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The one ray of light: Greece. Includes neon lit drum banging!

UK. Best description we’ve seen so far “it could have been a Sonia album track”

Serbia. Is that a young Heather Mills’ tranny? Yikes!

Get to know the very best week of horse racing in the world -  The Cheltenham Festival

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Part 3:

The Cheltenham Gold Cup

This is the third Gold Cup in a row where the two favourites are Kauto Star and Denman. Kauto Star won in 2007, but Denman entered the fray in 2008 -- pushing Kauto Star into second place. Last year it was Kauto Star’s turn to beat Denman, though Denman had just recovered from a serious heart operation. This year it’s the decider. Two of the top National Hunt horses in history face off against each other. They’re not just close rivals on the track, the two horses live side-by-side off the track as well. They are both trained by Paul Nicholls, who is the most successful trainer of the moment. They get on well as friends, although Kauto Star likes to be fed first.

Fancy watching them in action? To a White Stripes soundtrack

Kauto Star

Born 19th March 2000 (Pisces). The Cheltenham Gold Cup is on his birthday! He was born and brought up in France and has a certain gallic style and charm. Charismatic and total star quality, his way of racing is with effortless ease and style. His stable liken him to Roger Federer. Kauto Star is always playing up to an audience -  showing off to whoever is around.
And you pronounce his name Caught-O not Kate-Oh. He’s won 70% of his races over fences.

“I really like the horse as he is such a flashy looker” -- Frankie Dettori -

Denman

Separated by only two days (Denman is a Pisces born on 17th March 2000), Denman is a world away from Kauto Star in looks and style. Known as “The Tank, he’s bigger, heavier and stronger than Kauto Star. While KS is all finesse and a fast finish, Denman likes to destroy his opponents by running out fast from the very start. If he doesn’t get off to a good start he can get a bit uninterested and unfocused in the race. If Kauto Star is an equine Roger Federer, Denman is Rafael Nadal. But rather grumpy with it. His way of greeting the press brought to meet him is to turn his arse to them and wander off to the back of his stable.

“At the prices, my wallet says Denman” -- Michael Owen

The two horses live side-by-side in the stables of trainer Paul Nicholls. They hang out together all the time. Last year when Denman had to go away for a serious heart operation Kauto Star couldn’t settle, cried and whinied a lot until his best mate came back. When Denman’s owner was asked if his horse was the same when separated from KS he said “no”. He’s won 71% of his races over fences.

The History:

Senna v Prost, Borg v McEnroe, Ali v Foreman, Federer v Nadal… sometimes amazing sporting rivalries come to pass. In 2007 Kauto Star won the Cheltenham Gold Cup. But it was a different story in 2008 when his stablemate entered the fray. Denman destroyed the field, in what was to us, one of the most amazing performances ever.

(We’ve love to show you the 2009 Gold Cup, which Kauto Star won easily, but sadly no clips are available to see on youtube or anything. Obviously the people who run horse racing don’t want prospective racing fans to be able to access race clips.)

“Denman, the brooding opposite to a preening Kauto Star, is infamous for turning his hulking rear on unwanted visitors. But on a quiet and sunlit afternoon he reveals a more personal habit by ambling over so that he can knock on the grille to summon his neighbour. Lucinda Gould, the sparky 24-year-old stable lass who looks after Denman, stands inside her horse’s stable. “They’re almost like brothers,” she says. “Denman will walk up to the grille when he wants a chat with Kauto. He’ll give it a tap and Kauto will come and say hello. And, just as often, it’ll be Kauto knocking for Denman. We all know how different they are as horses. But the strange thing is they could hardly be closer here.”

Jockeys:

Kauto Star is being ridden by Ruby Walsh. (Here he is riding his first winner at Cheltenham this year, Quevega)

Denman by AP (Tony) McCoy

Mirroring the horsey struggle, they are also the top two jockeys. McCoy is pretty much always champion jockey as he has the most winners. Ruby Walsh (as he’s Paul Nicholls’ top jockey) doesn’t ride as many winners, but he tends to get the winners in the big races, and usually does very well at Cheltenham. There’s a whiff of controversy about McCoy riding Denman. The only time they’ve raced together, Denman got the hump and unseated his jockey. In a recent Racing Post poll, 64% of respondents said McCoy, an aggressive enforcer, was ill-suited to the subtle needs of an idiosyncratic chaser who required horsemanship more than coercion.

A bigger cause of concern might be the fact that McCoy doesn’t think Denman has ever recovered fully from his amazing 2008 winning performance.

Useful Links -  more about the horses, race and jockeys from the papers:

One

Two

Three

2. Types of Bitches

3. Today’s big race is the World Hurdle. If you want to see what Clive Smith and Harry Findlay -- the owners of Kauto Star and Denman think of hot favourite Big Buck’s chances check out the video.

(Full marks to 3AM online for this photo)

Even if you don’t know anything about horse racing, it’s easy to follow with this short crib sheet.

Get to know the very best week of horse racing in the world -  The Cheltenham Festival

****** UPDATE ***** Our tips for Cheltenham on Wednesday, BecauseIcouldntsee in the 1.30pm opening race. (It’s a good price, 8.4 on Betfair) And if you fancy going against the big favourite Master Minded in the 3.20pm Queen Mum chase, we saw Twist Magic win a prestigious race recently looking rather marvellous.  He’s 9.0 on Betfair.

