In this life, one thing counts

In the bank, large amounts

I’m afraid these don’t grow on trees

You’ve got to pick a pocket or two

You’ve got to pick a pocket or two, boys!

You’ve got to pick a pocket or two

AFTER watching Archie Watson standing looking downcast in morning suit in the rain in the Royal Ascot enclosure on Friday, and again after Glen Shiel had finish second in Saturday’s Group 1, I was reminded of one of those decent characters in a Dickens novel hit with bad luck or misfortune. Even the craggy, give nothing away, features of trainer David Evans could have come from the pages of Oliver Twist.

The Dickensian mood laboured on come Sunday night’s news that the Jockey Club is considering extending the Cheltenham Festival to five days, to take in the Saturday. Why? Yes, money talks, that’s the Twist. And after a year of inactivity, you’ve got to pick a pocket or two to pay the bills.

A few welcomed the news, (or were told to welcome it!), a few more said it’s going to happen so get used to it and cut the outcry; and a much wider group of people simply hated the idea, even if they were resigned to the financial inevitability of it, and that included trainers, owners, bookmakers, pundits, and general public.

The course now has to decide if it wants to be a four-day centre of excellence or a party week with some racing of variable quality bolted on – Peter Thomas, Racing Post

The same people seem to think that there is an endless supply of punters’ money ready to be bet on an endless supply of racing. They fail to grasp that a diluted Cheltenham may attract less sponsorship; familiarity really can breed contempt.

Letter to the Racing Post

Most within the industry will, at least secretly, relish the prospect of a fifth day at Cheltenham. More prize money, more opportunities to have a Cheltenham runner or winner, more betting turnover, more mainstream exposure. It’s a win-win scenario that any professional sport would be foolish not to exploit.

Vincent Finegan – Irish Racing

It comes also after a Cheltenham dominated by Irish-trained horses and where many of the Grade 1s had single figure fields, at the end of a season where British trainers, even in big handicaps like the Grand National, struggled to find high class horses.

Of course those saying it will dilute the Festival are wrong on one score. That dilution has already happened. By bringing back the novice handicap chase, struck out this year in favour of the Mares’ Chase, only one more race is needed to make a five-day, six-a-day racecard, presumably beginning at 2pm and ending at 4.45pm

But it’s the stretching of what is already there and expecting people to pay the same per day for less that hits the bum note. I hate the idea of a Cheltenham dragging on into what will feel like a ‘normal’ Saturday card.

The Coral Cup is won by Heaven Help Us and Richie Condon - do we need another handicap? \ Healy Racing

It would seem likely that one Grade 1 would have to move to the Saturday card and that would most likely be the Ryanair.

Yes, the Thursday may be a bit hectic but it brought one of the best days of the 2019 Festival – the feel-good fever of Frodon followed by Paisley Park. Fewer triumphant returns to the winner’s enclosure (who really cheers in the mares’ novice hurdle winner?) will undoubtedly lessen the atmosphere.

Reducing it to six races a day over five days means that anything that is added will be at the lower end. Those asking for a veterans’ chase have their heads in the sand too.

Firstly, 10-year-olds are allowed run in veterans’ chase. This means there will be too many decent horses coming out of the Grade 1s, so the true veteran that is catered for in the early winter races will not be good enough. Monalee will be a veteran of 11. Santini at 10 will qualify next year.

There is also a fear that those older horses who are losing a step could overdo it in the heat of the Festival. The last thing that is needed is the injury to a popular horse.

The handicaps - the County, Pertemps, Martin Pipe and Fred Winter - already provide for those horses just below top class. And over fences, where we have handicaps over three, two and a half, and two miles, do we need another handicap chase?

I’ve seen some very daft statements such as ‘it would benefit people working to be able to go on the Saturday’, but the joy of the Festival is to take that week off work. Who doesn’t plan that? Like many, from a school-going 12-year-old, I was always engineering that second week in March off.

Another supporter offered that it was “worth hunting for a new audience, that being families and people who might attend the Festival on a Saturday”. It’s the middle of March, folks. Unpredictable weather and not the height of summer and not really a place for kids.

Perhaps, as was suggested last year, you could first use the Saturday as a trial, with all the weaker races culled from the four days. Leave the Festival, as we know it, as is and gauge how well the fifth day goes. Use the County or the Pertemps as the main race of the day.

No amount of criticism will hold off the potential to grab back the monies lost over the last year. But I do believe you can have too much of a good thing.

Let’s leave the last word to Tom Scudamore: “I just worry that if you get greedy, you end up ballsing it all up.”