Equinties - changes

Equinties

Gm Equinauts

Champions Day was a barrel of laughs Saturday.

For the bookies.

Let’s dive in.

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Whether it’s good or soft ground, rain or shine, British Champions Day always has a way to make us question everything we think we know about horse racing.

Yes, we’re talking about POWERFUL GLORY and CICERO’S GIFT.

Honestly, you probably would have made more money picking pretty colours on Champions Day unless you demonstrated unbelievably strict behaviour and smashed the back doors of the drift on TRAWLERMAN.

Can we learn anything from these two shock results? Of course we can, but it’s not necessarily about the winners.

In the case of the Group 1 British Champions Sprint, the winner does fall into the category of “could be anything”. Principally, he’s a three-year-old, so he could have been improving at a different rate than others. That being said, Saturday’s performance saw him improve 30lbs (no joke) from his last run at Beverley, and it was a career-best by, well, nearly 20lbs! So, no one could have really predicted him winning, and that’s why he went off 200/1. It sounds obvious, but it’s worth saying.

What do you do with the horse going forward? Is he this Group 1-quality horse for sprints next season, or was this just a fluke?

The performance itself wasn’t a fluke. There was no pace collapse, and take POWERFUL GLORY out of the race and LAZZAT beats the consistent QUINAULT, the Group 1 winners NO HALF MEASURES and INISHERIN, and the Commonwealth Cup third RAYEVKA, which makes plenty of sense.

Of course, trusting him in Group 1s next season will be very tricky in the early parts of the season, but there is a chance he could be good enough to bat in this company again.

Right, the QEII is slightly different to review, because we know plenty about CICERO’S GIFT. He’s a fine horse, and he’s actually only raced 15 times, which isn’t that many.
But the main headlines are that he is a horse who prefers slightly softer ground, and up until this weekend, the best he had done was win a Listed race and win a nice handicap at Sandown last season. He’d been pretty consistent this season with one win and two seconds, but he did still need a career-best to win, and that’s what he produced.

Charlie Hills’ MUHAARAR gelding was actually tipped up by a few people on Racing X, and while that may seem a bit mad, the main case behind backing him was that the mile division is in pretty horrible shape currently.

And, to be fair, it is. FIELD OF GOLD, a horse who disappointed at Goodwood when having a setback, was the 13/8 favourite. His last run was 80 days before, and in that time, no horse had come forward and made themselves a real threat in the division.

It’ll be interesting to see what the division is like next season, because those juveniles who will be three-year-olds in 2026 will eventually take on their elders, and they’ll get weight for their troubles. Those potential clashes next year will be very intriguing, and while that is because the current milers aren’t amazing, it is at least something to look forward to.


CHANGES

Champions Day is over, and apart from the Breeders’ Cup, that pretty much signals the end of the Flat season as a whole.

This means, it’s full steam ahead for the jumps.

Now, we could spend another few paragraphs talking about the cool winners on Champions Day, notably CALANDAGAN and KALPANA, but what else are we meant to add?

Both horses are very nice, and they were good winners. If they both stay in training next year (unsure about KALPANA, but CALANDAGAN is almost a certainty to), then we will be treated to a few more great races.

So, let’s look ahead to the future and talk about some big jumps-related things, because there’s plenty to discuss.

The first is to do with what The Jockey Club are cooking. So, last week, they decided to move the Mares’ Hurdle to the Thursday of the Festival, and now, they want to shift the Cheltenham Festival entirely to make it a Wednesday-Saturday event, rather than a Tuesday-Friday meeting.

There’s only one reason why they’re doing this, and it’s to line their pockets a bit more. They are a business, so this is understandable.

As expected, however, this preliminary chat hasn’t gone down well with the racing faithful.


Before passing our judgement, let’s weigh up both sides quickly.

So, the positives. The Jockey Club gets more money, which would hopefully (and we stress the word hopefully) see them invest more into the sport through better prize money and infrastructure. People who can’t attend the Festival due to work could also come on a Saturday, so attendances grow, and maybe the sport even grows if a few first-time attendees get hooked?

Now for the negatives. There are a load of them.

Firstly, the crowd. Racing on the Saturday opens it’s doors to the ‘live for the weekend’ lot who might turn up in their cocaine laden droves and start kicking two lumps out of each other. As a result, life long racing fans and their families might not turn up and racing will be slapped on the front cover of the papers for the wrong reasons.

