|
|
Meeting: The Hunter Chase Evening
Date: Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Admission Prices: Admission prices are for the Club/Tattersalls combined £20 (£15 for 16 to 24 year-olds) and Best Mate Enclosure £7 (£13 supplement for the jazz concert). Accompanied children under 16 gain FREE admission.
Cheltenham Racecourse brings the curtain down on a fantastic 2006/07 season when staging an evening of thrilling hunter chase action on Wednesday, May 2, followed by live jazz from singer and master saxophonist Ray Gelato in the Centaur.
Cheltenham’s only evening fixture of the year sees Prestbury Park hark back to the sport’s roots as competitors from the hunting field and point-to-point arena enjoy their traditional dedicated fixture at the home of Jump racing, which in the past has witnessed victories from hunter chase stars such as Double Silk and Cavalero.
Gates open at 3pm and racing commences at 5.20pm with the CATS At The Centaur Hunters' Chase over two miles, five furlongs of the New Course, featuring the intriguing prospect of presentations by members of the CATS cast in full costume. The West End production of CATS The Musical is being staged at The Centaur at Cheltenham Racecourse between June 12 & 30 this year.
The £7,500 www.cheltenham.co.uk Champion Hunters' Chase (5.55pm) gives competitors an added thrill as it is run over the totesport Gold Cup course and distance of three miles, two and a half furlongs.
Clive Mulhall partnered Mister Friday to success in the last two renewals of the championship contest, while the 1993 running went to the Reg Wilkins-owned and trained Double Silk, who was twice a winner of the Christies’ Foxhunter Challenge Chase at The Festival (1993 and 1994) under regular rider Ron Treloggan.
The £7,000 Hiscox Intermediate Point-To-Point Championship Final Hunters' Chase (6.30pm) is run over an extended three miles, one furlong. The race, sponsored by specialist insurers Hiscox, is the finale to a series of intermediate point-to-points staged around Britain and was won last year by Latzod'alm, who made all under a brilliantly judged ride from Will Hill.
The £5,500 Colin Nash Memorial (For the Hunt Staff Benefit Society) United Hunts’ Challenge Cup (7.05pm) is one of the hunter chase highlights of the season, and was won by the amazing Double Silk at the age of 12 in 1996.
Double Silk, who also won the Hiscox Intermediate Point-To-Point Championship Final in 1992, went on to finish runner-up to Celtic Abbey in the 1997 running of the Colin Nash Memorial United Hunts' Challenge Cup and filled the same position as a venerable 14-year-old in the 1998 contest, after a thrilling duel with Cavalero up the famous Cheltenham hill.
The John Manners-trained Cavalero went on to secure the 2000 Christie's Foxhunter Challenge Chase at The Festival.
The £7,500 Winning Post At Cheltenham Hunters' Chase is over the marathon trip of four miles, one furlong and was won last year by 5/2 favourite Bosham Mill who finished third in the Doncaster Cup in his younger days as a classy Flat racer. The Philip Hobbs-trained gelding was ridden to victory by this season's young riding sensation, Tom O'Brien, the leading conditional of the 2006/07 campaign.
The on-track action concludes at 8.15pm with the Amateur Jockeys Association Investing in Racing Hunters' Chase over an extended two miles, but racegoers have no excuse for an early night with bars remaining open until 10pm and live jazz in the Centaur.
Racegoers and jazz fans are in for a treat as renowned singer/saxophonist Ray Gelato and his swinging band provide classic Las Vegas-style entertainment in conjunction with Cheltenham Jazz Festival.
The fantastic evening rounds off an excellent season at Cheltenham, which began in October with the Martin Pipe raceday in honour of the then recently retired 15-times champion jump trainer.
Prestbury Park is synonymous with elite performances and the last few months have witnessed plenty of those, chief among them being the brilliant Kauto Star’s tremendous victory in the totesport Gold Cup at The Festival in March, which marked him as one of the sport’s greats.
Exotic Dancer was a gallant runner-up that day but Jonjo O'Neill's charge enjoyed an exceptional campaign at Cheltenham where he secured the Grade Three Paddy Power Gold Cup, Grade Three Boylesports.com Gold Cup and the Grade Two Letheby & Christopher Chase prior to his totesport Gold Cup effort.
Cheltenham has also heralded new champions in Sublimity, who truly was sublime in winning the Smurfit-Kappa Champion Hurdle, as well as Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Voy Por Ustedes, while Inglis Drever showed his redoubtable qualities in reclaiming the Ladbrokes World Hurdle crown he took in 2005.
The remarkable Spot Thedifference twice delighted his legion of fans this season when winning the Sporting Index Chase at The Open in November and the Sporting Index Handicap Chase at the Boylesports International meeting the following month. The Enda Bolger-trained gelding has now won an amazing six races over Cheltenham's cross-country course.
Other highlights include the stunning victories of Denman (Royal & SunAlliance Chase) and My Way De Solzen (Irish Independent Arkle Challenge Trophy) at The Festival, which saw them emerge as legitimate pretenders to Kauto's Star's crown and set pulses racing at the prospect of all three lining up for the 2008 totesport Gold Cup, and the remarkable season of the Alan-King trained Katchit, who won four consecutive races at Cheltenham this season, culminating in a facile victory in the JCB Triumph Hurdle
For further information, please contact Cheltenham Racecourse's Communications Manager Andy Clifton on 01242 537 683 or 07876 330 090 |
Live Jazz in the Centaur with Ray Gelato
