Records Tumbling
Cheltenham is about the best of the best and yesterday’s opening day of the 2017 Festival was no exception. It was also a day when the old guard affirmed their dominance with leading English trainer Nicky Henderson becoming the ‘winningmost’ trainer of the two main races the Guinness Arkle Chase and the Stan James Champion Hurdle.
50 Up
Buveur D’Air won the Champion Hurdle ridden by Cork man Noel Fehily and owned by JP McManus registering his 50th win at the Festival.
Immortal
McManus was also part of the unveiling of a statue to jockey AP McCoy, the most successful rider in the history of the sport.
Easy on the Drink
Cheltenham introduced a variety of measures yesterday to cut back on excessive drinking. That was always likely to be a drop in the ocean but bars closed half an hour earlier after racing had finished and bar staff were only permitted to serve four drinks at a time to customers. With Guinness costing £5.20 a pint that might have done some service to wallets.
Hard on the Punters
Favourite Melon looked like getting backers off to a winning start in the opening race, going odds on at one point close to home but he was beaten by outsider Labaik who was returned a 25/1 chance but had been backed on Betfair earlier in the winter at odds of 1000/1 for an amount of £39. Not bad if you can find those kind of winners.
Painting a Picture
Three years ago Kerry Lee was heading up the Graphics team at Channel 4 Racing’s coverage of the Cheltenham Festival. Today she will be leading up Top Gamble her first runner as a trainer in the Queen Mother Champion Chase. She inherited her Father’s racing stables prompting a career shift and has been a roaring success so far with 23 winners in her first year holding the license.
Ireland on top
The two big races both went to English trained horses but Ireland made up for that through the day, ending up 4-3 ahead in the race for the Betbright Cup, sponsored by the irish betting company with offices in Sandyford.
Tips for Day Two
We blew out with our big race fancy yesterday but today we are back to the well with Willie Mullins who trains Bacardys in the first race, the Neptune Investment Management Hurdle.
Mullins should also take the day’s big prize, the Betway Queen mother Champion Chase but at very short odds.
