a very few quid up on the week .. the main thing though has been the high quality racing even though the 2 big ones were won by red hot favs ... another bonanza for the Burghers of Cheltenham
Well up after a good double on Wednesday. Few small tote wins and a couple of each ways.
Big shout to these online bookies offering free betting money. I'm not a huge gambler so 40 quid in freebies would've payed for what was a cracking Cheltenham week anyway.
Some lad on twitter has followed a tipster account's bets to the tee today, with some on multiples, and has won £35k. I picked and chose what to follow and won £50 🙃
good to see the English trainers Nicholls and Skelton getting in the frame a few times, chipping away at what has become an Irish Benefit Week .. does Irish racing receive a tax incentive or benefits from their government? I have always felt that horses are much more 'in the spirit and blood' of the Irish people than is the case in England, plus the richest UK owners seem to be placing more and more of their expensive and promising N H (especially) horses with the top Irish trainers. This leads of course to better quality racing in Ireland, competitive festivals and meetings with very good prize money
So is the Irish handicapper very generous and rates on the low side ?
Sort of but this isn't necessary the fault of the Irish handicapper. There are mitigating circumstances but it definitely isn't a level playing field.
The first thing is that the Irish horses are handicapped in relation to each other so as long as they are running in the same company then it is a fair, relatively speaking, contest. The Irish, though, have tended, in recent times, to have the best horses. If you went back say 20 years or so then you would have found that the owners attached to the top stables here bought many of the French young horses as well as the Irish ones too. As time has gone on, most of all of those horses on have been bought by the Irish so they not only end up with the best of their own but the best of the overseas. There have been Cheltenham Festivals in the past where the Irish have not trained a single winner. A couple of years ago they trained 23 of the 28 winners.
Something like 60% of National Hunt races in Britain are handicaps. In Ireland it is only about 35%. Prizemoney is also less here and this instantly outlines the issues, not only with prize money but also the types of races available and the frequency of them. Having so many of these types of races isn't good, the calendar is too clustered and the higher-class horses have a wider spread of races available, meaning they rarely have to race against each other here. Aiming a horse at one of the few festivals in Ireland means all similar horses have to compete with each other in the build-up to it, giving an accurate outlook on how good the horse is and the type of opposition it would be competitive against. For this reason, as a rule of thumb, the Irish horses can be anything between 5lb and 10lb "well in" against their British counterparts.
As I indicated above, better horses lead to a better standard of racing
Have purchased for weds and Thursday next year today.
have gone club enclosure for weds and Thursday have gone tattersalls mainly due to the thurs this year being in carling bay all day and walking out too bookies and watching the race at the finish line was a Perfect spot hopefully next year trains are fully operational.
The national express to and from the racecourse this year on the Thursday worked however massively false advertising it drops you a half hour walk from the racecourse.
The weds however was perfect we got a train from Euston at 8.10 to brum dropped bags in brum then was in Cheltenham town centre the feathered fish by 11.30 having a pint then simply walked to the racecourse
Comments
Had Brave mans game so got my money back.
Did everything right just struggled at the top of the hill.
Few small tote wins and a couple of each ways.
Big shout to these online bookies offering free betting money. I'm not a huge gambler so 40 quid in freebies would've payed for what was a cracking Cheltenham week anyway.
I have always felt that horses are much more 'in the spirit and blood' of the Irish people than is the case in England, plus the richest UK owners seem to be placing more and more of their expensive and promising N H (especially) horses with the top Irish trainers. This leads of course to better quality racing in Ireland, competitive festivals and meetings with very good prize money
have gone club enclosure for weds and Thursday have gone tattersalls mainly due to the thurs this year being in carling bay all day and walking out too bookies and watching the race at the finish line was a Perfect spot hopefully next year trains are fully operational.