A cracking Festival this year with plenty of stellar perfomances, thrilling races and of course, a few winners. It turned out to be this corner's best Festival in percentage terms (if not financially) in over 30 years of punting. The ground conditions were the crucial factor with a vast improvement on 2010. The good ground was fair and equitable and enabled most of the horses to run to their level (Pandorama aside). It appears that the ground staff managed the harsh winter well this time.
The same can be said of the Irish contingent who were very much primed for action and landed an incredible total (13 winners!!!). It was heartening to see a crew of maiden winners (Townend, Elliott, Power et al) and curious to see Michael O'Leary replace J.P. McManus as the driving force of the Irish NH fraternity.
Personal highlights were Hurricane Fly and Long Run justifying my faith in their abilities. The one-two in the Triumph (Zarkander/Unaccompanied) put me in dreamland and I thoroughly enjoyed the high levels of jockeyship on display throughout the week. Cheltenham is about the future as much as the present and possible future stars must include Oscars Well who was the unluckiest horse of the week.Others to note are Peddlers Cross, Jessies Dream (shorter trip), First Lieutenant, Wishful Thinking, Grand Crus and Sir des Champs.
All in all, a great week and looking forward to 2012....
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