We held our Cheltenham Festival preview dinner on Friday evening, sponsored by the tote. It was a very enjoyable night, with lots of great nuggets of info from Mark Winstanley, Andy Stewart, Nick Gifford and George Primarolo. There doesn’t appear to be much confidence behind Denman, and George was taking a view against both Master Minded and Dunguib at the current prices. Some of the darker horses given a positive mention were Loosen My Load and Barwell Boy.

The evening was  extended by a few drinks afterwards at the The Engineer pub in Brighton. They have won the Racing Pub of the Year prize, and it is very clear to see why. It’s a shrine to racing, with football relegated to it’s proper place. It’s definitely a great place to watch racing during the Festivals or on a Saturday afternoon.      

This is always a nervous week for our insurers, whose support along with SIS’s sponsorship enables us to offer the £60,000 Cheltenham Festival Bonus.  As it currently stands Bensalem is the shortest price of the possible contenders, for Tuesday’s RSA Chase. Mobaasher is entered in Wednesday’s National Hunt Chase, and Nomecheki has multiple entries with the Grand Annual on Friday currently favoured.   

I am looking forward to our racemeeting tomorrow which looks like being a gorgeous day, and then being at Cheltenham on Thursday and Friday, and hoping to cheer Kauto Star home. My first visit to the Festival was for Dawn Run’s Gold Cup, and have tried to make it for at least one day every year ever since. There were a couple of years where I haven’t gone, but as with most of us Jump fans, it is a week that I look forward to more than any other all year.