CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL 2023 - DAY 1 The Big Talking Points

BY GRAHAM CUNNINGHAM

HUGHIE’S WORDS RESONATE AS FESTIVAL PIECES FALL INTO PLACE

‘FOR an addict like me, trying to affect blasé composure through the final days before the Cheltenham Festival is nearly always a doomed struggle.’ Legendary late sporting scribe Hugh McIlvanney spoke for many back in 2003 and that feeling persists even though the pivotal week in the jumps calendar isn’t what it once was.

Three days became four in 2005 and the meeting has continued to evolve, with Ireland dominating, ante post markets stagnating and plenty insisting the Festival brew has lost some fizz.

They clearly have a point but at least plans for a five-day Festival – which looked odds on during a lengthy consultation – have been put to rest. Time moves on but the third week in March remains one of those rare times when the real world goes on hold

Hughie joined the throng on day one in 2003 and was treated to a six-race card that featured Back In Front beating Kicking King in a vintage 19-runner Supreme and Azertyuiop and Rooster Booster trouncing eight and 16 rivals in the Arkle and the Champion Hurdle

You can have any price about those three contests delivering similar fields this year but, dread phrase alert, we are where we are. Affect blasé composure all you want but you can be certain the siren call of Cheltenham will lure us all in again.

The cast list for Cheltenham 2023 is taking shape - and the struggle to find the right horse in the right race will intensify with every day over the next two weeks.

WHAT’S CHANGED SINCE 2022?

SHELVING the five-day plan is a blessing and local councillor Max Wilkinson wants a ‘War on Wee’ using special hydrophobic paint that causes embarrassing splashback for anyone tempted to take relief on walls near the racecourse.

Good luck to the bold councillor in trying to solve that particular (Jimmy) riddle but one thing that hasn’t changed is the domination of a small core of trainers and their tendency to run elite jumpers no more than necessary from one spring to another

That core – Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry De Bromhead and Nicky Henderson – account for well over half of all Festival winners over the last five years.

The fact that those four supplied seventeen of twenty in the first four of the betting for the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, Ryanair, Stayers’ Hurdle and Gold Cup last year is revealing. But the fact that those twenty horses averaged just over two runs each in the season leading up to the Festival is alarming.

You won’t be shocked to hear the same pattern will play out this year and perhaps that doesn’t bother you. After all, why would you pine for days when backing one Festival winner was a feat when you can don your Peaky Blinders gear and pose with a £7.50 Guinness before unloading on a raft of good things at skinny odds?

But the one thing old and young can surely agree on is that anyone trying to sort the hawks from the pigeons at the modern Festival is dealing with a worryingly thin data set.

It won’t stop people betting like heroes as winter turns to spring again but the idea that mature jumpers weighing 1200lb plus can’t endure more than two pre-Cheltenham runs is perverse Yes, the layaway lads will have their top guns primed again. But I have a very hard time believing their uber-cautious strategy will help jumping in the long term

History Beckons As Hill Bids For Hall Of Fame

THE area connecting Hyde Park Corner with the west end of The Mall has seen some action in its time, including three assassination attempts on Queen Victoria and former Conservative PM Sir Robert Peel sustaining fatal injuries when falling from his horse.

But the horse named in honour of Constitution Hill is making history of his own nowadays and his presence in the Unibet Champion Hurdle can get the 2023 Festival off to an explosive start spot of choice for various aggrieved Earls and Baronets. Time will tell whether we see one of Cheltenham’s famous showdowns up the hill on March 14th - but that duel will surely be one sided if Constitution Hill brings his brilliant best to Cheltenham again.

One of few advantages of getting older is that you have vivid recollections of past greats like Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Monksfield and Istabraq. It sticks in the craw to place a six-year-old with just five starts in such rare company but think back to last year’s Supreme, when Nicky Henderson’s gelding left jaws dropping and time experts shaking heads in wonder as he left high-class stablemate Jonbon trailing to smash Annie Power’s track record.

SPIRIT OF ’84 REVIVED AS ARKLE STARS SQUARE OFF

WHAT were you doing in the spring of 1984?

Nicky Henderson was preparing the delicate but ultimately brilliant See You Then to finish second in the Triumph; a youthful amateur called W P Mullins was driving the near-white Macs Friendly home for his father Paddy in the National Hunt Chase; and Bobsline was gearing up to win a thrilling duel with Noddy’s Ryde in a vintage Arkle Chase.

Henderson and Mullins have dominated the last decade of the Sporting Life Arkle with four wins apiece by aces like Sprinter Sacre, Altior, Shishkin, Douvan and Un De Sceaux.

Memorable Anglo-Irish clashes have been in short supply of late but this year’s race carries echoes of Bobsline v Noddy’s Ryde as Jonbon and El Fabiolo square off for a second time.

And, if you need confirmation that something freakish is among us, then look at the way Constitution Hill rampaged clear of the 2020 Champion Hurdle winner Epatante in Newcastle’s Fighting Fifth and Kempton’s Christmas Hurdle

What this gelding has done over the last year feels like something without precedent. The dazzling Golden Cygnet – who destroyed his Supreme rivals in 1978 and was about to beat Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon in the Scottish Champion Hurdle until sustaining fatal injuries at the last – is the most striking comparison.

