Cheltenham

[Butkin]

Was astonished that when I put Cheltenham into Advanced Search there is not one mention of the Festival.

Starts tomorrow and I've been counting down the days since Gold Cup Friday last year.

Great news that Kauto Star is back on top form and running after his spill in training. I'd love him to regain the Gold Cup - would bring the house down. My last Gold Cup was when Denman beat him and that was an epic encounter.

I'm hoping that Sprinter Sacre wins the Arkle tomorrow in the style of the potentially great chaser we believe he is.

Anybody going or looking forward to any races in particular.

I'll try and catch what I can between work tomorrow.I'm not surprised that it hasn't had more publicity,I've said to DH before now that horsey sport seems to get far less coverage than it did when I was growing up.Hopefully if we do well at the Olympics,it may raise the profile of equestrian sport.

What are the odds on Kauto Star? Anyone know?

Last year's winner, Long Run, is 2/1 favourite. Kauto Star is 7/2 whilst Burton Port has been a popular outsider and is now as short as 7/1. Top novice chaser Grand Cru is being aimed the RSA (novice staying chase championship) instead of the Gold Cup. He would have made the big race interesting but I think they have done the right thing. I like horses to race within their grade if possible.

There will be an average of 50,000 people there each day with 67,500 on Gold Cup day.

I think all last year's championship winners could do the double ie Hurricane Run tomorrow, Sizing Europe on Wednesday, Big Bucks on Thursday and Long Run on Friday.

I expect the most classy performances of the week to come from Sprinter Sacre in the Arkle and Big Bucks in the World (stayers) Hurdle.

Racing has had such a bad press recently what with all the overuse of the whip problems, the race fixing and twats like Ruby Walsh saying he hates horses. I love horse racing, not sure I like many of the people involved in it though - maybe that's the problem with lack of coverage?

I agree the whip publicity has been bad for the sport. However I think this is unfortunate. Whips are already air cushioned and there were rules in place to stop abuse. The BHA, back in October, just tried to tighten up these rules even more but all it ended up doing was bringing controversy to the sport and the main aims were lost in translation.

I don't think we'll ever go back to the bad old days of tired horses being beaten and I think the new, stiffer, penalties are a good thing.

There has always been and will always be some form of skullduggery where big money is involved. However the BHA has been stamping this out and, with help from Betfair and bookmakers the "wrong uns" have been outted and barred from the sport. I don't think it has ever been cleaner - certainly more so that a lot of other sports which involve betting (cricket being an example).

I think Ruby Walsh is one of the best riders of this or any other generation. I'm not aware of the comments you mention but I've spent plenty of time in his company and think he is nothing more than a brilliant horsemen and committed jockey as well as a decent family man.

I'm delighted that Cheltenham gives the sport a chance to get onto the general news and into the back pages of the papers. I'm hoping it will be the horses that do the talking this week.

Well, tired horses being beaten pretty much happens most of the time, Jason Maguire beating Ballabriggs half to death during last years Grand National springs to mind. And Maguire should have been stripped of the win - a five day whip ban was a bloody joke.

Yes Jason did hit him far too many times and that was the reason the BHA and RSPCA sat down to work out some new rules/penalties.

I don't think you'll see that happening again.

It was unfortunate that in last year's National - the most watched race in the world but not really indicative of everyday racing - there was a pre-planned idea to immediately dismount and get the horses washed down and refreshed before taking them to the winner's enclosure. Unfortunately nobody told the TV people so it all looked much worse than it was as we though Ballabriggs was in some way hurt.

I think it will happen again and again until either the whip is banned completely, or jockies face real penalties for overuse - stripping of winnings, disqualified from race etc. If maguire had used the whip in the same way in any other equine sport, on the hunting field, or out on a hack, he would have been taken to court for animal cruelty.

Sat down to watch some of Cheltenham yesterday (with DH grumbling about it being cruel - he was busy listening to the South African flat racing on the radio so he's not anti-racing, in fact quite the opposite) - 3 horses died, I should have listened to DH - so sad, don't think i'll be watching again today

I can't believe Ruby Walsh made that comment tbh

In fact, no I don't believe it. Not for a minute