So we are a week into the pre-Cheltenham Festival visits and this is where it gets difficult- its Ireland, the land of One Hundred Thousand Welcomes and if you are not careful One Hundred Thousand tips.
They’ll be over in their thousands for the Festival in a fortnight- amazing how many Grandmothers are taken with sudden illness that week and they are already working out which horses are primed for National Service, to give the British a bloody nose in their back yard.
They’ve stars missing- Faugheen, Annie Power, Min, to name but three but they will welcome us this week and send us back primed with as much information as they can. Vroom Vroom Mag, for instance from Willie Mullins yard has 5 entries- so trying to work out where she might turn up has been left in the safe hands of the Editor of Clairvoyants Monthly!
Good first week- hugely hospitable Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson, Colin Tizzard and their teams- but one big problem- all the ones they think will win are meeting each other!
Stay tuned- at this rate a week form now the ‘good thing’ list could top 50- not bad for a meeting with only 28 races.
By Mike Vince