Lydia Hislop: five-day Cheltenham Festival risks turning fans off the sport

Leading broadcaster Lydia Hislop has shunned the prospect of a five-day Cheltenham Festival, saying if the move was made it would put the sport at "active risk of turning off genuine fans of the sport".

Speaking to Maddy Playle for her video series Maddy Meets, which is available to view now exclusively on the Racing Post YouTube channel, Hislop said she didn't think the threat of a fifth day has been taken seriously enough.

"I think it's an awful idea," she said. "I just don't see a way in which it can benefit the sport, even if it's two further races, you're short-changing the customer who did have seven races a day.

"You'd be travelling to Cheltenham with all the expense that is involved in that, and having less for your money, and I just don't think it can be tolerated.

"That's in the scenario of two extra races, if we go to, as would be inevitable I think, a seven-race a day model, you're stretching the definition of what we all thought the Cheltenham Festival was beyond destruction."

Hislop, who during the interview confessed she was "really worried" for the future of horse racing, added: "It's meant to be the clash of the very best, increasingly they have an opportunity to duck each other rather than race against each other. You're just changing what the Cheltenham Festival means.

"At the moment we are stretching the horse population to a point where we are at active risk of turning off genuine fans of the sport. Still now I don't think it's being taken seriously enough."

Also in the interview, find out where she thinks racing has gone wrong in the run-up to the gambling review, how she deals with criticism and why the death of her mother has impacted her presenting.

Watch more from this series:

Maddy Meets: Fergal O'Brien

Maddy Meets: John Francome

Maddy Meets: Tom Segal

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