This coming weekend we have the Cheltenham “Trials” day,
which features the Triumph Hurdle trial, the Betbright Cup Chase (essentially a
Gold Cup trial), and the Cleeve Hurdle which is an excellent trial for the
World hurdle. There are also some really good supporting handicaps which can
provide decent pointers to the Festival itself.
Weather permitting, I will be going to Cheltenham on Saturday,
and I will be endeavouring to produce a full preview of the meeting once I have
a copy of the Weekender on Wednesday. This will probably be online on the blog
early on Saturday morning.
So far, this jump racing season has been a transitional one
for me. In a way, it has reflected the general economy as I began writing the
blog when I was midway through a period when I worked only 10-months out of 24
between July 2009 and July 2011. Since July 2011, I have been lucky enough to
have almost continuous employment (I’m a freelance contract worker) and my
roles have become more managerial than “hands-on”. This has had an impact on
the blog, in that I’ve not been able to write has often as I would like to and,
due to the additional responsibilities, I’ve not been able to spend as much time
studying the formlines as I’d normally expect. My latest role is my most senior
role for a long time, and due to the workload I won’t have the flexibility to donate
time to the blog. I’ve therefore made a decision that I won’t be producing a
Cheltenham Bulletin this year.
This – personally – is a disappointment for me as, in each
of the past 3 years that I’ve issued a bulletin, sales have grown. I’m very
proud of the bulletin as I feel it has given readers a unique insight into
aspects of the Festival that may have been overlooked elsewhere. My intention
this season was to upload a “sister” blog-site focussing solely on the
Cheltenham Festival but, due to time constraints, I just haven’t been able to
get it finished and (being realistic) it won’t be finished before this year’s
Festival. My intention is to work on it throughout the rest of the year (I
should have plenty of time during the summer) and have that site online before
1st November 2015.
From now until this year’s Cheltenham Festival concludes, I
will be concentrating solely on finding winners at the Festival. I will be
putting together an antepost portfolio of wagers on the “Championship” races
and issuing my handicap assessments (previously sent out to donators only) via
the blog.
If I am having any wagers on day-to-day horseracing, you
will find these on my twitter account @wayward_lad. Last week (Thursday), I
posted 3 selections on twitter, and 2 won: Firebird Flyer @ 4/1 and No No Mac @
4/1. Generally, I don’t have many wagers during the week so, if I do put a
wager up on twitter, take note.
In the meantime, please keep visiting and reading the blog,
and (with luck) we should have a very successful Cheltenham Festival.
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