Racing Post readers: Cheltenham Festival prices may be steep but hotels are struggling too

I have been listening to the Racing Post’s podcasts for years and have felt compelled to write in on the topic of hotel prices in Cheltenham during the festival.

First, I would like to explain that I am a huge fan of racing, while I also work as a sales manager for a hotel.

Over the past few months I have listened to the racing media complain and call out the hotel industry for hiking up prices during festival week.

Much like racing, the hospitality industry is struggling at the moment. The pressures being put on us with the increases in minimum wage and the National Insurance changes are making it more ­challenging for our businesses by the day, especially given that the majority of our team are on minimum wage or narrowly above.

As such, hearing hoteliers being called greedy for inflated pricing during the festival feels unfair and somewhat misguided. 

Surely this boils down to basic supply and demand. For example, the hotel I work at is located near ­Silverstone, where the British Grand Prix is held annually and our prices that weekend are triple what they are at any other time during the year. Why? Because weekends like that keep our business afloat. 

If I were running a hotel in ­Cheltenham I would have the prices as high as I could and then reduce incrementally to ensure the hotel was filled at the highest possible price.

For context, in my early and mid-20s, we would go and stay in Cheltenham on the Monday of festival week, go racing on the Tuesday then watch the rest of the week at home. Increased costs have stopped us going each year now, but I don’t resent the hotels for that.

My point is that the key to any successful business is to maximise revenue opportunities and, for an industry that is already on its knees, these key weeks can be the difference between keeping a hotel open and people employed.

Please continue to focus on ­highlighting the issues with affordability checks and calling out the deluded animal rights activists who hate this wonderful sport, but try and empathise with an industry that, much like this great game, is ­struggling too.
Mark Jordan

The starts have to change

The issues with the starting ­procedures at Cheltenham have been brewing for some time and have affected numerous big-field handicaps in recent years. The problem also isn’t just confined to the big meetings and occurs virtually every day during the jumps season.

It is clear from this week’s events that horses positioned nearest the inside rail have a huge advantage when there is a standing start. 

In the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase on Thursday, the winner and second both started immediately nearest the rail. The horses starting wider on the track were beaten at the start, having been the last to be spooked as the tape whipped across in front of them. 

The natural benefit of the inside rail on the turning course served only to increase an advantage to the rail runners. Who knows if Caldwell Potter would have won wherever he started, but his jockey’s experience and presence of mind surely played a big part.

For one of the horses that I backed at Cheltenham, it was the equivalent of being drawn 14 of 14 at Chester and giving away a three-length start for good measure. 

If I had known in advance that my selection’s race would have been lost at the start, I would not have had a bet, which surely can’t be a good thing. 

I am not qualified to offer a solution, but I do know that something has to change.
J Akerman
Horsham, West Sussex

The starts were a major issue throughout the week at Cheltenham

A disregard for punters

Is it not about time Lossiemouth’s connections were taken to task directly regarding their seeming disregard for the betting public, without whom there is no racing industry? 

Yet again we saw a last-minute switch with one of Closutton’s big guns at this week’s festival despite it being said throughout the season that it had been a two-year plan for ­Lossiemouth to run in the Champion Hurdle. And yet again punters have found out that they just can’t believe what they are being told.

There is no excuse for this latest episode. It has been five weeks since Lossiemouth’s fall in the Irish Champion Hurdle, so if it was an issue of the mare’s wellbeing then she shouldn’t have run at Cheltenham at all. 

If it was an issue with her preparation then why did it take so long for punters to be informed of connections’ decision to switch from the Champion to the Mares’? 

Yes, most bookmakers had been going non-runner no bet for a while when the news was confirmed last Sunday, but that was not the case if you wished to take a price on the exchanges, and punters would have taken a view on the back of what connections had been saying.

I have tremendous respect for  Willie Mullins’ training achievements, but this lack of communication reflects very badly on an industry that is all too often under the cosh.
Nick Gibbins

Cherish these top mares

I write to applaud and defend Rich Ricci and Willie Mullins over the running of Lossiemouth in the Mares´ Hurdle. 

If anything, this year’s Champion Hurdle was a reminder of the vagaries of racing; absolutely nothing would have been won if she had run in it. 

Not that long ago, jumps-bred filly foals were worth next to nothing, and it is due to the wonderful efforts of the BHA that the tide has changed. 

The creation of the Mares’ Hurdle, a race Mullins has of course nearly made his own, was one vital step and one of the reasons all these fabulous mares over the last decade have emerged. 

The fact that we are discussing possible targets for these mares and the fact that some are deemed the best hurdlers around and worthy to run in the Champion Hurdle – or any other open Grade 1 for that matter – is proof of the success of those efforts. 

So while the Mares’ Hurdle might be a victim of its own success, we must never forget those roots which have created the likes of Honeysuckle, Put The Kettle On, Lossiemouth and Brighterdaysahead. 

Jump racing has obviously come a long way and memory seems to be short in some quarters. 

A further point in the whole saga is the fact that Tuesday’s dramatic Champion Hurdle should not be used to prove any point at all. 

After a less-than-perfect preparation, connections did what was right by Lossiemouth. The equine athlete should be the main focus and their wellbeing should never be sacrificed on the back of the spectacle. 

We should spend more time marvelling at the beauty of the horses and their amazing accomplishments rather than trying to write up events. Reality has its own way of keeping us on our toes, in any case.
Catrin Nack
Hamburg, Germany

Are these hurdles a help?

Since the current hurdles with white surrounds and padding were ­introduced at tracks a few years ago, has there been any evidence or research carried out as to the improvements in safety for the runners? 

I say this as a consequence of Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle. Are the hurdles not catching horses out?
CJ Ash
Swindon, Wiltshire

Not one British runner

Wednesday’s Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase attracted just seven runners, which with prize-money ranging from £112,000 to the winner down to sixth place is a rather poor turnout. 

What is more remarkable is that our huge band of British trainers felt unable to field a single runner to contest this Grade 1, with the entire field consisting of Irish-trained horses. 

This is a microcosm of what is wrong with racing in Britain, and the public will continue to vote with their feet at major events such as ­Cheltenham while this unbalanced situation persists.
John McDonald
Nantwich, Cheshire

Huge drop in field sizes

In 2005 there were 24 races at the Cheltenham Festival. As many as 19 of them had at least 15 runners, with the shortest-priced favourite being Moscow Flyer at 6-4 in the Champion Chase.

Twenty years on and on Tuesday we had four of the seven races consisting of 12 runners or fewer and all with odds-on favourites.

The more things change, the more they do not stay the same.
Jeremy Early
Reigate, Surrey

Give us what we want

A simple way to get the crowds back to Cheltenham: start taking cash again, accommodate the punters with what many want and stop being damn lazy.
Ken Pedrick
Cardigan, Ceredigion

Holt was much missed

One thing missing from this year’s Cheltenham Festival was the commentaries of the excellent and still the best-in-the-business Simon Holt.
David Binks
Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Not the only ones

Referencing Chris Cook’s column on Leicester’s stand closure (March 7), the course might want to take a few tips from Fontwell, which has become expert at getting rid of these inconvenient structures. One or two other tracks are quite good at it as well.
Ian Hawkins
Brockham, Surrey

Read more here

Cheltenham boss says public feedback gives course 'plenty of reason to be positive' despite lowest crowd for a decade 

Mares' Hurdle status is 'bringing it into disrepute' says man who sourced the brilliant Honeysuckle 

'The changes are good but they need to go further' - Cheltenham racegoers on the festival experience after 10,000 crowd drop 

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