The showpiece festival of British National Hunt racing seems to have lost its way in every respect
Sport Johnny Ward: Cheltenham barely at the races as prize meeting falls flat
The exception – Luccia ran home third in the Champion Hurdle – is housed in the barn of Nicky Henderson. Paul Nicholls has been champion trainer all bar four of the last 18 seasons in Britain; Henderson was top dog the other four. Skelton had been his deputy for nine years before going it alone in 2013 and one wonders what their interactions were like during the week: while Skelton was on fire , Nicholls was an irrelevance until Monmiral scored in the Pertemps.
Poor crowds One Irish bookmaker, Ray Mulaney, has been standing for many years at Cheltenham. He said: “Wednesday was very disappointing. The crowd was down, the atmosphere wasn’t there; it felt very ordinary. It is not like the Cheltenham of old.” On that, bring money and lots of it. Without even factoring in the quality of the plain, a pint of Guinness in a plastic glass cost a cool £7.50 – bad Temple Bar prices. The tabloid media in Britain – ever more than ready to hammer racing – was quick to compare Cheltenham beverage prices to those at Wimbledon. And one does not exactly put Wimbledon in the category of the refuge of the working class.
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