IT seemed rather strange that over the last few weeks there was almost as much of a buzz around the big jump meetings as there was in the immediate aftermath of Cheltenham when everyone was picking apart what was wrong with the Festival.

But there wasn’t that much wrong with Cheltenham that isn’t reflected in the National Hunt season as a whole. Jump racing’s scope is shrinking.

And it’s the anticipation that kills you, when the reality is less than what you expected or falls short of a great experience.

Cheltenham is the now a four-month series of lead-in shows and forced expectation. The Road to Cheltenham begins in November. The road to Aintree began about two weeks before the meeting, Ayr did what it was expected to do and today’s finale at Sandown fits the bill as a send-off. And Punchestown looks set to deliver our right royal finale here, with all the top stars in the older horse divisions lining up and taking each other on.

We’ll have no notifications of “There’s the roar...” as we do the first race goes off at Cheltenham, and then two hours later, wondering was it as good as we expected.

The Festival must satisfy on content and cost. In all the discussions and proposed changes, it should be remembered that Cheltenham did endure bad luck this year. They were robbed of a tour de force success that would have ignited discussions, had Constitution Hill lined up and done the expected in the Champion Hurdle. It became a much lower key race and we also lost Marine Nationale from day one. Jonbon’s withdrawal also took away from the Champion Chase.

Willie Mullins bid for the British trainers’ title has become a late season focus, even outside the sport to add interest to the last day.

But with Ian Renton saying publicly that there will be changes, while sticking with 28 races, some proposals have been doing the rounds again. I’ve written before that I think the Mares’ Hurdle and Ryanair Chase justify their place, as they stand on the card. Removing them will not necessarily always add to the Champion Hurdle or Gold Cup (Note that both the Mares’ and Ryanair were in the top 10 highest betting turnover races for 2024).

It has been noted repeatedly that the Wednesday is losing appeal out of the four days and equally obvious that the novice chases are in need of adjustment, perhaps reducing the current four options (from two-mile Arkle to the National Hunt Chase) to three. There is general agreement that a novice handicap chase, for the below top class novices, probably over two and a half miles would be worth adding back in place of one of the current top novice races.

The Cross Country and the Champion Bumper on Wednesday are not must-see races. One was lost this year and the Bumper was in the lowest betting turnover races, 22nd of the 27 run. The Bumper does, however, provide full fields and horses graduate from it to the top of the novice rankings the following season so it’s hard to see it moving. But the Cross Country Chase is surely in need of a change, if indeed it is worthy of keeping its place on the Festival card at all.

In the light of the Grand National result, the Cross Country can’t really continue to allow the higher class horses compete off level weights at Cheltenham. It adds little to see them running over different, easier obstacles when they are capable of competing at a higher level.

If this race is becoming a Grand National prep race, make it more like one, instead of a kind of novelty race at a meeting which should feature the cream of the sport. However, the unique course and extreme distance should allow the Ultima to still entice a decent field. Despite being only a week apart, the Scottish National and the Bet365 Gold Cup have attracted good-sized fields so we have plenty of handicap chasers down the ratings.

We have banks’ races at Punchestown but they are a sideline, a breather, to the main quality action. The have provided some lovely, more local moments and are part ofPunchestown’s long tradition.

Given the cross-country track at Cheltenham is often in poor condition, why not switch this race to the April card? Even introduce a ‘banks challenge’ bonus for British horses who come over and win one of the banks’ races at Punchestown two weeks later? It seems ideal and paves the way for a more interesting race added at Cheltenham to boost Wednesday. The Cheltenham Festival is dubbed “the Olympics of the sport,” you wouldn’t run random ‘obstacle races’ like the Cross Country at the Olympics?

IT was reflective that we are in a changing of the guard era where only two of the riders in the Grand National had ridden previous winners. With the departure of Paddy Brennan from the weighing room last week, another familiar name has gone.

This week also sees the retirement of one of the world’s top flat jockeys in France’s Olivier Peslier.

Among his very many great wins, his 27-race association with Goldikova stood out. The great French mare was blessed with a superb ability to produce brilliant acceleration and Peslier deployed it with precision, often getting first run and never leaving it too late as some are prone to do. Her win over Paco Boy in the Queen Anne was a perfect example.