Cheltenham 13/3/25 - The Times They Are A Changin'

We're always happy to do requests hence the title of this week's blog. And a) it's indicative of our day and b) unsurprisingly it's the only Bob Dylan song I know anyway.

Festival blogs are tough to get written time wise and it's usually a conundrum whether you lovely folk get a couple of introductory paragraphs or my wife gets a phone call. The wife suggested I do the introductory paragraphs. She let me know by text. The downside of batting above your average...

Cheltenham have had a fair amount of criticism, some from us in fairness, but the decision to relax the alcohol restrictions was extremely welcome and we have seen a significant increase in bet numbers despite a significant reduction in crowd size. A number of punters have already commented that they came last year and didn't see a race given the choice of either bolting their Guinness or watching on the big screen. They opted for the big screen. Even with a lower crowd size the ring was far more vibrant than the last few years and the crowd is now watching the live action rather than crammed in behind the stand watching on the telly, admittedly a huge telly, but still a telly.

And whilst we're in a good mood, a massive thank you to Tom from the BHA taking the time out to come and see us yesterday, amongst others. Taking the time to engage and explain policies, decisions etc, both on social media and in person, is hugely appreciated. And, somewhat disappointingly, he's lovely guy too.

1) Stood SixAndAHalf, Aurora Vega and Hollygrove Cha Cha and our bad run looked set to continue as the jolly looked an easy winner until Air of Entitlement came from somewhere around Evesham to give us a legitimate jackpot to start the day. See- we can win on 16/1 shots after all which our friend Colin was nearly as pleased about as we were.

2) Top 3 shoved in and we couldn't avoid the worst of them Harry's brother, Caldwell Potter. No magic for us in the win market, but a quick check of the place market showed we got most of it back on the places in which were virtually unsullied by winning tickets. After a week of desperately difficult place markets we got a free ticket out of a chunky win loss with a place dream.

3) Race 1 all over again where we thought we were in for a max loss on the jolly as it cruised alongside but we were in luck again in the shape of DoddieTheGreat who gave us a solid, if not spectacular win. Certainly better than the alternative though.

4) No avoiding Fact to File though and no lucky place market to bail us out either. 1.01 with about a mile to go and we were as bored as the crowd were noisy. First legitimate step backwards of the day.

5) Undaunted we stuck another one in. Actually stuck two in. Teahupoo and The Wallpark, who were the only two who could win based on the in running price turning in. Bob Olinger broke our hearts here a couple of years ago but, by God, we loved him today. A cracking win as we, by and large, steered any lumps and had a big step forward.

6) Jagwar for the max plus another 4 losers dotted throughout. And we thought it was beaten as it laboured late on. Rallied and won going away though but the place miracle of race 2 was surpassed here as we, somehow, barely paid a winning each way bet and the win loss was turned from max to negligible for the 2nd time today.

7) And the last brought a rerun of the first as our max liability, Johnny Who, cruised throughout and, when it hit about 1.1 in running we were praying for another place miracle to stem the bleeding, when we ended up with water turned into wine in the shape of Daily Present, who couldn't have been more aptly named, and rounded off a day of dodged bullets and place market miracles. One 20 quid bet away from a skinner.

A great day for us, after yesterday's carnage, with a couple of the win losses mitigated by each way jackpots and full value for the "results" in the main.

Final day tomorrow before the trek to Newcastle on Saturday. Until then...