younger riders – made for an unconvincing word salad.

So what comes next? The form book hints at an internal review and then we’ll go round again in the same painful way next year. But maybe it’s time to ditch the form book – and reach for the foam book?

Where have all the Wild Rovers gone?

And when will this ongoing decline in Festival crowds bottom out?

Those are the the key questions after another year of regression and the race to tell Cheltenham how to run the show will soon begin, with a fair few of those who never go there setting searching fractions.

It’s pointless debating things that simply won’t happen – like a return to three days or a drastic reduction in prices – but the the truth is plain enough for all bar those with a vested interest in ignoring it.

The Irish racegoer presence seems to lessen year on year, while the Benidorm angle is a genuine thing and the impact of two telly channels taking specialist fans and punters to the heart of the action shouldn’t be underplayed, either.

Those who can’t resist the lure have plenty to occupy them but the Eurovision on ketamine extravaganza that kicked off just as the Triumph runners entered the paddock on Friday was a truly terrible segment.

And it wasn’t the only one.

Weak mobile signal, nearly eight sovs for a Guinness, last chopper out of Saigon vibes at Cheltenham Spa and the ITV gang belting out The Wild Rover in a way that gave a truly literal meaning to ‘No Nay Never No More.’

Reality bites as Lavender aims up

New CEO Guy Lavender made positive noises about improving customer experience in discussion with Oli Bell on ITV and anyone who walked the site this week would find it hard to make the argument that Cheltenham haven’t aimed up in that area.

“You have to get the value proposition right and you have to get the racing right” is the mantra, but getting the old guard back will be tough and attracting new converts tougher still.

But, dreaded phrase alert, we are where we are. Lavender is right to point out that a four-day jumps meeting in chilly March weather is still drawing more than 200,000 citizens to the Cotswolds.

Nothing feels like Cheltenham when all the stars align, as they did several times this week, but there comes a time for realism rather than fabulism.

The yawning gaps in the crowds shown by aerial shots, especially around the winner’s enclosure, show the Festival is no longer a value proposition for a significant number of people.

And unless Lavender has aces up his sleeve, things look very likely to get worse before they get better.

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