A CHELTENHAM LIKE NO OTHER
We have become rather used to racing without crowds over the past nine months or so.
Certainly, commentating to an empty racecourse can be a surreal experience, although at a quiet midweek all-weather card, it’s not much different to the norm, to be honest.
Of all the meetings that will suffer most because of a lack of a crowd, the Cheltenham Festival would be top of the list – and by a long way. Without a soul there, the meeting will lose a large chunk of its own soul.
Football broadcasters have become experts at piping in recorded crowd noise. I suppose it is clever but, personally, I prefer to hear the 'clean' sound and hear the ball being kicked alongside the players shouting and screaming and the managers bellowing instructions.
I wonder what ITV or even RTV might do, given that sound coverage is usually ramped up for meetings like this. The noise of jumping an obstacle, some fruity vocal encouragement and, perhaps most concerning right now, the crack of the whip could all be more emphasized with no crowd. We shall see.
Will there be a 'virtual roar' as the tapes go up?
MULLINS TO PUSH THE BAR EVEN HIGHER
Out on the course, Willie Mullins will probably dominate and set new records. How ironic that the one horse of his that I had backed ante-post, Energumene, has not made it. Typical.
Still, it is nothing compared to my mate Jeff Randall, the former Sky New business editor.
Jeff is 'retired' now but remains busy, is a director at Sandown and also a shrewd judge of form. He has compiled an impressive ante-post portfolio, which had included Energumene at 20/1 for the Arkle and Thyme Hill at 14s for the Stayers. Ouch!
Henry De Bromhead already had an exceptionally strong team, before being topped up by free signing Envoi Allen, and he will be disappointed if he doesn’t feature highly. It will also be fascinating to see what sort of reaction a winner from Cullentra House will receive.
'Sneezy' Foster will surely give Gordon a mention in post-race dispatches, no? Ultimately, though, if you’ve backed a winner, who cares who trains it? We have to move on.
COME ON THE BRITS!
The home team will be led by the usual suspects – Nicky Henderson, Paul Nicholls and the very much in-form Dan Skelton.
Roksana obviously has Concertista to beat in the Mares’ Hurdle but could do it and I think that Spiritofthegames has a right chance too in the Pertemps Final on Thursday. If ever a horse deserved to win one at the Festival, it is he.
He was fifth in the 2018 County Hurdle and third in the 2019 Stable Plate and a decent sixth in that same race last year. He has never won at Cheltenham but has been second three times (including in the Paddy Power Gold Cup last November) and third twice.
These days, Spiritofthegames may be needing more of a trip – as shown eye-catchingly at Chepstow last time - and is nicely handicapped over hurdles.
I do like Aye Right for Harriet Graham in the Ultima on the opening day and think that Chris Gordon’s On The Slopes is capable of running well at a decent price in the Grand Annual on Wednesday, although I do fear Embittered.
Hold The Note looks ready to go close for Mick Channon in Thursday’s Fulke Walwyn/Kim Muir on his second run back after a wind operation.
Let’s hope that this is the only crowd-free Festival of our lifetime but, most of all, that all runners and riders return safely.
RED FACES - BUT FOR BHA OR MURPHY?
It seems extraordinary that the champion jockey, Brian Hughes, will not be at Cheltenham this week.
He has booked rides at Sedgefield on Tuesday, Huntingdon on Wednesday, Doncaster on Thursday and Fakenham on Friday. It might end up being a shrewd move to be operating in calmer ponds as the two Harrys, Skelton and Cobden, are dipping into the raging white waters at Cheltenham.
And what of our other champion jockey, Oisin Murphy?
He was due to return to the saddle after a six-month ban this weekend but, according to the BHA, had apparently not followed testing protocol and was prevented from doing so – but only at the last minute.
Clearly he thought he had done what was needed or why else would he have booked himself to ride at Lingfield on Friday and Chelmsford on Saturday?
Perhaps there was confusion as the suspension had been given in France? Even so, the BHA should have made sure that everything was clear to him, guided him through his return, and made sure he was ready. He is an important figure in the game.
Perhaps Oisin shouldered some blame too but he doesn’t run the sport!
It was an embarrassing mess and surely so easily avoidable.
BULLET TRAIN – FROM WARREN PLACE TO COUNTY WATERFORD
The death this week of the extraordinary broodmare, Kind, the dam of Frankel, meant the end of a golden era at Juddmonte Farms.
Kind, who apparently lived up to her name in character, sadly died from complications after foaling a colt by Kingman. She was quite simply equine royalty and although obviously best known as the mother of Frankel, four of her other sons are also serving as stallions and scattered all across the globe.
While Frankel does his thing at Banstead Manor in Newmarket (at £175,000 a hit), his full brother Noble Mission is based at Lanes End Farm in Kentucky for a fee of $20,000, while Morpheus (by Oasis Dream) is smack bang in the middle of France at the Haras de Toury and stands for €2,800.
The other two are now over in Ireland, both the eldest and the youngest siblings - Bullet Train (by Sadler’s Wells and a three quarter brother to Frankel) and the little known Proconsul, Frankel’s full-brother, who raced just twice but without success for Andre Fabre.
Proconsul, who started off at Mickley Stud in Shropshire, transferred to Annshoon Stud in County Kilkenny two years ago and is available at just €1,000.
Travel around 50 miles south west to County Waterford and you’ll now find big brother, Bullet Train, who has been based at Woodfield Farm Stud since 2018 after a spell in Kentucky where he stood at a fee of $7500. During that time he was also shuttled down to Australia.
It is Bullet Train who I have the soft spot for. A highly talented colt himself and capable of winning the Group 3 Lingfield Derby Trial, his own career was later sacrificed to serve as pacemaker to his extraordinary younger brother.
Bullet Train was hand picked by Henry Cecil to set the fractions in six successive Group 1 races, the first four over a mile in the Queen Elizabeth II, Lockinge, Queen Anne and Sussex and the last two around a mile and quarter in the Juddmonte and the Champion Stakes.
Bullet Train did his job impeccably and still showed smart form when the one-dimensional tactics were hardly playing to his own strengths.
Gary Norris, owner and manager of Woodfield Farm, told me: “Bullet Train has a bombproof temperament and it is lovely to see it passing onto his stock.
“He is very much in demand and his first Irish crop will be three-year-olds in 2022. Before lockdown, he had visitors nearly every day to see him. They came from as far away as Australia and the USA to get their photo with him. He clearly has a lot of fans around the world.
“Lockdown has been hard on everyone and no-one really knows how the year will progress. We have had about 100 enquiries already for this covering season. His fee is private and is only disclosed to breeders that are sending a mare to him.”
Bullet Train has sired 145 individual winners and one of his sons, Chapada, won the Group 2 Herbert Power Stakes at Caulfield last October and was third in last week’s Group 1 Australian Cup at Flemington.
Bullet Train was more than just Frankel’s pacemaker. He is a Group-winning son of Sadler’s Wells and one of the youngest Sadler’s Wells stallions around.
Even if his fee is private, you get an idea from the figures quoted above that he remains an affordable and exciting option to breeders, both on the Flat and over jumps.
