I DON’T know if it’s a good or a bad thing to be among the percentage of the population that is so afflicted that, for six months of the year, the word Cheltenham seems to creep into so many general pastimes.

Even watching an 80s greatest hits show and the Kirsty MacColl song There A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis, comes on, I find myself thinking, now that’d be a good humorous tune to introduce a segment on a weekend racing review.

Which of the early season emerging ‘Elvises’ that we see winning by wide margins every week will be the ones to stay ‘true’? Or exposed as fakes come the first group of competitive meetings!

There are long lists of young unproven horses in the tracker notebook as the stable tours expand.

One Racing TV pundit said on Thursday that every young horse that come from France could be the next Kauto Star! Then again, it could be an Alary.

There must be 40-odd horses already put up for the Cheltenham novice hurdles. Who do we believe?

When Marine Nationale was quoted at around 20/1 for the Supreme this time last year, did anyone believe Barry Connell when he said he was the best horse he every had anything to do with?

There were many who got carried away by James Du Berlais’ 15 length novice chase win at the turn of the year only for him never really to build on it. And many more flattered to deceive.

Based on last week’s win, is Gerri Colombe the next Gold Cup winner?

Best winner

As Galopin Des Champs passed the winning post in the Gold Cup last March, many were happy to proclaim him as the best winner in a very long time.

That he might be beaten next time out by the horse who had finished second in the Ultima Handicap Chase would hardly have been entertained.

The 2024 Gold Cup at this stage is more intriguing than it had looked leaving Cheltenham last March.

As well as Gerri Colombe, L’Homme Presse is back, Gentlemansgame has stepped into the picture and we see the second top novice from last season, The Real Whacker, today. And you have Fastorslow to prove himself a player again and Shishkin to perhaps come into the mix. So that is six new players from last season’s race.

Is Gerri Colombe a Don Cossack or Delta Work reincarnated? The big plus last week was that he was expected to improve a lot for the race.

The negatives, that he made a mistake, (is having just one more outing wise in that regard?). Would he get outpaced again if the field press on from the water to the third last like they tend to do in a Gold Cup and this catches out a lot of casual jumpers?

I’m swaying towards him being more a Delta for now.

And the kick-off at the beginning of the 2024 Festival - it seems that everything that ran in the Champion Bumper last season is destined to come out and win impressively on its hurdle debut. Impressive novice hurdlers abound!

So, for the next few months let’s all join together in a new podcast theme tune. You know how it goes. There’s a horse just won a maiden swears he’s Arkle!

ONE of the early season features of the UK jumps scene was the November meeting at Aintree which featured the two races over the National fences.

It was more a case of blink and you’d miss it last week. It didn’t really feel like a chase over the National fences when the winter sun forced the dolling off of the water and the Chair.

The two races side by side on the same card were an extra feature of these early Saturdays. Who doesn’t think fondly of a horse like Highland Lodge in them? With the Becher Chase having been moved to December 9th it is a bit lost with the big Sandown Tingle Creek card taking all the attention.

You hope it’s not a not so subtle plan to kill off two races over the National fences where it gets to the stage that no one really notices and they can just be moved to the Mildmay track. But of course, every winter chases on the Mildmay may have less fences too.

ONCE upon a time, in a land across the water, there was a huge playground, the big boys came to play and show off. In one corner though, there was a small patch for the lesser lads, the older, slower ones. But once the big boys moved on, the slow lads stayed, and the onlookers got quite fond of them being there.

Thus it was….Spot Thedifference, Native Jack, Heads Onthe Ground, Garde Champetre, Sizing Australia, Philip Rothwell, Peter Maher… all grabbing an hour in the sun.

The bigger boys began to come back and it wasn’t such fun anymore to see the old lads taking one helleva beating.

The betting for this year’s Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham has raised the hackles of many a hack this week. Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead both suggested at Down Royal that their former Grade 1 winners, Conflated and Minella Indo, might contest this year’s Cheltenham Cross Country.

It comes on the back of two wins in the Festival Cross Country for the Grade 1 winner and Gold Cup third Delta Work.

The race should not be a consolation race for Grade 1 winners like Delta Work and Galvin, one-two last year, where they can race under the same conditions as horses who regularly compete in banks’ races.

Last year’s race saw a 166 rated horse competing at levels against mid 130 rated opponents.

Some of the features of the Punchestown Festival have been older horses and smaller trainers winning regularly over the banks’ course.

It can be argued that a cross country race has no place at the Mecca of jump racing’s festival but it’s an even stronger argument that still top class horses should not be allowed compete in it under the current conditions.