Meeting - The Showcase -
Friday & Saturday, October 19 & 20
First race - 2.10pm
Friday, 2.00pm Saturday - gates open at noon both days
Cheltenham's October
meeting was renamed The Showcase in 2007 and moved to its present
Friday/Saturday slot. The popular two-day meeting, which this year offers
substantially increased prize money of £275,000 (up £70,800 from last year), is
a natural starting point for horses returning from their summer breaks and is
often used in preparation for The Open (Friday, November 16 - Sunday, November
18 inclusive).
Saturday's card features
the £50,000 BetVictor.com Trophy, which is backed for the first time this year
by BetVictor with prize money doubled. The bookmaker also generously lends its
support to the Talk To Victor Amateur Riders' Handicap Chase on the Friday of
The Showcase.
BetVictor spokesman
Charlie McCann commented: "The build-up to the first Cheltenham meeting of
the autumn is always a period of great excitement as we look forward to the
winter game and the return of old favourites and emerging stars.
"On a day when we bid
farewell to the mighty Frankel at Ascot, we also look forward to another
wonderful season of Jump racing and we at BetVictor are delighted and proud to
be involved in the opening salvo of what promises to be another historic year
at the home of Jump racing."
The Betvictor.com Trophy
is a handicap chase over the same distance as the Grade Three Paddy Power Gold
Cup at The Open, and therefore an informative trial for that prestigious
contest.
In 2009, Poquelin won the
Betvictor.com Trophy and was a fast-finishing second to Tranquil Sea in the
Paddy Power Gold Cup. Knowhere came third in the 2007 Paddy Power Gold Cup
after winning the Betvictor.com Trophy the month before, while Butler's Cabin
was fourth in the 2006 Paddy Power Gold Cup following success at Cheltenham the
previous month.
The Outback Way (1999 -
trained by Venetia Williams) and Shooting Light (2001 - trained by Martin Pipe)
are the two most recent winners of both contests.
The Showcase also features
the £50,000 Ryman The Stationer Handicap Chase, run over an extended three
miles, which was won by Midnight Chase in 2010. The Neil Mulholland-trained
gelding proved to be a real star at Cheltenham throughout the 2010/11 season,
winning valuable handicaps at The Open and The International in December and
finished the campaign with a fine fifth in the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup. He
recorded a fifth victory at Cheltenham last season in the Grade Two Argento
Chase and came home seventh in this year's Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Balthazar King took the
Ryman The Stationer Handicap Chase in 2011 and the Philip Hobbs-trained gelding
returned to Cheltenham in March to win the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap
Chase at The Festival.
The meeting's concluding
race is the Christmas Parties At Cheltenham Standard Open National Hunt Flat
Race. In 2006, this extended two-mile bumper went to Imperial Commander, who
became a champion when landing the 2010 Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup at The
Festival. The Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained chaser also numbers the 2009 Ryanair
Chase and the 2008 Paddy Power Gold Cup among his six victories at Cheltenham.
The Masterson Holdings
Hurdle, inaugurated in 2009, is a conditions race providing four-year-olds with
an opportunity to compete against their own age group before being pitched into
all-age company later in the campaign. Starluck landed an impressive victory in
2009, then just failed to win the Grade One Christmas Hurdle at Kempton when a
short-head second on Boxing Day and finished a respectable fifth in the Stan
James Champion Hurdle.
Day One of The Showcase
begins with the Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle over two miles
and five furlongs, which represents the first contest on the Road to Cheltenham
that culminates with the Grade One Neptune Investment Management Novices'
Hurdle over the same course and distance at The Festival in March.
The Showcase also hosts
two important novice chases. The extended three-mile Bruton Knowles 150th
Anniversary Novices' Chase on Friday has gone the way of Ladbrokes World Hurdle
scorer Iris's Gift, subsequent Grade One winner Joe Lively, and Chicago Grey,
who went on to land the National Hunt Chase at The Festival, in the past few
seasons, while the two-mile Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Novices' Chase on
Saturday has been won by Poquelin (2008), who came back to win the 2009
BetVictor.com Trophy.
A popular event on
Friday's card is the BetVictor App Amateur Riders' Handicap Chase, which offers
invaluable Cheltenham experience for the non-professionals. Festival-winning
jockeys JT McNamara (2005), Charlie Huxley (2007) and Oliver Greenall (2009)
have captured the extended three-mile contest in recent years.
For the first time this
year, The Showcase will also host the Greatwood Charity Race, a Flat contest
over a mile and five furlongs with 11 jockeys going all out to raise funds for
Greatwood's work with retired racehorses after the final race on Saturday's
card (please go the back of the attached media guide for a full list of
participants).
The Showcase gives
racegoers the chance to see, hear about and participate in some of the aspects
of racing that are normally off-limits.
Throughout the two days,
racegoers can watch races with the commentator or the judge, visit the weighing
room before racing, judge the best turned out horse and much more.
There has been sufficient
rain this year before The Showcase, the first time no watering has been needed
since 2007.
The Showcase gets underway
with a very competitive seven-race card at Cheltenham tomorrow, Friday, October
19. Some of the stars on show include Nigel Twiston-Davies' leading bumper
performer The New One, 2011 Cheltenham Festival winner Carlito
Brigante and classy hurdler Sea Of Thunder.
GOING
The going at Cheltenham is
currently: Good to Soft, Good in places.
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