PART III
DIARY – CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL 2016
DAY FOUR - FEATURING THE CHELTENHAM GOLD CUP
FRIDAY 18 MARCH 2016
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With 14 winners apiece, the BetBright Prestbury Cup is
shared ... subject to the later enquiry regarding Any Currency’s
victory Click here to read my Day 4 Diary Part II The favourite for the final event of the 2016
Cheltenham Festival was Rock The World, trained by Jessica Harrington and
ridden by Robbie Power; price 9-2. My
personal favourite was Pearls Legend; he’s a very admirable horse! Having
reached the top of the racecourse, all the runners then headed down the turf
to re-enter the all-weather strip in order to continue their journey to the
starting gate at the far end of the home straight.
And then they were off. Velvet Maker led them away, from Next
Sensation, Pearls Legend, Croco Bay and Red
Spinner. Travelling just behind the
leaders, Dandridge blundered at the first; in his wake Sizing Codelco also blundered and he parted company with
Jonathan Burke. Savello
also made a mistake here. The runners
continued to the second fence, with Next Sensation now upsides Velvet Maker
at the head of affairs. Further back
in the field, Germany Calling breasted the fence and lost ground. The remaining 23 runners continued on their
journey up the home straight, joining the New Course circuit prior to
reaching fence number three. Velvet
Maker and Next Sensation continued to lead from Pearls Legend which hit it, Croco Bay, Red Spinner and Arthur’s Oak which also rapped
it. Behind these travelled Rock The
World, Solar Impulse, Eastlake, Workbench, Dresden, Dunraven
Storm, Dandridge, Surf And Turf, and Lough Kent; The Saint James remained at
the rear of the field and was jumping less than fluently. Velvet Maker led over the next and the runners
headed away from the main grandstands and up the hill in front of the Best
Mate Enclosure, soon entering the back straight for the one and only
time. The first fence therein can
often be a tricky one, but all the horses cleared this without problem. However, this was not the case at the
following one, the water-jump. Croco
Bay, which was travelling just behind the leaders, capsized on landing, his
hindquarters flying into the air due to momentum; this didn’t do any favours
to Rock The World which was hampered.
Eastlake was also badly hampered; Surf And Turf was affected by this
departure, as was Dresden too. The
remaining runners cleared the first of the open-ditches without issue,
although both Chris Pea Green and The Saint James had begun to lose touch at
the rear of the field. Having also jumped the next without incident,
they headed around the dog-leg turn to approach the final open-ditch. Velvet Maker continued to lead, from Next
Sensation, Red Spinner and Pearls Legend.
Behind these were Arthur’s Oak, Workbench, Solar Impulse, Rock The
World, Dunraven Storm, Bright New Dawn, Dresden, Savello, Eastlake, Lough Kent, Dandridge, Raven’s Tower, Gardefort, Germany Calling, Surf And Turf, Bold Henry,
Chris Pea Green and The Saint James. Pearls Legend hit this one and he lost a place;
Eastlake was a little slow over it, and Chris Pea Green blundered badly. The runners headed over the following fence,
where Dresden made an error and lost his place; Bright New Dawn back-peddled
rapidly. Having reached the top of the
hill, they continued their run to the tricky fourth last. Red Spinner took off miles away from the
fence, but landed safely despite this.
There were a number of risky landings further back in the field,
notably from Arthur’s Oak, Dandridge and Gardefort
but the remaining horses all stayed on their feet. Chris Pea Green was pulled up prior to the
fence. They headed down the hill and over three out,
with Red Spinner taking a narrow advantage over Next Sensation, Velvet Maker,
Savello and Pearls Legend; near the rear of the
field, Bold Henry fell and hampered the retreating Bright New Dawn. Last year’s winner Next Sensation retreated rapidly
having entered the home straight. This
left Red Spinner with a narrow lead over Savello,
Pearls Legend, Velvet Maker, Solar Impulse and Rock The World as they jumped
the penultimate fence; Gardefort fell here when
behind. It was Sam Twiston-Davies
aboard Solar Impulse who took the lead as they headed to the final obstacle,
and he was a length or so ahead of Red Spinner and Rock The World as they
cleared it. Heading up the hill and despite hanging to his
right, Solar Impulse ran on well and won going away by 3¾ lengths at the
line. It was Dandridge which initially
stayed on strongly up the run-in to take 2nd, from the rallying Rock The
World in 3rd. Savello
finished 4th and my favourite, Pearls Legend, dead-heated with Red Spinner
for 5th. The winner had been wearing first-time blinkers. At 28-1, the Paul Nicholls runner was the
longest priced winner of the entire 2016 Festival. And the first major winner he’d trained for
owners Andrea and Graham Wylie; although their third winner of this
particular Festival, the other two were trained by Willie Mullins – Yorkhill and Black Hercules. The co-founder of Sage’s association with
both Paul and the Irish trainer began when his former trainer Howard Johnson
was banned in early 2012 following a BHA disciplinary enquiry.
