Racing Nerd

With the lack of activity on the racing front set to continue for another while yet, I decided to cast an early eye over the 2021 Cheltenham Festival. While making any concrete predictions at this time is probably ill-advised, I have put together a list of horses that may gain compensation next March. I avoided horses that won this year simply because it is obvious which of those are most likely to follow-up next year and they are priced accordingly. As highlighted in my last blog, the best place to find winners at Cheltenham throughout the season is Cheltenham itself. However, the first place to start for finding Cheltenham winners is the previous Festival. I believe that we have seen at least 12 of the 2021 Cheltenham Festival winners run at this season’s festival based on analysis of the results over the past five seasons. If my opinion that the quality from the 2020 Festival (particularly the novice hurdlers) was above average is proven to be correct, we may even have seen more. ...

It is indeed a strange time in the world right now. It is an uncertain time, but the hope remains that together we will win the battle against Covid-19. The necessary restrictions have led to people being creative within the confines of their household and many have used the time productively to learn new skills. Social media is awash with videos, commentaries and various challenges from a variety of different sports and hobbies. As I feel I’m not able to dance well enough to post a video to Tik-Tok, I decided to start sharing some of my thoughts on my biggest passion – horse racing. For racing enthusiasts, Cheltenham seems like a distant memory. In a typical year, Cheltenham would be followed by more enthralling action at Aintree, Fairyhouse and of course, Punchestown. For me, the last week would have been spent going through the runners for the Aintree showpiece followed by the inevitable post-race dissection of the world’s greatest spectacle. The Virtual version (while admitte...