IT seems the theme of the week following the Cheltenham Festival is how to reconstruct the racing there to maximise the excitement and minimise the monotony of a series of short-priced winners.

I applaud the concept, but not always the execution here. Some of the proposals are too utopian and don’t deal with the reality of a potential reset of the Festival and some of them are just wrong, but there is plenty of sense being talked between the two.

The first thing to accept in the crusade to improve Cheltenham in March is to realise what simply cannot be changed. The Ryanair is going nowhere, for example, and the idea of expunging established Grade 1 contests is both retrograde and woolly-headed.

The idea that any of the runners in this year’s Ryanair ought to have been running in either the Champion Chase doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, and the only issue I have with the intermediate contest is that it didn’t come soon enough for the likes of Native Upmanship and Strong Promise.

Obvious nonsense

The idea that there should be nothing between two miles and three miles and half a furlong for established chasers at Cheltenham is such obvious nonsense that I’d expected calls to scrap the Ryanair to have been silenced a decade ago.

On a similar, but distinct note, I also detect a desire in some quarters to do away with the Baring Bingham, or to run in at a different trip or in a different guise.

This is a Grade 1 contest established for over 50 years, for crying out loud. Just because you backed Ballyburn for the Supreme, there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Stop that chat straight away.

The other aspect of proposed changes that needs nipping in the bud is the idea of having six races per day. NO! If you’re charging around £100 just for the entrance fee, then reducing the amount of entertainment by about 15% is a total non-starter.

Most Festival races are established and accepted without demur, but there are contests on each day which are problematic, and we should take each day in turn in an attempt to fix some of those issues.

Number of missteps

The overriding factor should be the filtering of quality horses into the best races, and I feel this is where the executive has made a number of missteps.

Ian Renton once told me that any new races at the Festival would be designed to increase the quality of the meeting (you can guess what I’d just suggested), but that makes no sense. There are a finite number of top-class horses in training and adding new races to the biggest meeting of the year does not increase the quality, but - by absolute definition – dilutes it.

As such, new races should have unique appeal and not detract from already established events, and that is something that hasn’t been well supervised. Let’s see if we can rebalance the equilibrium.

Tuesday

The opening day largely works well, but there are two problems. The Mares’ Hurdle can detract from the Champion and while a change isn’t easy to effect given the contest is a Grade 1, I’m not averse to the idea that this, and all mares’ only races, should have an upper rating limit.

In truth, I think most mares rated high enough to win the Champion Hurdle would run there in any case, and Lossiemouth’s performance in winning the Mares’ would merely have seen her swap places with Luccia had she been declared, but the principle is reasonable.

The issue is that placing restrictions on Grade 1 races is a particularly thorny problem, for all it can be argued that the concept of a Grade 1 for mares is already restricted by sex, but that would get us into deeper water than I’m comfortable swimming in.

Slightly easier to fix is the National Hunt Chase which has already been messed up horribly. The National Hunt Chase only makes sense from a heritage perspective in that it was once the most important race at the Festival, but only because of the status of the human competitors rather than the horses.

It was a maiden chase for the well-heeled, although the poverty-stricken were excluded only by circumstance. Many of the horses were owned, trained and ridden by gentlemen, as opposed to players.

The prestige was bound up in the Corinthian spirit, and the fact that the horses were often little more than plodders was irrelevant.

Quite what upper-class twit had the idea of turning this parochial event into a Grade 2 is unclear to me, but it’s a tremendous example of the hosts shooting themselves in the foot.

A race for proper amateurs (requests to “pay my airfare and expenses” reportable to the stewards) turned into a gift to the Irish semi-professionals is an own-goal of tremendous ineptitude.

The fact that the race has changed from an anything-can-happen cavalry charge to a small-field dawdle has ruined it for spectators, and the knee-jerk changes made after – ironically – the last English win in the race has utterly destroyed the contest as a unique event and an about-turn cannot happen soon enough.

Wednesday

The main problem with Wednesday is that no bugger turns up, according to official figures, and that’s probably because the idiots in charge call it “Style Wednesday” as if that’s a bloody draw.

If the racing isn’t good enough (and a Cross-Country chase isn’t everyone’s cup of tea; ditto a bumper, which is a huge deal in Ireland, but merely an excuse to leave before the last in the UK), then switch the races around to make it stronger.

Failing that, kick on with that Style thing, move the Champion Chase to Tuesday (which would make “Champion Day” make more sense), and take £40 off the price. You’re most welcome.

Thursday

I don’t think the Turners needs to be a handicap once the good horses are disqualified from running in the National Hunt Chase, and again, there aren’t many examples of this contest messing with the Arkle.

It was, in fact, the most satisfying of the novices this year, and the Brits seem to like it, bless them.

I’ve heard a suggestion is that the Mares’ Novice shouldn’t have penalties, but that is merely moving it towards a Grade 1 status it doesn’t merit. If you don’t want a penalty, don’t get one. Simples.

The Kim Muir, on the other hand, is only of benefit to Irish amateurs and is a race which was never meant to be a permanent fixture. Kim Muir has long been forgotten, the race named after him was an absolute travesty this year, and while banning novices might help, it would be easier to kick the whole rancid thing into touch.

The gap would make an excellent spot for a seller, which I might have mentioned before.

This might be a good time to deal with the whole “ban all novices from handicaps” mantra. I can see the logic of stopping a horse like Inothewayurthinkin from making a mockery of a handicap off top weight, but: A) that wouldn’t be an issue with no Kim Muir, and B) not all unexposed handicappers are novices, and there is no reason why a maiden hurdle winner can’t be given a year off and get stuck straight into a Festival handicap, as the four-run restriction does not apply to such horses cf. Aux Ptits Soins, 2015 Coral Cup.

It’s a sledgehammer to crack a nut; that survives, breaking the hammer.

Friday

The only bone of contention with Friday is the possibility that the Mares’ Chase might detract from one of the championship races, and while it’s perhaps ironic that Dinoblue didn’t run in the Champion Chase this year, that’s not really been an issue until now. Nonetheless, it’s best to head these things off at the pass, and either a severe penalty structure or a maximum rating for a race which never needs Grade 1 status would be a good idea.

The Albert Bartlett might benefit from a tweak at first glance, but it works pretty well as a race that produces future Grade 1 winners even if they are not suited by the demands of the race on the day.

Perhaps it would work better run on the Old Course and swapping slots with the Baring Bingham, which would be less akin to the Supreme if run on a different track.

To summarise – tinker with a few races if you can, but definitely replace the Kim Muir with a four-year-old only selling bumper for amateurs (can’t have Derek missing out). All horses sold at auction at the start of the week, and the winner auctioned again after the race. You know it makes sense, and I’m starting to grind you down.