The Cheltenham Boylesports Meeting gets underway today (Friday) with the feature race being the Boylepoker.com Chase worth £100,000 run over 3 miles and one furlong. It will be interesting to see how Character Building (pictured) runs. He was well fancied for the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup but was withdrawn on the morning of the race.…
Cheltenham
The Cheltenham Open Meeting 2008
by Ian Wade •
The three day Cheltenham Open Meeting gets underway on Friday 14th with the main race of the meeting being the Paddy Power Gold Cup Chase worth £150,000 run over 2 miles 4 furlongs on Saturday. I listed past winners of this race in my blog of twelve months ago so will not go over that…
Cheltenham Runners and Riders Highlight 2008
by Ian Wade •
With the Cheltenham Festival over for another year this week has seemed very “flat”. The time has been spent enjoying the recordings on my Sky+ box of Channel 4’s excellent coverage of the meeting. Even when the second day was abandoned the program they put out to “kill” time was highly entertaining. We then had…
Denman the new Mill House
by Ian Wade •
For those of you old enough to remember, Denman reminds me so much of Mill House who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1963 when only a six year old. Denman was mighty impressive last Friday when he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and proved that he is a real stayer. On the softened going…
Master Minded best since Flyingbolt
by Ian Wade •
The Queen Mother Champion Chase unveiled a new two mile champion in Master Minded. I first went to Cheltenham in 1963 with my good mates Colin and Pete. We were there in 1964 when Flyingbolt appeared on the scene winning the Gloucester Hurdle. In 1965 he won the Cotswold Chase over two miles and then…
Cheltenham Gold Cup Day 2008
by Ian Wade •
The waiting is nearly over for the clash between Kauto Star and Denman in the £450,000.00 Cheltenham Gold Cup which will be the centre piece of a nine race card on Friday. I have already mentioned in previous blogs that I am a Denman fan and I expect him to make the race a true…
Cheltenham Festival Day 3 2008
by Ian Wade •
A ten race card will be a marathon for everybody this afternoon. Channel 4 are covering six races so us armchair viewers are in for a feast of racing. The £250,000.00 World Hurdle for long distance hurdlers should be won by Inglis Drever if he can show the same form he produced on Cheltenham Trials…
Cheltenham Champion Chase Day 2008
by Ian Wade •
On form the runners with the best chances for the £310,000.00 Queen Mother Champion Chase are Master Minded, Twist Magic, Voy Por Ustedes and Tamarinbleu. With more rain forecast the going will become softer favouring those who stay further than two miles. Tamarinbleu trained by David Pipe and to be ridden by Tom Scudamore looks…
Cheltenham Day 1 Review 2008
by Ian Wade •
Day 1 belonged to John P. McManus and Robert Thornton who both had two winners. Robert Thornton booted home Captain Cee Bee in the first race to give J.P.McManus a deserved 1-2. He has over two hundred and fifty horses in training and for all the money he pours into N.H.Racing and pleasure he gives…
Cheltenham Champion Hurdle Day 2008
by Ian Wade •
Well 12 months of waiting is over and at 2.00pm on Tuesday afternoon as the tapes rise the roar will go up from the Prestbury Park crowds to announce the start of the 2008 Cheltenham Festival. The centre piece on Tuesday will be the £360,000.00 Champion Hurdle run over 2 miles. Looking through the runners…
