The second-last fence on the Old course at Cheltenham, which was moved into the home straight six years ago to reduce the number of fallers at the obstacle, has been moved again for the 2016-17 season, which opens at the course with a seven-race card on Friday. The position of the fourth-last on the New course, where Kauto Star suffered a slithering fall in the 2010 Gold Cup, has also been adjusted, after “a higher than normal faller count” at both obstacles last year.
Prior to its move from a position before the final turn, the second-last on the Old course was seen as the trickiest fence on the track, as tiring horses would meet it at speed after a downhill run. Granit Jack, the favourite for what was then the Paddy Power Gold Cup, was killed in a fall there in 2007, and even in its new position in the home straight it was the scene of six falls at the 2016 Cheltenham Festival. The average number of fallers there at Festivals from 2007 to 2016 was 3.4.
“It’s seven or eight yards, so it’s not a significant change,” Sophia Dale, Cheltenham’s communications manager, said on Thursday. “If you are a casual racegoer watching it, you’re not going to notice it. But it’s something that we wanted to do after our review over the summer.
“The faller figures at both fences have been slightly creeping up, so we spoke to the PJA [Professional Jockeys Association], who had given us some feedback anyway, and moved the fence to give the horses a bit more time to get themselves together when they come off the bend.
“ We want to eliminate as much of the risk as we can, and we feel that these changes will help in doing so. This has come out of the review that we had after the Festival.”
The first afternoon at Cheltenham’s October meeting is relatively low key, but the course is used so infrequently, with just nine days scheduled at the track between now and the Festival in March next year, that every card offers a valuable chance to give a horse experience of the sport’s grandest stage.
Willie Mullins, who has been the leading trainer at the Festival meeting in five of the past six seasons, does not have a runner on the card or any entries for the second day of the Showcase meeting on Saturday. However, several leading Irish stables will send runners to the meeting, including Gordon Elliott, who inherited several high-profile new recruits from the Mullins stable when the trainer fell out with leading owner Michael O’Leary in a recent dispute over training fees.
Elliott will saddle O’Leary’s Tiger Roll, who gave him a Festival success in the 2014 Triumph Hurdle, in the card’s three-mile novice chase, while Henry de Bromhead, who also received horses in O’Leary’s withdrawal from the Mullins stable, has three declared runners on the card. De Bromhead’s team includes Heron Heights (3.55), a significant rival for Tiger Roll, while another Irish raider with a big chance is Charles Byrnes’ Black Warrior (2.10) in the opening novice hurdle, a race which was won by the top-class hurdler The New One four years ago.
The best bet of the day, though, could be Satellite (5.40), who was left with an easy task when his main rival was a faller in a minor race at Fontwell last time, but has been let in with a very fair weight on his useful Flat form.