Also, the Midlands National suffers, the traditional way of the Festival is disrupted and Gold Cup Day would clash with the Six Nations and other bigger sporting events on the Saturday. It would also certainly mean the Gold Cup would be on ITV4 rather than ITV1, which is a big switch.

So, there are things to consider for both sides of the ‘argument’. We don’t want this chance. It’s nice to have the sport in the eyes of the wider world for those four days, because Gold Cup Day would get lost on a Saturday, and if you don’t think that, then you really have to remember just how big the Six Nations/Premier League Saturday is.

But, we can see why the Jockey Club is suggesting it. Disagreeing with the concept isn’t just a slam dunk, because there are genuine positives that could be created by moving the Festival to a Saturday, and that’s mainly in the attendances and money departments. More people attending, more profit The Jockey Club turn over, the more money they have to promote the sport, and the more money they can put into prize money.

All in all, it’s a tougher decision than people may give credit to. There is just one thing to mention, however. We all know that attendances are declining, and it’s not slowly either.

The graph above shows that Cheltenham is in danger of having a day at the Festival with fewer than 40,000 attendees in a day, and when that happens, the warning alarm should really be belting out. Do we think that having the Festival Tuesday-Friday is the main reason behind this? No. The prices of merely attending a day at the Festival is the overwhelming reason as to why attendances are declining, and it seems like The Jockey Club are ignoring this elephant that has been wrecking the room for quite a while.

We can guarantee that if they lowered ticket prices by £25, they would see a big change in numbers, and if their food and drink prices were cut, that would also keep people coming back as they wouldn’t feel like they are getting ripped off.

It seems like the next few years are going to be quite crucial for the future of the Cheltenham Festival and jumps racing as a whole. This story is not over yet.

As for something else jumps-related to mention, BLUEY looked rather impressive at Kempton yesterday, didn’t she?

She has nice form with JUBILEE ALPHA, and she looked to really enjoy her fences yesterday. She’ll be one to take very seriously this season, and they could even drop back to two miles with her due to her nice speed. Eyes on, and also keep JUBILEE ALPHA in the tracker book for this season, as her form just got a nice boost.

WEEKEND EYE-CATCHERS

CHOSEN COMRADE - SATURDAY 14.07 LIMERICK

We rarely highlight eye-catchers from Ireland, but we wanted to mention CHOSEN COMRADE, as she was very impressive in the two-mile maiden hurdle at Limerick yesterday. She is now unbeaten in three, and she is still a young horse being just four years old. The second, ARUNTOTHEQUEEN, is a Listed bumper winner who beat MOZZIES SISTER, a Grade 1-placed mare, in October 2024.

If this horse was trained by Gordon Elliott or Willie Mullins, she would be a bit of a talking horse, but the fact she is trained by Peter Fahey probably means she will go a bit under the radar. It’ll be interesting to see which race she goes for next, but there is a Grade 3 novice hurdle for mares at Down Royal in November, and that would seem the logical next step. We think she could be quite smart.

AUTHOCELTIC - SATURDAY 17.25 NEWTON ABBOT

Jane and Chester Williams finished 1-2 in the two-mile handicap chase at Newton Abbot on Saturday - it was a real family affair! AUTHOCELTIC was the one who finished second for Jane, and how he didn’t win is a bit baffling. He travelled well off the pace, put himself in the lead after he last, but was collared late on. He made a mess of the last fence, and he took a few strides to recover, so that probably cost him, because a clean jump would have seen him win. He looks well-handicapped to land at least one in the next month or so.

RISK ON

The rain has come so we’re going to take one of our last opportunities to punt the slop.

14.10 ROBBO

Nicholls’ sets a low standard and although is entitled to improve (a lot), might not like the rain (Plumpton have also watered). Chris Gordon’s is bred to be useful but might need further where as Gary Moore’s needs 2miles only, is fit, has good jumpers in the dam side and has an opportunity to cause an upset in this heat today. 12’s is a little play to find out!

14.55 MYTHICAL BAY & 15.33 SOPHIAS STARLIGHT

Big mud pedigree and although Balding’s come on massively for a run, this looks a weak enough race to go well. Bet without the fave at 13/8 single. SOPHIAS STARIGHT looks laid out for the race in the ground she needs. 7/4 a good single. Small double.

16.10 TAPLEY

Won the race last year after a break following a good run in the Swinton. Same route today and can take this again. 6/5.