******* UPDATE 2 ***** BecauseIcouldntsee was second! Sorry. Looked like it was going to win all the way, but got caught about 100 yards out by Poker De Sivola, which was ridden by Katie Walsh, the sister of Kauto Star and Master Minded’s jockey Ruby Walsh. We blame the fact he only had three horse shoes. One came off near the start and there wasn’t time to get him a new one. So, three-legged horse… moral victory.

Make a bet with Betfair – and if you’re opening an account you’ll get a free bet of up to £25 too)

It’s simple to do  -

And if you’re still not certain about what you’re doing, why don’t you try a QuickBet – just sign up with your name and address and Betfair are offering an absolutely amazing bet today.

Master Minded v the rest of the horses in the race. ie back the odds-on favourite with a fiver of Betfair’s money and win £15!

Click here to make your choice

***** UPDATED ******** Master Minded beaten! If you were one of the clever people to have chosen “the other 8 horses” – congratulations!

National Hunt History

National Hunt racing originated in Ireland. Early races were mainly two-horse contests known as “pounding races” that became popular in the early 18th century. These involved long trips across country where horses were required to jump whatever obstacles the landscape threw in their way. The start and finish were marked by the church steeple in each town, hence the term steeplechase, which is still used today to describe the races.

There are two types of fences for these races.

1. Hurdling
Small fences -  up to 3 1/2 ft high, generally made of thin bits of wood you can push over. The races tend to run from 2miles to 3.5 miles

2. Chases
Generally run over longer distances – up to 4.5 miles. The fences are a minimum 4.5ft high and more like bushes you have to clear with the jump. The longer distance ones – steeplechases – often have fences that look like those grassy mounds you see in the Grand National.

Glossary/Crib Sheet – How to interpret Horse Racing Terms

Owner: the rich person who pays for the horse and gets to collect the trophy and prize money if he/she is lucky.

Trainer: he owns the stables where the horse lives, and looks after the horse so it learns to race and is kept in the right condition for the race.

Jockey – the little fella on the horse’s back

Silks – the colours of the owner the jockey is wearing (a bit like a football strip)

Starter - The horses line up behind a line of tape at the start. The race begins when the Starter (usually standing nearby on a platform) waves them off. You might associate horse races with those weird boxes they put the horses in but they only use them in summer flat races.

Form: what the horses have done in previous races and where they finished in the race.

Racecard: This has all the information about the race, from the names of the horses competing, to their owners.

How to Read A RaceCard

When you look at a racecard it looks like it doesn’t make much sense. And it looks like it’s been made complicated to stop you knowing what’s going on. Well, that’s kind of true. But the information on it is actually quote simple. it usually has the name of the horse, the name of the trainer, owner and jockey. Plus the age of the horse and what weight the horse is carrying. The little coloured picture will denote what colours the jockey will be wearing.

This is the racecard from today’s Guardian (their horse racing coverage is really rather good) and it is the racecard for today’s big race.

To the left of the horse’s name is a row of numbers. These indicate where they finished in their previous races – the number closest to the horse’s name is his last race. (1 = first, 0 = not in the first five, P = pulled up, didn’t finish) The numbers may be separated by a -, e.g. 1-1. Anything to the right of the dash means it happened this season, and before the dash means last season.

Weights: In most of the big races in Cheltenham the horses will be carrying the same weight (or a little less if it is a girl). If it’s a Handicap it’s different. Then someone assigns a weight to a horse to even out the field – ie the more weight, in theory the better the horse. Then you might want to find a horse at the bottom of the race card as it’s got a good chance of battling the big horses.

So looking at this race card above – The top name is Big Zeb – this is the horse and the jockey’s name is to the right – (e.g. B Geraghty). And under the horse’s name is the name of the trainer. Under that is the name of the owner. e.g C Murphy is the trainer, and PJ Redmond, the owner. To complete the reading from our guide, read the numbers to the left 1-12141 and you will see that last season in Big Zeb’s last race he was the winner. This season he was second, winner, fourth and winner.

There are more numbers above the jockey’s name 9 11.10. This means the horse is 9 years old, and he is carrying weight of 11 stone 10lb (which is made up of the jockey plus any extra weight needed).

Other things to look for at Cheltenham –

* What is Ruby Walsh or Tony McCoy riding

* If the horse has been voted “best turned out” (ie looks prettiest) pick someone else!

* Irish horse – particularly if you are going for a long-shot

* Paul Nicholls is the trainer – he’s bang in form

* Do you like the colours the jockey’s wearing? It’s often as good a guide as any other.

* Does the horse look hot, bothered and really sweaty? Hmm, maybe he’s used too much of his energy already.

* Obviously the best horses have the shortest odds, but unfancied horses often do well at Cheltenham. At last year’s Festival, 40% of the winners started at double-figure odds.

* Has the horse performed well at Cheltenham before? Some horses just like it there.

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Clive Smith and Harry Findlay in conversation. Who are they? Well Clive (on the left) owns Kauto Star and Master Minded. And Harry  – a top gambler -  owns Denman.