Cheltenham Festival

2025 Was The Best Cheltenham For A While – For Me It Will Take Some Beating

Admin By Admin March 17, 2025
horses running race at cheltenham festival

Well, what about that huh? What a Cheltenham – I think for me, the most entertaining I’ve seen for a long time as viewing goes. I also did well personally – I think there was only one race throughout the entire festival where I didn’t get at least a place and that was on the last day…

Yeah, I mean I didn’t go wild – no more than a fiver each way and often I had up to three in each race, but it was all about marginal gains. I even got a one, two, three on the Wednesday, when Bob Olinger (I thought Rachel Blackmore was due a winner), Teahupoo and The Wallpark all delivered for me – blimey, he had a good week didn’t he, Mark Walsh…

And my decision to back Doddiethegreat at around 33/1 was more nostalgic than anything else and we just love a good story for the Cheltenham Festival don’t we? I had third in that one as well – I fancied Catch Him Derry of the Skelton team and they didn’t disappoint.

Obviously the main stories going into the week was whether the big favourites would deliver and to the bookies’, I’m sure, enormous relief, in general, they didn’t.

I’ve got to admit though, when Lossiemouth romped home on the first day, I did fear the worst for them. I really didn’t expect Marjbrough to fall the way it did and, my word, what a race that was when first, major favourite Constitution Hill and then last year’s winner State Man both fell within about 10 seconds of each other in the Champion Hurdle I had State Man as well and was already mentally reinvesting those winnings when he went down, but, I got a place with Brighterdaysahead (fourth) anyway.

Mullins Delivers Once Again

I know it was all about Mullins really, but there were a couple of sub-plots here. One of the biggest questions I had was whether Nicky Henderson would be able to make up for last year and finally deliver when it mattered.

Alas, it seems he’s cursed when it comes to his favourites – they seem to buckle literally under pressure from other horses bearing down on them. Though, I’m sure he’ll be happy with his win on the first day with Jango Baie and then Doddiethegreat probably almost made up for Constitution Hill’s fall. Again, what a story there!

Henry de Bromhead, wow – he just knows exactly how to play the percentages at Cheltenham doesn’t he and with Blackmore, he’s got a fantastic jockey. They got quite a few places, but I’m happy to say I backed both of their winners as well – Air of Entitlement being particularly impressive I thought. As it happens, I was also on third place, Diva Luna – good value each way I thought and trainer Ben Pauling has been talking up his stable for the last few months. In fact, he won me quite a bit on each way selections.

Gold Cup Shock

Obviously the one we were all waiting for was the Gold Cup and my word, I don’t think anyone expected that – indeed, winner ‘Inothewayyourthinking’ raced very well. No way was I going to back Galopin Des Champs at those odds (1-2), but I geniunely thought Monty’s Star (again, Blackmore and De Bromhead) would be one to challenge and, by that point, Paul Townend hadn’t had the best day with some of his decision-making.

I should have actually clocked that with the winner – Walsh romped home on Dinoblue in the Mares’ Chase – I had second, Brides Hill each way actually, but yeah, in hindsight, there were a couple of clues about the winner in the immediate run-up to the start of the Gold Cup. It was actually the only race of the week I didn’t place in. I thought The Real Whacker was good value at 33s but it never really got going.

Wodhooh was a bit of a random, inspired pick for me in the last – I wanted to end on a high and, it delivered in spectacular fashion to bring what I thought was a really great week to a close.