Labelling Day Three of the festival as Cheltenham’s ‘problem child’ might be a little harsh, but only a little despite a competitive-looking Paddy Power Stayers Hurdle that highlights Thursday’s action.
Even the question as to whether the Stayers crown is the actual feature underlines a rather ambivalent popular attitude towards the third leg of jump racing’s biggest week of the year.
With a prize fund of close to €440,000 the Ryanair Chase is Thursday’s most valuable contest. However, that race’s intermediate nature only seems to highlight the ‘halfway house’ nature of much of the afternoon’s action.
Two decades of a four-day festival might initially have paid off commercially for the Jockey Club but the minus points of stretching competition too far have become obvious, not least in declining attendances.
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Just less than 54,000 were here on the corresponding day last year, down from 61,000 in 2023. Cheltenham’s capacity is 68,500. Such a gap was unthinkable not so long ago.
Other factors contribute but Day Three does look to have fans voting with their feet. The card can’t compare with the rest of the week in terms of numbers of Grade One attractions and contains four desperately tricky handicaps.
Not that the Stayers is straightforward in comparison. Reigning champion Teahupoo is back but, significantly, not with the same encouraging vibes that he came with a year ago. The Wallpark is another Gordon Elliott hope.
A final field of 15 perhaps reflects a sense of opportunity for some other familiar names.
Whereas the Champion Hurdle and the Champion Chase have had single-digit fields, and similarly Friday’s Gold Cup, the Stayers has numerical depth. It contains a reigning champ, up-and-comers like Rocky’s Diamond and Mystical Power, as well as big names such as Bob Olinger and Langer Dan, dual former festival winners that now might get filed under enigma.
There was perhaps a time when Home By The Lee might have found himself filed similarly but not anymore. The oldest horse in the race has looked a transformed proposition this season. This is Home By The Lee’s fourth try at winning the Stayers, and it might be his best chance yet.
A pair of races this season have offered convincing evidence of a dour stayer now travelling through his races with a new ease.
“For some reason, I don’t know why, he’s got a lot faster, more tuned in,” said his jockey, JJ Slevin.
“I think we’ve got a few little tricks. I’ve got it wrong on him a few times over there. It’s a few things, a few decisions I’ve made weren’t the right thing to do.”
In contrast the local hope Lucky Place is a young progressive and had no less than the Champion Hurdle winner Golden Ace behind him when a course winner on New Year’s Day. He could prove a real improver although a suspicion remains that the nature of the race may ultimately suit a hardy Irish veteran.
If the League of Ireland was famously the FAI’s difficult child, then the Ryanair Chase too has sometimes struggled for some festival love.
Michael O’Leary relished winning his own race with Balko Des Flos in 2018. Memorable performances have also been delivered by star names such as Allaho and Vautour. However, it also been labelled a damaging diversion from either the Champion Chase or the Gold Cup.
This time the Ryanair looks a perfect fit for both the one-time Gold Cup favourite Fact To File and Il Est Francais whose connections had seriously contemplated the two-mile crown.
Up against them are the last two winners, Protektorat and Envoi Allen while the latter’s stable companion Heart Wood is another with a valid shot.
Protektorat has become a notably reliable festival performer and in a race where plenty question marks surround his opposition that could be enough to make him the third back-to-back Ryanair winner.
The airline also sponsors the opening Mares Novice Hurdle where Sixandahalf can prove too good for a big field that includes Willie Mullins’s seven-strong team.
Gavin Cromwell’s diminutive runner proved herself a high-class stayer on the flat when third in the Irish Cesarewitch and looked a natural over flights on her Fairyhouse debut in January. She concedes experience to some of these, but none will relish the final hill more.
Amateur jockey Tom Costello attracted plenty of ‘world’s tallest jockey’ headlines when he rode Asian Master into fourth in last year’s Supreme. The 23-year-old six-footer could get more of the same if guiding the same horse to success in the Jack Richards Novice Handicap Chase.
A grandson of the legendary horseman of the same name who sold on the likes of Best Mate and Imperial Call, Costello takes 7lbs off a family owned former point to point winner that might relish this increase in trip.
Win Some Lose Some looks a major player in the annual puzzle that is the Pertemps while Midnight Our Fred should be no back number for Tramore trainer John Flavin in the Kim Muir.
Cheltenham: 1.20- Sixandahalf (Nap) 2.00- Asian Master 2.40- Win Some Lose Some 3.20- Protektorat 4.00- Home By The Lee 4.40- Thecompanysergeant 5.20- Midnight Our Fred
Nap and Double – Sixandahalf & Win Some Lose Some
