3 or 4 day cheltenham festival - you decide....

Colonel Sanders

Must admit I preferred the 3 day format. No need to go to 4 days and the races that have been added add nothing to the festival. Sheer greed on managements behalf.

What does everyone else think? Was 3 or 4 days better (no idea how to add a pool to a thread :rolleyes: )

keepitquiet

3 days without doubt:) 4 days isnt too long but allows for some poorer races. i can see it being turned into a week eventually mon - fri too make even more money:rolleyes:

HiCloy

3 days, with 7 races on each day. The new races -

Jewson Novice Hcap chase
4year old hcap hurdle
Ryanair chase
Brit Insurance Nov Hdl

could all be done away with, I'm not much of a fan of any of them. I'd keep the Brit Insurance hurdle to make 7 races on each day

knighted

think people in general think 4 days a waste 3 days was complete quality but 4 days is a bit much -thursdays over there the last 2 years have been extremly quite-so this year they have a combined thursday friday ticket to try to entice people -hasnt worked imo as this time last year all gold cup tickets were sold out and this year there is ample tickets still available-pure greed alright but people (me included )still pay it -a club ticket is 65 sterling a day about 100 euros -can u imagine paying that to a racemeeting at home ?on the plus side though it is the best racecourse in the world ,the pubs dont infate thier prices during the festival(unlike galway)and the general atmosphere around the place is virtually unique-i wouldnt miss it for the world -but i would still like to see it go back to 3 quality days

fade2black

3 days. However, give me a 4th day of Cheltenham before Kelso any day of the week.

Crumbs

HiCloy wrote:

Jewson Novice Hcap chase
4year old hcap hurdle
Ryanair chase
Brit Insurance Nov Hdl

The Ryanair Chase isn't really one of the new races, more an upgrade of the old Cathcart Chase, and should be kept. The other new one is the Cross-Country Chase but I agree with you in that I wouldn't be unhappy to see any of them disappear and a switch back to three days.

knighted

fade2black wrote:

3 days. However, give me a 4th day of Cheltenham before Kelso any day of the week.

now fade im surprised at the comment about kelso and u a waterford man -tramore racecourse is very similar and these tracks deserve support -its places like these were u run into good nh folk-had some great days and nights down there-by the way the best start to cheltenham races is the monday in stratford its irish day great place a bit like clonmel -people trying to build there bank for the next 4 days

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

HiCloy

Crumbs wrote:

The Ryanair Chase isn't really one of the new races, more an upgrade of the old Cathcart Chase, and should be kept. The other new one is the Cross-Country Chase but I agree with you in that I wouldn't be unhappy to see any of them disappear and a switch back to three days.

Forgot about that, its something of a novelty race and no great loss either

Hoofer

3 days without a doubt, thursday always has a strange feeling whatever it is.Lots of Irish go home now after the wednesday with or without the ££££££,s.They shud of kept it at 3 days.Cheltenham has to keep the races at a high quality level or else it will lose its pedigree and status.

keepitquiet

Hoofer wrote:

Cheltenham has to keep the races at a high quality level or else it will lose its pedigree and status.

i dont think that cheltenham will lose its status by having it for four days... ask any trainer know and in 20 yrs wat they would most like to win and it will still be the gold cup in most cases!

fr wishy washy

4 days for me,I know the Thursday isn't great (by the standard of the other 3) but still worth it imo.There's no way it'll ever be extended past 4.

scojones

I agree. I like it being 4 days. If it was 3 days the caliber of racing would be better, but the course itself would make less money and so would the bookies around the globe. Also, it's nice to get out and go to the races - even if the racing isn't that great. A Thursday at Cheltenham beats a day at Tralee any day!

fr wishy washy

sjones wrote:

I agree. I like it being 4 days. If it was 3 days the caliber of racing would be better, but the course itself would make less money and so would the bookies around the globe. Also, it's nice to get out and go to the races - even if the racing isn't that great. A Thursday at Cheltenham beats a day at Tralee any day!

It means you can actually get to the parade ring before or after a race or get a bet on and generally get a look around the place which is almost impossible the other 3 days.

masterK

The more days the better for me, even if they had to throw in some class C handicaps it would still be better than the meetings that would be on in it's place.