Cheltenham Festival 2016: Big bucks rule as meet is hijacked by Victoria Pendleton

Allowing former cyclist to overshadow Gold Cup devalues sporting occasion

Willie Mullins’ horses exercise at Cheltenham on Monday (Reuters)

There was a time when the horse was all that mattered, when equine love was enough to bring swathes of devotees from all quarters to a blessed vale in England for one week in early spring. There is still a deal of wonder and excitement evinced by Festival week but it is no longer sufficient to confine the joy to National Hunt folk.

Cheltenham, it seems, is reaching out beyond its natural borders to a constituency of broader interest. It seeks to make the spectacle not just a communion of racing souls but a destination venue in the world of sport. Big Buck’s was once the name of a horse. Now it is the name of the game, a commercial imperative driving business at the heart of the piece.

Through this great opening of the gates rides Victoria Pendleton, a telegenic refugee from track cycling turned promotional vehicle for the event. Outside of the racing press there have been more column inches devoted to Queen Vic than the week’s marque race, the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup. Hitherto the Foxhunter was a serious proposition for amateur jockeys in the lee of the main event. For some it has become the principal attraction on the Festival’s blue riband day.

Pendleton’s features blazed from the front page of the trade bible, the Racing Post, last week the day after the announcement was made that she would be going to the tape on the back of Pacha Du Polder, trained by Paul Nichols. All involved praise the incredible progress made in the year since she first thrust her leg in a stirrup. Fair enough. The same was said of Freddy Flintoff when he submitted to a period of celebrity masochism under the aegis of Barry McGuigan in order to contest a professional boxing bout.

It was doubtless a triumph of sorts to develop the competence required to get Flintoff into a boxing ring. But it did not make him a boxer. Via the matchmaking device the underwriters of Flintoff’s rum escapade were able to control outcomes to a degree. In other words, they did not match him with Wladimir Klitschko, but brought in a tailor-made victim who would do just enough before succumbing to Freddie’s ’ammer.

Pendleton does not have that luxury. The organisers cannot bend the field to her needs. She is up against seasoned players, all of whom know how to handle a horse and a whip. Pendleton went to ground in her first outing under rules over the jumps at Fakenham, and came off on the flat in a point-to-point at Kingston Blount. Should she suffer a similar end, which, let’s face it, is far more likely than a victory, or worse still, injure herself in this mad circus, Cheltenham will be digesting exposure it never thought possible, and not necessarily of the requisite hue.

Deary me, the next thing you know they will be dressing horses in tweed. Oh, wait a minute. Perhaps this is what happens when your big story of the opening day goes lame. The loss of Faugheen to injury blew a hole in the Festival narrative. Like money and beauty, you can never have enough of the wonder horse. Annie Power steps into the Champion Hurdle void, and after her distressing failure at the final flight last year when a million miles clear in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle, there is at least the prospect of a redemptive tale to set off flares on the opening day.

Opinion is divided on whether the former Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton should be riding at Cheltenham (Getty) (Getty Images)

Romance enters the paddock on Wednesday with Somersby aiming to go one better in the Queen Mother Champion Chase after second places in the previous two renewals. This is the 12-year-old’s eighth consecutive Cheltenham and 40th career outing. Though seven times a winner elsewhere, the closest this Cleeve Hill warrior has come to victory here is chasing Dodging Bullets last year and Sire De Grugy in 2014.

For the past three years, following the retirement of Henrietta Knight, Somersby has been under the care of the former Southampton, Manchester City and England striker Mick Channon, who almost expired watching the pursuit of Dodging Bullets. Owner Tim Radford recalls the scene. “We watched the race from the paddock and Mick was in terrible trouble. He got so excited thinking the horse was going to win he could hardly breathe,” Radford told the Post. “I thought he was having a heart attack.”

Almost any outcome would be better for Channon than the hat-trick of bridesmaid handouts. “I trained Youmzain to finish second in three Arcs. I don’t want to go through all that again,” he said. In truth, he probably won’t have to. The Willie Mullins-trained Un De Sceaux heads the betting ahead of 2013 hero Sprinter Sacre and Dodging Bullets.

With the Sprinter yet to convince he might ever again scale the heights of 2013, fate invites Un De Sceaux, a traveller of rare velocity, to enter racing’s magic circle after his crushing victory in the Arkle Trophy last year. A fall first time out this term at Leopardstown adds grist to the tale, since it thrusts a dramatic variable into the equation, identifying the great horse’s most dangerous adversary as himself.

Mullins is inevitably at the heart of the closing day, Pendleton aside, with Vautour leading his string in the Gold Cup. After initially vying with Faugheen for hegemony over hurdles, Vautour broke out as a chaser of high class with victory last year in the JLT Novices’ Chase. It might take something extraordinary to erase Pendleton from view on Friday. And Vautour might just be that horse.