For context, Constitution Hill’s Timeform rating of 177p is just 3lb behind Monksfield and Istabraq and 5lb behind Night Nurse. To hit that level so swiftly is astounding and, for all that some of my most abiding jumping memories relate to hurdling’s golden era, I suspect all those greats would have had their hands full against hurdling’s new superstar.

Of course, any horse can make a mistake or have an off day and State Man, who continued his relentless progress with authority in the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle, would be a worthy Champion Hurdle favourite in most years. But this is no ordinary year

Incidentally, that famous strip of land connecting Hyde Park with The Mall was once the duelling

Jonbon came out just on top in round one, travelling with his usual zest then digging deep to land Aintree’s Top Novices’ Hurdle by a neck, but what happened over hurdles is less relevant than this season’s chasing evidence

El Fabiolo is cast in the Bobsline role following his emphatic win in a strongly-run Goffs Irish Arkle in which he forged well clear of a high-class field, while Jonbon looked an ideal Arkle type only to lose some fans when jumping right and having to work much harder than expected to beat sole rival Calico in Warwick’s Kingmaker Novices’ Chase.

But maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves assuming this year’s Arkle is a match. El Fabiolo’s Leopardstown win was commanding, though a repeat of the blunder he made four out could be costly Meanwhile, Henderson is “looking on the bright side” for Jonbon in the belief he will return to his smooth travelling best in a bigger field at Cheltenham

Cards on the table, I went to Warwick hoping the Kingmaker would produce a novice king in waiting again. Jonbon was very good to the eye and on the clock in Sandown’s Henry VIII Chase, which remains the run to judge him on. I still think he might have the edge on El Fabiolo but a confusing Kingmaker has opened the door. And Irish Arkle fourth Dysart Dynamo, who had good young chasers strung out a long way from home at Leopardstown, is starting to control his fierce aggression in a manner that suggests he can set them all a target over a shorter trip on March 14th .

SUPREME SCRIPT IN SHREDS – SO WHO WILL STAR NOW?

IT TOOK four minutes in the late-afternoon Leopardstown sunshine for a Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle script that had been months in the making to be consigned to the bin

The unbeaten Facile Vega, a son of six-time Festival winner Quevega and subject of rave reviews from his normally guarded handler, was odds on to give Mullins his eighth Supreme winner as the tapes went up for the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle at a little after 3.40 on February 5th

But things went south in a hurry. Some suggested good ground was against him, others that he was simply too fierce for Paul Townend while forcing a severe gallop. The latter excuse is certainly backed up by the clock but, either way, it was jarring to see Facile Vega shrivel to nothing as stablemate Il Etait Temps waltzed clear under Danny Mullins.

One firm pushed Facile Vega out to 6-1 for a short while and this year’s Supreme has suddenly become a race with multiple questions hanging over it.

Can Facile Vega bounce back?

HE clearly needs to relax and recover from lameness discovered after his first defeat but it’s worth giving him a pass Mullins wants Facile Vega “ridden like a racehorse rather than a machine” next time Debate will continue as to future tactics. But his Leopardstown Christmas win makes me very wary of writing him down

Has Il Etait Temps been under rated?

THAT depends on whether he improved on his good second, beaten fair and square, to Facile Vega over Christmas That Future Champions Novice Hurdle form has been franked and franked again – which is another reason to think it would be folly to dismiss a Facile revival

How good is Marine Nationale?

HARD to say but he’s unbeaten in four and quickened well to overcome a last-flight error in the Royal Bond back in December. Trainer Barry Connell is adamant he will be even better on spring ground, so he’s intriguing, for sure.

Glorious HD?

NOT if High Definition keeps jumping like each hurdle is the first one he’s seen. The former Derby favourite departed at halfway after exchanging blows with Facile Vega at Leopardstown and needs to sharpen up his technique in a big way.

How strong is the home challenge?

TAHMURAS and Chasing Fire are unbeaten in three after decisive wins but, rated 138 and 136, are still a fair way from the level usually required But Henderson faces an intriguing choice with Luccia, who has looked very good and would receive a very handy 7lb if let loose against the boys

HERE COME THE GIRLS – BUT WHICH ONES?

IT’S a rum job when equine stars start ducking and diving in and out of the Festival race that’s become the natural home for duckers and divers

Honeysuckle was a Close Bothers Mares’ Hurdle candidate until connections remembered she’s a dual Champion Hurdle winner; and her predecessor Epatante was supposed to be in but is out until the supplementary stage after Henderson forgot to enter her

Brandy Love has been out since last April but has been in favour with ante-post punters who trust the magic of Mullins; last year’s winner Marie’s Rock has been in tremendous form but could be out if Hendo gets tempted by the Stayers’; and hokey cokey Honeysuckle is back in the mix after her Irish Champion Hurdle second with connections opting for a last hurrah.

Theatre Glory was another to miss out at the original stage but could leap in after an impressive Warwick win, while last year’s Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle winner Love Envoi will be back in the picture after drying ground ruled her out at Warwick