Rate The 2012 Cheltenham Festival

MoscowFlyer

Interested to hear peoples thoughts on the 4 days as a whole. It was sad to see a great champion bow out like that as Kauto Star did but also thankful he didn't hurt himself jumping when he clearly wasn't 100%.

Race of the festival for me was the Ryanair Chase, Albertas Run gave it a right good go but Riverside Theatre under an amazing ride from Barry G just pipped him at the post.

Barry G and Nicky H had a pretty incredible few days. Congrats to them.

All in all it was a decent festival but def one of the least memorable I would say. Agree/Disagree?

Probably gets 3/5 for me.

mdwexford

4

Yeah Rock On Ruby and Synchronised dont really cut it as Champions for me.
Finians Rainbow isnt tip top but I was glad a 10yo didnt win the Champion Chase.

Simonsig is hugely exciting and is the best novice hurdler ive seen in a while.
Sprinter Sacre is obviously going to be awesome to see again.

Between Bobs Worth, First Lieutenant and Sir Des Champs there are some nice 3m chasers for next year (not to mention Last Instalment)

It looks like the tide is turning in Hendersons favour with all Nicholls stable stars now coming to the end of their careers. Hes going to need some new blood fast to keep his trainers title stranglehold going.

sting60

Brilliant novices.

mr.jingle

4

I'm only giving it a 3 as personally was working all week and only got to see the 1st race on each day on my lunch break and the last 2 races of each when i finished Really put a dampener on the week for me especially missing alll the big ones and looking at re-runs at 6 o'clock that night on Sporting Life just doesn't cut it.

Some great performances, big shocks, big gambles and most of all its the ending of an era with the likes of Kauto Star bowing out in anti-climatic way along with his other illustrious stablemates Denman and Master Minded. I don't think the festival will be the same without them 3 for a few years as we're always going to look back on them as some of the greats.

Some fantastic novices to look forward to though with Sir Des Champs,Sprinter Sacre and Simonsig looking fantastic in there wins and hopefully they can live up to the expectations of most.

200motels

3

I thought it was an okay meeting, but for me since they put on the extra day it diluted the whole festival, there's about 4 races that wouldn't look out of place at Fontwell.

klairondavis

The festival just isn't the same since it has gone to four days and it's looking like it's only a matter of time before we get a Saturday Gold Cup. The Cheltenham management don't give a damn about the racing public. As long as they cram more people in the gate they're happy. The owners/trainers/jockeys are also all for it because it gives them more chances to get a winner.

The novices handicap chase, the 4yo handicap, the mares hurdle and the conditionals handicap should all be done away with. I would also like to see the Ryanair revert to being a race for novices and second season novices like it was when it was the Cathcart (thus doing away with the need for the Jewson). This will never happen unfortunately and we're more likely to see new races like a two and a half mile hurdle, a mares chase and/or a mares bumper.