Wednesday 17th March

A disappointing Day One at Cheltenham all round I thought, fine if you want to see short priced favourites romp home by half the track, personally that doesn't float my boat and when Twitter nerds proclaim Shishkin the greatest NH horse of all time, you have to wonder if the world has done stark raving bonkers, mind you when most of the social media nerds have to have a nappy change between races, it's hardly surprising is it?
 
It was fantastic to see Vintage Clouds win at 28/1, we weren't on it, but the highlight of the day for me.
 
Disappointment with the selections on a day when the Track rode faster and faster and any "soft" soon vanished in sunny and windy conditions and a prominent running style was a big benefit. Hopefully some good pointers for today.
 
Happygolucky was runner up to Vintage Clouds and ran well enough, Alnadam made a brave attempt and went out on his sword and if you were a Skybet backer you grabbed a bit of shrapnel at 9/1 for finishing 7th. In the Fred Winter at 4.15, Sage Advice advised at 22/1 also picked up some nice place money if you were on with one of a handful paying out to 6th place and Riviere D'Etel should go in your notebooks for future runs. The 4.50 Novice Chase saw Next Destination runner up and Escaria Ten pick up a morsel or two in third. So a loss on the day but mitigated somewhat if you were on with those Bookies offering the optimum enhancements.
 
Another day of slimish pickings with the pointless Cross Country Race and the Bumper, giving credence to those who think that the old 3 days Festival should be back on the agenda, and with the other 3 non handicaps shorn of runners (23 declared across 3 races is really awful), we are left with 2 big Handicaps, the Johnny Henderson which moves from Day 4 to Day 2 and from The New Course to the Old, and The Coral Cup.
 
David takes the Johnny Henderson for ELITE SERVICE and Sean and myself share the CORAL CUP. (A few asked yesterday about whose horses Sean's were and who mine were as Placespotter, the definition unless otherwise stated here is Sean has the Irish and I have the British runners, and that applies today)