So the festival has come and gone. And I miss it already. From the opening roar, the enjoyment level hit 500!! This year's festival lived up to everything that we expected. There was the sublime winners, hard luck stories, tears, news stars, ageing stars and departing stars and even more tears. Racing was making the news for all the right reasons. Animal activist had better things to be moaning about.
I may be wrong but thankfully I don't think any horse lost their lives, feel free to correct me. All the jockeys walked away, some with crazy bans - what Jamie Codd was meant to do to not incur a bam I'll never know. One racing post photographer was unlucky not to be able to walk away but he must believe there was someone watching over him as he got smashed by Quantitativeeasing but somehow kept taking pictures as it happened, see racing post site. Unbelievable!!
From Douvan,who got the festival off to a cracking start as he powered up the hill to live up to his hype to Next Sensation closing the festival and spoiling Tony McCoy's swansong,admit it , we thought it was all set up for him to go out a winner.
With Next Sensation winning it brought the final totals to 14-13 to Britain. Willie Mullins tried single handily to bring the title back to Ireland with 8 winners on his own.
On day 1 the bookies we're near flat lining with the 3 heavily supported favs going in and all the talk of Annie Power just having to turn up to win the Mares race and end the bookies. That was correct for 98% of the way round until she jumped a shadow and landed on the hurdle bringing her down and sending Ruby flying. Thankfully Ruby, Annie,Wayne Hutchinson and L'Unique who were brought down all got up unhurt.
Un De Sceaux broke the hearts of his rivals en route to winning the Arkle,all roads lead to the Queen Mother next year. His jumping was impeccable . He just jumps so damn fast.
Faugheen had a lot to prove. Any he proved it all and more bringing home a 1-2-3 for Mullins. Hurricane Fly came home in third in what should be his last trip to Cheltenham.
Windsor Park got day two off in spectacular fashion when powering up the hill to win by 5 lengths.
Don Poli was the act for race 2, looked to be nursed along early, the horse showed incredible talent and grit to bound away up the hill for the RSA. Gold Cup 2016 surely the target.
There seemed to be more talk about Sprinter Sacre not winning than Dodging Bullets actually winning the Queen Mother from Somersby. If only channel 4 could tell us who bred Dodging bullets! Unfortunately I think it'll be the last time we see Sprinter and Sizing Europe.
Aux Ptits Soins, on British debut made a mockery of his handicap mark winning the Coral Cup. Will turn out to be one to keep on side for this and next season.
If Day1 was Willies, day 2 was definitely Paul Nicholls with not only Qualando bringing up his third winner of the day but also led home a 1-2 in the Fred Winter.
Moon Racer was the most impressive winner of the day for me. Always seemed to be going well but was seen best when Tom Scu asked him for everything the response was amazing. Do we just start backing him for the Supreme now?
If Moon Racer ended day2 with the best performance, Vautour started day 3 with one of the most phenomenal performances I've ever seen. Got in close on 1 jump but the rest we're all picture perfect and he won as he liked by 15 lengths.
Uxizandre gave AP his first and only winner of the festival when winning the Ryanair. Typical Ap ride. Gave the horse all he had. Don Cossack was unlucky in it. Judging by the pictures going around twitter Alan King certainly enjoyed his evening and rightly so.
Cole Harden just could not be pegged back under a fantastic ride by Gavin Sheehan. Fending off the Paul Nicholls pair. Been only 6 he could be a force in the long distance hurdle races for years to come.
The Package showed that you don't have to be a young gun to put in a performance. The 12 year old won by 12 lengths in the Kim Muir under the immensely talented Jamie Codd, who is better than most professional jockeys.
Friday started off with a huge display from Peace and Co when fighting off inmates Top Notch and Hargam ..how does Nicky keep them apart for next season ??
One of the most competitive fields of the week is always the County Hurdle. 26 runners from both sides of the Irish Sea . With my new cliff horse Wicklow Brave been in it I decided to give him one more go. That turned out to be a fruitful decision when he came there swinging and crushed up the Hill to win by 8 lengths at 25/1 :))))
The Albert Bartlett turned into another war of attrition with Milsean trying to make every yard a winning one only to be ran down by Martello Tower . The first four home all had one thing in common ,the surname ,Mullins .. Martello was giving a peach of a ride by Adrian Heskin .
The Gold Cup, the main event. And what an event it turned out to be. My lunch tea landed at 3.15 enough time to run down to the center of the shopping center I work in, they always show the racing.. NOT TODAY!!! I ended up having to stream the race on my phone outside in the sunshine. People give you strange looks when your screaming at your phone for Ruby to hit him, hit him ruby..
Coneygree, I HOLD UP MY HANDS AND ADMIT I WAS WRONG! I thought it was a year too early for him and that he should have took uo his entry in the RSA. My god he has the heart of the champion that he is. One more than one occasion I was confident that Djackadam was going to go by him but Coneygree was like the little engine that could. If they we're still running out there I don't think they'd pass him. Fantastic performance from Mark Bradstock and Nice De Boinville and massive congratulations to his owners .I WAS WRONG.
People say "trust your gut". After his race at Leopardstown I said "the next time I'll be on On The Fringe " today was the next time . Was I on,NOPE ! Did he win under super talented Nina ,you bet ya..by 17 bloody lengths !!!
The Martin Pipe seemed to be just about Roi De Francs ,backed like he had won already . Problem ? Ruby comes on the radio and tips up Killutagh Vic ,Que a huge gamble . I fully believe David Mullins,who will be very good ,made a balls of his ride on the favourite . On the other hand Luke Dempsey gave KV gave everything he could when just prevailing by a head. Gamble sorted .
In the before mentioned Ap retirement party race ,Tom Scu played the fella who turns up and eats the decorations of your cake before you light the candles when winning on Next Sensation :) . Always handy ,jumped well apart from one blunder to score by 3-4 lengths ..
There it is,my take on most of the races . I enjoyed every single minute of it and I can't wait for the Punchestown , Fairyhouse and Aintree festivals and I hope you did too.
Thanks
Tom
