Which of course used to be Gold Cup day, back when the festival was a perfectly balanced three day mid-week miracle. That was before greed turned it into the diluted and bloated corporate spectacle we now have, and today as a result is definitely the weak day of the festival. Plans abound to move the festival so that it ends on a Saturday, with this day moving to Saturday, and I actually think that will work well.
Still, mustn't grumble, this new day's been very good to me since its inception, with my biggest ever win here (900/1 treble) and last year's return was the best day's betting I had all year.
Two great things about Cheltenham. Not only is the whole year geared towards Cheltenham so it has a compelling narrative that way, but also the same horses come back year after year, either defending crowns or moving from race to race.
It's entirely possible (though unlikely) for a horse to run in the Bumper, Supreme novices hurdle, Champion hurdle, Arkle, Queen Mum, Ryanair, and Gold cup. That's why us horse-racing fans get much more attached to the jumps horses than we do flat horses who win a couple of decent races and are immediately retired to fuck themselves silly.
The second great thing is that even if your main bets go down the toilet you can still recover with a ludicrous win in one of the hopelessly competitive handicaps. Or indeed, the bumper where I managed to back a horse I'd never heard of at 90/1. Which was nice....
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