The Jumps Season Service will return for 2024/25 in late October
October 16th
I’ll be uploading my Champions Day thoughts in ‘Race Previews’ by early evening where maybe, just maybe, we might even see the lesser-spotted Gleneagles if it doesn’t rain! What I will be seeing for certain tomorrow, however, is Chas and Dave in the evening. A must annual event for me! Just brilliant musicians and a great night out. New Zealand vs France will have to wait I’m afraid. Ross will be giving his Week 6 NFL preview in ‘Sport’ which will be uploaded on Saturday.
If you have not had a chance to do so then I urge you to check out the Attheraces jumps microsite which I am sure will help whet your appetite a little more for the upcoming action over the next few weeks. Just open the normal Attheraces website and click on Go To The Jumps Microsite. As part of that microsite I have written a trends-based preview of the top 15 handicaps. Other copy includes stable tours featuring Mullins, who tends to go into more detail here than elsewhere plus Nicholls, Henderson, Hobbs, Elliott, Meade, Pipe, King, De Bromhead and Hughes. If you have not downloaded the ATR App to your smartphone then I suggest you also do that as it knocks all the other racing Apps into touch. In addition, Kevin Blake is a journalist I have a lot of time for and he gives his views on 30 big horses, Sean Boyce has a look at the ante-post markets and there is a new Fantasy Racing competition for those who lament the loss of the Tote Ten To Follow competition.
A real shame that once mega-popular competition bit the dust as it was huge in its prime. My best placing was 32nd though I worked it out that I would have been third had Granville Again not fallen two out when cruising in the Champion Hurdle. I don't doubt that many other splinter competitions had an effect but it still seemed to be working just fine until Betfred took over the Tote, the rules immediately changed and it was effectively ruined.
The first big name of the season strutted his stuff yesterday when Don Cossack won at Punchestown and that race amongst others features in my Cheltenham Ante-Post Mid-October Round Up that was uploaded last night.
