FIVE DAYS at the Cheltenham Festival – six words that’ll send shivers down the spine of many a grizzled media member.
But it’s not just us work-shy hacks who fear an elongated ‘Fez’.
The Cheltenham Festival attracts huge crowds across the four days
The vast majority of racing fans – 93% of you according to one Racing Post poll – are against the addition of a fifth day at Cheltenham.
Top owner Max McNeill has spoken out in opposition, and even Robert Waley-Cohen, former Cheltenham chairman, has attempted to kibosh the idea.
Nobody – except perhaps a handful of trainers who are gagging to get their name on the Festival honours board – wants it.
And yet, the Jockey Club announced this week they’d launched a formal consultation looking into the potential for a fifth day.
The Festival is by far the Jockey Club’s biggest cash cow, and it appears they are keen on squeezing a little more out of the already bloated beast.
Cheltenham chief Ian Renton claims that is not the case: “Any suggestion of corporate greed is complete nonsense.”
But if it’s not about the money, what is it about? Are Cheltenham’s top brass really that desperate to add a veteran’s chase, or maybe a three-legged mare’s handicap hurdle?
Renton stopped short of providing any real detail when quizzed on TV, and how a fifth day would actually benefit the wider sport remains a matter of speculation.
Very little has been confirmed, but if the Festival was stretched out from Tuesday to Saturday, the number of races would be bumped up from 28 to 30, with six per day.
You can only assume the already eye-watering ticket prices would be slashed accordingly, with a 14% reduction in the day’s entertainment…
Adding a fifth day would dilute the Cheltenham Festival
The idea of expanding the meeting, at a time when the sport is plagued by small-fields and a stagnant horse population, is nonsensical.
We had five odds-on favourites this year and 16 of the 28 winners returned at odds of 3-1 or shorter. The meeting is unrecognisable from even a decade ago.
The quality of racing and depth of competition has been on a steady downward spiral and there are no real signs of an upturn.
It doesn’t help that so much power is concentrated in a handful of mega-yards, allowing Mullins, Elliott and De Bromhead to split up their stars at will.
The Cheltenham Festival is billed as jumps racing’s ‘Olympics’, but it’ll soon resemble a fun run around your local park if we carry on along the current path.
The Jockey Club states that its mission is to ‘act for the long term good of British racing in everything we do’.
How can further dilution of the sport’s most precious commodity for a quick buck possibly be in the long-term interests of the sport? I don’t get it.
My solution would be to keep the meeting at four days, reduce ticket prices slightly and cut the number of races to 24.
Having fewer races (the Turners and Ryanair would be on my chopping block) would encourage bigger clashes, increase interest among the public and drive greater betting turnover for the levy.
That way, the Jockey Club still gets a full-house for four days and the sport’s finances benefit from putting on a stronger product. Simples.
If the madcap, five-day idea were to go ahead, it would be the latest in a growing list of questionable decisions made by racing’s oldest institution.
The Jockey Club had to abandon plans to demolish Kempton after a huge backlash, while they continue to face scrutiny over their recent deal with a gaming company.
Then there was the Newmarket ‘sky gallop’ idea in 2017 which, pardon the pun, has yet to get off the ground.
And now they are being accused of hypocrisy after revealing plans to build a new all-weather track and hundreds of houses in Newmarket – having strongly opposed Lord Derby’s plans to build new homes in the town a few years ago.
So please, Jockey Club chiefs, I urge you. Listen to the people. We don’t want a fifth day.
