'It was a second division race' - has the right festival contest been axed?

Keith Melrose, Scott Burton and Lewis Porteous reflect on the axing of the novice handicap chase at the Cheltenham Festival

For punters, the best outcome was no mares' chase, or at least for it to replace an existing mares' event. Why further expansion of the mares' programme – an admirable aim, for breeders and owners in that order – has to encroach on the sport's main conduit with the wider public is not a case which has ever been satisfactorily made.

If a fans' race had to go, the 2m4f novice handicap chase was one of the smarter choices.