Cheltenham Festival

On the morning of Jonbon's ninth Grade 1 win in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot last Saturday, the recently-retired Aidan Coleman, who partnered Nicky Henderson's chaser to four of those top-level triumphs, opened up about the mental turmoil that comes with being forced out of the saddle through injury. Coleman speaks openly and honestly about coming to terms with being yesterday's man and how he is searching deep within himself to fill the void. Contextualisation alone is not enough to weather this storm but it does give Aidan Coleman...

Joseph O'Brien has provided an upbeat bulletin on Al Riffa (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Apples And Bananas (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) and Trustyourinstinct (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), all of whom are on course for targets in Saudi Arabia and Qatar respectively following a key workout at Dundalk last Friday.  Dual Group 1 scorer Al Riffa, who is set to take part in the Neom Turf Cup at the Saudi Cup meeting next month, heads the travelling squad for the trainer who has masterminded Melbourne Cup and Breeders' Cup successes. Al Riffa...

There could be a surprise Japanese-trained runner at this year's Cheltenham Festival after All The World (Jpn) appeared among 16 entries for the feature contest on the opening day of the meeting, the £450,000 G1 Unibet Champion Hurdle. Trained by Kazuya Nakatake, the eight-year-old All The World is a three-time winner over jumps in the Far East and his most recent start resulted in a creditable third-place finish in the Tokyo High-Jump, one of the most prestigious races run over obstacles in Japan. A three-time winner on the Flat as...

The programme for next year's Cheltenham Festival has undergone some key changes in order to improve competitiveness in a number of races. From 2025, the two-and-a-half-mile Turners Novices' Chase will be replaced by a Grade 2 limited novice handicap chase over the same trip, while the National Hunt Chase, which has been contested by amateur riders, will be open to professionals and become a novice handicap chase for horses rated 0-145. Jon Pullin, head of racing and clerk of the course at Cheltenham, said, "We have had to acknowledge that...

Guy Lavender has been appointed the new chief executive officer of Cheltenham Racecourse, The Jockey Club announced on Wednesday. He will begin his new role early next year, working alongside Cheltenham managing director Ian Renton. The duo will coordinate the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, and Renton, who has served in his role since 2012, will remain involved at the racecourse in an advisory capacity at least through the event. Lavender was previously the CEO and secretary of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) since 2017 and since 2022 has been a committee...

Trainers Edward O'Grady and Jessica Harrington have led the tributes to leading owner and breeder Dermot Cox following the death of the successful businessman on Tuesday.  A pillar of the community in Kildare, Cox owned many leading lights over jumps, including Cheltenham Festival hero Back In Front and Paddy Power Gold Cup winner Tranquil Sea. Father to David of Baroda Stud, Cox played an instrumental role in the development of Punchestown racecourse. He has been attributed to being the driving force behind forging and developing relationships with overseas trainers, the...

Istabraq, the legendary three-time Champion Hurdle winner, has died at the age of 32 at JP McManus's Martinstown Stud in County Limerick. Trained by Aidan O'Brien, Istabraq won three Champion Hurdles between 1998 and 2000, and endeared himself to the racing public with 25 victories under his belt. He also won the Royal Sun Alliance Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 1997.  In a brief statement released on Thursday, McManus said, "Sadly, Istabraq passed away at 1.15am this morning at the ripe old age of 32. He was a...

Nicky Henderson and Henry de Bromhead have spoken out against the rumoured changes to the National Hunt programme in Britain that would see Grade 1 winners not being qualified to run in the Mares' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.  Dual Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle signed off on her glittering career for de Bromhead by notching a 13th Grade 1 and a second Mares' Hurdle success in what many people describe as one of the greatest moments in Cheltenham Festival history back in 2023.  Henderson has trained a galaxy of star...

Imagine a world in which British racing's problems have been solved. There is plenty of prize-money to go round, at least 12 runners in every race, attendance figures are up, the Cheltenham Festival has returned to three days and the Derby to a Wednesday.  Okay, let's not be completely fanciful. The four-day Festival is here to stay, as is the Saturday Derby, but if you spend an hour in a room with Jockey Club chief executive Nevin Truesdale, you may leave it feeling that some of the other items on...

When I started covering the Cheltenham Festival in the late 1980s it was still a place of myth and legend: whiskey priests, all-night card schools, hopeful (but not expectant) Irish pilgrimages, farmers with chances of winning a race and wince-inducing whip-use up the hill. It was a place chiefly for aficionados - the county set and jump racing hardcore, leavened with once-a-year urban tweedies who loved the racing and knew what it meant to watch Dawn Run win both a Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup. A place, in other words, for...

CHELTENHAM, UK--Believe it or not, Willie Mullins drew a blank on day three of the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, with Capodanno (Fr) (Manduro {Ger}) and Jade De Grugy (Fr) (Doctor Dino {Fr}) faring best of their trainer's 11 runners on that card when finishing fourth in their respective races. Twenty-four hours without a winner at the Festival is a long time in Willie's world, the one in which he hit the target six times across the first two days of the meeting. Thankfully for him after Thursday's 'drought', there was a...

CHELTENHAM, UK--St Patrick's Thursday at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival could turn out to be a pivotal day in the career of Dan Skelton, with the prize-money pocketed by his two winners--taking his overall tally for the week to four--seeing him leapfrog his long-time mentor Paul Nicholls in the battle to be crowned champion trainer in Britain. Skelton had been the one man to put up any resistance to the Irish on Wednesday's card when winning the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle with Langer Dan (Ire) (Ocovango {GB}) and the Johnny Henderson...