Cheltenham 2013 round-up

Let's start with the important question of the week...

Sup up

An Olympic swimming pool is 50 metres long by 25 metres wide by 2 metres deep. It would take 2.5 million litres of water to fill it. In 'real money' that is 549,923 gallons which equals 4,399,384 pints.

At 20 pints a week it would take over 4,230 years to consume. Or spill in my case!

Whatever happened to 'the Cathcart'?

The Cathcart Challenge Cup (named after Frederick Cathcart, a former clerk of the course) was last run in 2004. It was a Grade 2 Chase, run over about 2m 5f, for first and second season chasers. It was replaced by the Ryanair.

Faves

It looks like I picked the wrong year to avoid short-priced favourites! An incredible 18 of the 27 races had favourites at 3/1 or less with nine winning.

Day 1 - 3/4 - Simonsig 8/15, Hurricane Fly 13/8 and Quevega 8/11 (My Tent or Yours beaten at 15/8)
Day 2 - 2/4 - Back in Focus 9/4, Sprinter Sacre 1/4, (Pont Alexandre beaten at 6/4, Unioniste  5/2)
Day 3 - 0/4 (Dynaste beaten at 11/8, First Lieutenant 2/1, Oscar Whisky 9/4, Arabella Boy 9/4)
Day 4 - 4/6 - At Fishers Cross 11/8, Bobs Worth 11/4, Salsify 2/1, Alderwood 3/1 (Rolling Star beaten at 5/2, Gevrey Chambertin at 9/4)

So that would have been a £55.10 profit to a £10 level stake.

Whatever happened to 'the Mildmay of Flete'?

The Mildmay of Flete Handicap Chase (named after Anthony Bingham Mildmay, 2nd Baron Mildmay of Flete) is now known as the Byrne Group Plate.

Making the Grade

I heard a stat that before this year's event 21 of the last 42 Grade One winners at Festival had been trained by Nicholls, Henderson or Mullins. More on this in a future 'Fence' I'm sure but here's a quick look at what happened this year...

Day 1 - 3/3 - Mullins 2 (Champagne Fever, Hurricane Fly),  Henderson 1 (Simonsig)
Day 2 - 2/4 - Henderson 1 (Sprinter Sacre), Mullins 1 (Briar Hill)
Day 3 - 0/2 
Day 4 - 1/3 - Henderson 1 (Bobs Worth)

So another 50% strike rate. A good starting point for future thoughts on the big races perhaps.

Daysed and confused

Only two horses beat the 90 day rule this Festival. Quevega (surprise, surprise - for the fourth time) had been off for 320 days, the other was Bobs Worth who hadn't run for 104 days. As my records only go back to 1989 I can't find a horse who's been off longer than that and then won the Blue Riband.

In fact only two other winners had been off for 70 days or more so I still think this is one to be on the right side of.