MORSE CODE
WELCOME And what of the season ahead?
It’s been a summer of sunshine, of marginal warmth and plenty, yes, plenty of rain. If the very average holiday weather has a silver lining, it is that the track at Prestbury Park is looking the best I have ever seen it. I t’s an intentionally, little known fact that I 2. Will Constitution Hill make it to the Unibet Champion Hurdle?
have tried to run around the racecourse twice a week since the curtain came down on last season, and these laborious looking jogs usually take place early evening, when everyone has gone home, following a typical sedentary, desk bound day, with my eyes glued to the computer screen. There are no fancy preliminary warm-ups. No parades. I just get on with it, under the burden of whatever weight I am carrying, which is generally speaking, far too much. I tend to travel the course of the National Hunt Chase, (3m and 7 furlongs) at a pace that is pitifully slow but regardless, I consider the opportunity very much a privilege. How lucky am I that I can be out there, running up the famous Cheltenham hill in the shadow of Cleeve Hill where far more illustrious athletes have cantered before? The forced exercise provides me with not only great insight into how the grass is growing and how straight the running rail is, but it gives me about 40 minutes of quality thinking time too, (admittedly sometimes significantly more).
3. Will J.P. McManus’s colours be carried to glory by Mystical Power in the My Pension Expert Arkle?
4. Will a well-weighted French runner turn up to win the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, now that it is a handicap? 5. Will Grey Dawning bring cheers-a-plenty and give Dan Skelton his first Boodles Gold Cup winner, leading from pillar to post, not seeing a rival?
6. When you read above do you think about setting the odds for each eventuality?
1-3, 3-1, 8-1, 12-1, 20-1
7. Are you excited?
For some reason I am operating at fever pitch right now. I seriously cannot wait. Perhaps it’s all the “thinking time”, perhaps it’s all the work we’ve been putting in to get things right for our racegoers….. but I have the feeling that this season is going to be something special. But then, has there ever been a jump season that isn’t special in more than a thousand different ways.
Come The Showcase at the end of October, I’ll be fit, primed and ready for the season ahead.
And what of the season ahead?
Andre Klein Assistant General Manager, Cheltenham Racecourse
1. Will it be a Cheltenham Festival dominated once again by the Irish?
02
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