Instant replays

Unless you’re very organised, working at the horse racing coal-face, or are fully subscribed to the UK’s two dedicated racing channels (UK Racing and Sky Sports Racing) it can be quite a challenge to keep up with racing replays.

Plenty of visitors to the Cheltenham Festival in a fortnight won’t be avid racing nuts. But they might still like to remind themselves of horses running this year who have performed well at the course in the past; during the 2018 renewal, for example. 

Don't forget, Cheltenham is a horses-for-courses track. Should Presenting Percy win this year's Gold Cup (and he's got every chance) it would be his third successive win at the course having lifted the Pertemps Final in 2017 and the RSA Chase last year. Before landing the 2018 Grand National, the gallant Tiger Roll had already notched up three Festival wins.

Fortunately, there’s a free and easy way to see all the past action, even though the service is not particularly well promoted by Cheltenham’s owners at Jockey Club Racecourses. Simply visit the latter’s website and select ‘The Racing’ tab from the dropdown options.

You’ll be taken to a ‘race replays’ section where you just have to select the relevant dates to see all the action. To view last year's Festival contests, plug in 13-16 March 2018.

Mis-match of the day

If you’re trying to gee up interest in the Oxford versus Cambridge boat race, great. If you’re a boxing promoter attempting to flog seats and/or satellite pays-per-view for what promises to be a bruising encounter between two heavyweights, I totally get it.

What I don’t understand is why racecourses, especially in the build-up to a mega horse racing event like the Cheltenham Festival, feel the need to boil down contests to a match. 

Earlier this week, Cheltenham racecourse did just that when it tweeted “Will it be Buveur D’Air vs Apple’s Jade for the @unibet Champion Hurdle?”.

Horse race ‘matches’ were popular two hundred years ago but are an anachronism nowadays. They're not a particularly constructive way to promote the sport in the 21st century and won't send revenues soaring from betting turnover. 

At the time of writing, a dozen or more runners could still line up for the Festival's first big championship race on 12 March. So what does this sort of promotion say to the remainder of the participants?

Aside from the top two in the ante-post betting market, you’d imagine connections of the likes of Laurina, Verdana Blue and Sharjah all fancy their chances this year in what’s probably a more open race than several pundits would have you believe (Hardy Eustace was sent off at 33/1 when he took the first of his two Champion Hurdle crowns and, more recently, Punjabi returned at 22/1 in 2009).

While I’m at it, the binary idea of ‘UK vs Ireland’ at the Festival is a load of baloney as well. Good craic, my posterior. Thanks to Brexit, just about the last thing the UK needs right now is another 'us and them' scenario.

There’s only one match I’m interested in against a Cotswolds backdrop in three weeks’ time and that’s punters versus bookmakers.

Incidentally, if one of the latter could quote me a price for a mares 1-2-3 in the big race, that would be just dandy. I'm looking for in excess of 28/1...