Reports from the Stewards’ Room: Race 7 - 5:30pm THE JOHNNY HENDERSON GRAND ANNUAL STEEPLE
CHASE CHALLENGE CUP (HANDICAP) (CLASS 1) (Grade 3)
With the final two winners at the
Festival being trained in Great Britain, the BetBright
Cup competition was a draw. The
presentation of the trophy took place prior to those for the final race; Choc
and Hector actually presented it to themselves. Choc then loitered in the Parade Ring for a
while, chatting to Paul Nicholls’ Head Lad Clifford Baker, amongst others. It was gone 18:00 when Choc and
Hector headed back in the direction of the Weighing Room. However, I was determined to say hello to
Choc for the second time this week, so I skirted the Parade Ring whilst the
pair prepared to do their final video to camera at the end of the
competition. I arrived a little too
soon, as Choc asked me to wait until he’d done it ... then he began to wander
off in the direction of the main grandstand before I’d had chance to chat
with him! He always tells me he has a
very poor memory!!! But I called him back, and he climbed
through into the space between the inner railing and the main fence around
the Parade Ring in order that I could give him a kiss on both cheeks. J I asked him if he’d be at Aintree. “Unfortunately no,” he said. However he soon rephrased that, as he told
me he was going skiing with William instead.
A shame for me and my friend Sandra, but excellent news for William;
it will be his young son’s Easter holidays at that time. I told him not to do anything dangerous
whilst skiing; I still worry about him.
Anyway, it was then time for me to
leave. I popped to the loo, at the
usual location, before heading back down the concourse and exiting via the
North Entrance. I headed across to the
pathway which traverses the car park, and followed it all the way to the far
end. It was easy to locate my car, and
I sat therein whilst eating the remaining two cheese rolls ahead of departure. It appeared that many race-goers had
left early, for the end of the queue for departure was some distance along
the drive; this queue continued to shorten as I sat in my car. Normally, I leave at around 19:30 on the
final day but, with traffic appearing quite light, I actually set off at
18:50! And I got to the gate without
even encountering a queue at all; I also changed into the right-hand lane in
order to head back through Southam today. There were temporary traffic lights
at the point Old Road exited onto the B4632, and I didn’t have to wait long
before I was on my way again. There
were no traffic queues through Prestbury and, at
the double-roundabouts, I headed into Prestbury
Road. A short distance later I turned
into Priors Road; shortly afterwards, at the far end of Bouncers Lane, I
encountered the back of a traffic jam.
I suppose, in hindsight, I should have continued along Prestbury Road and then turned left to travel via Pittville Circus; it was too late now. Anyway, it didn’t take too long to
reach the longabout at the bottom of Harp Hill;
although the queue was further hampered by a pedestrian crossing and traffic
lights at the entrance to Sainsburys. Those drivers not taking the short-cut and choosing
instead to continue along Hales Road, appeared to be
faced with a big delay. However,
having reached the Sixways junction via Greenway
Lane, I encountered a longer queue than usual. And at least one coach was in the queue ...
how on earth do coach and lorry drivers manage to negotiate Harp Hill and the
lanes, including two traffic calming chicanes, to reach this point. No wonder the road surface has seen far
better days; there should be a weight limit for vehicles here. In future I might consider Mill Lane too,
if that is a throughway, because it would avoid having to wait at the Sixways junction. But,
regardless, I was soon on my way back to Oxford, with my car headlights
providing the vision I’d usually expect, finally! And, at some point, I also put on my night
vision glasses to help with the extensive glare from oncoming traffic. However, by the time I’d reached the far
end of the Witney bypass, exhaustion had set in once more. If I’d been feeling up to it, I would have
continued to the M40, then M25 and home.
But, hoping to keep myself awake, I headed up the A34 to Bicester instead, thus retracing my outward journey, via
Aylesbury and Hemel Hempstead. It
didn’t actually help much, as I was still felt like a zombie. I arrived home at 21:40, my earliest yet
this week ... and that was despite taking the slowest route! I was so exhausted by the time I
turned in at 01:30 in the morning that I didn’t even bother to take off my
eye make-up, although I did remove my foundation. And, the following morning, it was still in
the same condition as I’d applied it over 24 hours previously; amazing. The trick is to apply Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr Cream Gel Eyeshadow
as a base coat; it’s bloomin’ marvellous! I rarely wear it on its own, but apply
prior to my favourite eyeshadow, which is a
plum-coloured pressed powder L’Oreal one, the eyeshadow
never ever wears off or creases.
Wonderful. And they are not
even paying me to say that!!! It will come as no surprise that I
had hoped to sleep in late the following morning but, in the event, a
nuisance phone call woke me at around 08:30.
Thanks whoever you were. I know
I wanted to watch Saturday morning’s Channel 4 Morning Line at 09:00 but I
already had that covered, having set up the Sky box to record it. Later on in the morning I walked to
the local Postal Sorting office to collect a package which Royal Mail had
been unable to deliver the previous day, as it was to be signed for. Woo hoo; it was
the two Premier tickets to Sandown’s Jump Finale on Saturday 23 April, one
for Lesley and one for me; they were £22.50 each, a special introductory
price which was due to increase after the end of March. I didn’t actually get over my
exhaustion, or at least feel as good as I’m able to at my advanced age, until
the following weekend, which was Easter.
I also had an issue with low level stomach pains on both Saturday and
Sunday evenings – I presume due to having not eaten properly for three of the
past four days. Annoyingly too, I’d also broken out
in spots ... at my age? It appears to
be a side-effect of the anti-reflux tablet I have to take each day. Some brands are worse than other ones; I
thought the current ones were okay, far better than some, but not as good as
others – perhaps the stress and not eating properly had contributed
also. My friend Denise gets the same
problem with her anti-reflux tablets.
As I had in 2015, I’d booked the
following Monday as annual leave ... and I needed it too, not only to give me
extra time to begin updating my website, but also to begin my recovery from
overwhelming exhaustion. Cheltenham Festival Leagues Tables |
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PHOTOS – Cheltenham Festival Day 4 |
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Races 5 & 6 & 7
(Foxhunters, Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle, Grand Annual Chase) & Choc |
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