THEY’RE off! But you could not have imagined a more unlikely double act to kick off the Cheltenham Festival coverage on ITV than Maura Higgins and Ruby Walsh. But perhaps they were a better combination than odds-on shots Majborough and Ballyburn!

Of the four shorties on day one, only two took home the prizes.

The producers could not have predicted, in their wildest dreams, the dramas and stories that emerged over the four hours of TV. This wasn’t reality TV either, this was real life, real sport.

Mick Fitzgerald reported Nicky Henderson didn’t even flinch when the name Brighterdayshead was mentioned for the Champion Hurdle but cameras caught two agonising grimaces from the trainer over the two days as Constitution Hill and Jonbon made significant errors, ending their hopes.

Kopek Des Bordes’ owner Charlie McCarthy declared: “This is a dream come true” and that was before the start of the Supreme!

Matt Chapman cornered Willie Mullins on the soft option for Lossiemouth. “We’ve done the right thing for Rich” was the explanation offered. Right. The great Gods had a smile at that later on when Constitution Hill was wiped out and the Mullins/Townend runner State Man crashed with the race at his mercy. Lossiemouth’s second win, easier than her first, in the Mares’ Hurdle surely left a lost opportunity. Despite lots of criticism for the decision pre-race, she still got some Olé, Olés in the reception.

The question that remained from the various interviews was, if it was always likely Townend would stay with State Man, why were we fed the ‘Lossie for the Champion’ agenda in the weeks before?

Small man

“I’m trying to promote National Hunt racing, that the small man can have a say in it”, Charlie McCarthy said after Kopek won. Golden Ace did plenty for that and her owner Ian Gosden surely added to that, telling in the interviews of her purchase for just 12,000gns.

ITV included pundit/punter Johnny Dineen in the ring with Brian Gleeson. He got it wrong with Majborough but was more correct whenopposing Ballyburn.

We don’t need ITV’s Oli Bell’s walks though the fashion areas, Royal Ascot maybe, not here.

He manned the Social Stable, with Kevin Blake chipping in some data. Unfortunately, his selections to highlight how the handicapper was being much kinder in dropping British trained horses didn’t really fare so well.

The horses selected that had dropped significantly - Stay Away Fay, Straw Fan Jack and Third Time Lucki - made no shows in their races. Maybe the handicapper was right, they’ve just lost their form.

Every presenter needs a spot of his own. Racing TV added Daryl Jacob to the team and with Tom Stanley, and they were on course as the runners went to start, while ITV had Luke Harvey at the starts for a similar slot. Jacob and Stanley worked nicely together.

Alice Plunkett had declared Solness had “looked insane!” before the Champion Chase.

In the after-race interviews with Rishi Persad, it wasn’t insane but a stony-faced Nico de Boinville grumbling that Jonbon didn’t like the starting tape under his nose. Ruby quickly showed in the replay that it was Nico who put Jonbon’s nose on the tape!

Starters

Similarly, the runners in the Grand Annual were at a quick walk almost two minutes before the start. The starter may not have been great but then riders are supposed to walk in and they bore a lot of the responsibility for the mess-ups, a fact pointed out by Megan Nicholls on ITV, though they were still occurring on Thursday.

The slow-mo reviews from Ruby Walsh in the booth gave different angles and showed all those moments of drama. Constitution Hill went too long, horse error. Jonbon was asked very long, rider error? I still don’t like ITV’s side-on angle to the second last fence. Majborough’s error was much clearer on Racing TV and, for much of the action, their pictures were much closer, especially up the straight. With catching the best camera angles, interviews and avoiding commercial breaks, it was all a bit Switch Switchy again!

Rishi, not Ricci, asked Stumptown’s owners to tell us about the syndicate which might have caused a pause in thinking. One punter on X grumbled cleverly: “Not even the sniff of a winner so far but great craic”.

Yes, winners were hard to predict. But the Wednesday races produced memorable and barely believable results with Marine Nationale and Jazzy Matty, Michael O’Sullivan’s two 2023 winners, each winning again. Maybe ITV milked it a bit looking for as much ‘emotional success’ as possible but what harm is that. It was two days that were tinged with sadness but joyful nonetheless.