Medical science pushes the boundaries of the possible with every laboratory experiment but two ailments remain stubbornly resistant to cure; the common cold and Festival fever.
The two are commonly linked because across Britain and Ireland next week office desks will be empty by those claiming to be suffering from one in the hope of nursing the other in the normally sedate spa town of Cheltenham.
The town’s motto is apparently Salubritas et Eruditio which translates to Health and Education and the four days of the Festival can be highly educative to novice racegoers and should probably carry a health warning for the rest.
One of the town’s hotels has been known to remove all the normal fixtures and fittings in favour of more practical – not to mention disposable – garden furniture as their regular mid-March guests descend, many of whom become embroiled in a week-long card school, whose members never actually make the trek to Prestbury Park itself. On the course they reckon to spill more champagne at Cheltenham than they drink at Royal Ascot, but this week there will be plenty reaching for something a tad stronger – purely for medicinal purposes of course.
The old line is “no foot, no horse” but this is the time when trainers harbouring a Cheltenham contender will be worrying about every joint, muscle and sinew of the pride and joy. Morning gallops, that normal safe haven from the worries of the world, becomes a torture to be viewed through half-closed eyes and promises to attend church more regularly just as long as nothing goes wrong.
The Axminster takes a fearful pounding as the family heads for the attic and the stable cat packs his bag in search of more peaceful environs. Some, like Charles Byrnes, can already feel the deflating spectre of disappointment gnawing at their peace of mind. Byrnes had spent the winter believing that Solwhit could win the Champion Hurdle right up to the moment when the unseen spectre of a throat infection took hold. Solwhit coughed, Byrnes sighed, the vet prescribed a course of antibiotics and by Saturday Solwhit may be simply another non-runner.
He will not be alone and for every horse who reaches the winner’s enclosure there will be 10 more who never even saw the starting tape.
Those punters who have already turned their hard-earned into worthless ante-post wagers will have simply stiffened the sinew, summoned up the bank manager and started again. The tone for the eternal battle between backers and layers could, this year, be set in just the first six minutes of action.
That is the time that it will take to run the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle where the ability of Dunguib to overcome two miles, eight hurdles and 19 rivals could be the difference between plenty and penury for many of his supporters.
At least, as the curtain raiser of the fixture, his young jockey, Brian O’Connell, will not have long to discover his fate. Ruby Walsh must wait until Friday afternoon to discover whether he has made the right choice. Like a favourite film, many will settle down to view the Cheltenham Gold Cup sure of its outcome. The imperious victory of Kauto Star in the King George VI Chase at Kempton will still be burned into the mind and the ignominious exit of Tony McCoy from Denman, in the Aon Chase at Newbury last month, will only serve to underline the belief that Kauto Star has a third Gold Cup and then another fitting for the mantle of Arkle for the taking.
After all, Walsh had the choice of the two, and for the third time he has sided with Kauto Star. But Walsh will remember that he was on the wrong side two years ago, when Denman beat Kauto Star in the Gold Cup, just as he will remember the way that Denman battled for him up the home straight to carry top weight in his Hennessy Gold Cup victory at Newbury last November. “He stuck his head down from off the bend and ground it out,” Walsh said. “It was great to be riding him and not watching for a change. But that’s always been Denman – stick his head down and dig it out."
If Denman is the warrior then he may have found a fitting ally in McCoy. St Jude may be the patron lost causes but McCoy does not carry “surrender” within his personal lexicon either. Not that the Gold Cup will be at the forefront of his mind just yet. There are far too many races to be run before then, more than 50 of them.
McCoy is the man who turned the normal course of thinking on its head. For years jockeys were lauded for their ability to treat the Gold Cup as though it was just a selling hurdle but McCoy treats the selling hurdle as though it were the Gold Cup and concentrates on that to the exclusion of all else. Denman can wait.
He is simply addicted to winning any race. No cure required.
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