Over the festive season, there was plenty of exciting racing to enjoy. The 32Red Kempton Park Winter Festival on Boxing Day and 27th December featured in the King George VI Chase the Thistlecrack v Cue Card contest, who were both trained by Colin Tizzard, in the most hotly anticipated jump-racing encounter of the season so far. The crowds turned out to see the fascinating contest with Thistlecrack taking breathtaking leaps, which was reminiscent of the mighty Desert Orchid, to secure victory. Tom Scudamore, Thistlecrack’s jockey, enjoyed a spectacular ride to his first victory in the feature event of the Christmas racing programme, a race his grandfather Michael won as a jockey in 1956 but always eluded his father Peter. As a result, Thistlecrack is now a very short priced 4-5 favourite for Cheltenham Gold Cup in just 2 months’ time, with the next in the market another Colin Tizzard horse Native River at 8/1. There was also a good performance by Yanworth in the Christmas Hurdle and it will be interesting to see if Yanworth runs in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival for which is currently priced at 5/1. As well as marking the card The Wine Tipster was presenting top wines from the Jockey Club wine list with Sancerre Les Chasseignes, Domaine Fouassier, Macôn Rouge, Domaine Dupré and Nyetimber Classic Cuvée NV proving very popular at this particular meeting.

At Warwick on New Year’s Eve a massive crowd of over 6,000 people came racing and General Manager, Andre Klein and his team are doing a top job here with more exciting plans for the future. The Wine Tipster had great fun on the mic marking the card as well as seeing lots of familiar faces in the 1707 and Kingmaker Restaurants. The winning wines here were Catena Appellation Vista Flores Malbec, Voltolino Gavi and Château Léoube Rosé de Léoube. Look out for bumper winner Marten trained by Ben Pauling.

Despite the bad weather Cheltenham welcomed over 30,000 on the gate on New Year’s Day, with the victory of Whisper the most eye-catching performance of the day. This also marked the first day of coverage by ITV where Ed Chamberlin and the team came straight out of the gates with pace, passion, diversity, banter, humour and important horse racing education, which really set a really nice tone. Everyone did a top job and most importantly, horseracing welcomed lots of new fans who will be back next Saturday on ITV 4 for The Morning Show and the afternoon coverage from a cracking card at Sandown and Wincanton.

More buzz, more anticipation and more hype were on the menu for the first day of The Cheltenham Festival at Prestbury Park in Gloucestershire. There was also a beautiful spring day to bring out the crowds for four days of competitive championship racing.

Willie Mullins was rightly tipped to be the trainer of the week and kicked off the start of The Festival with Vautour winning the Sky Bet Supreme Hurdle, whilst his Champagne Fever in the Racing Post Arkle and my hot tip in to get the champagne corks popping

was just pipped on the post by the 33/1 outsider Western Warhorse. In the feature race of the day and the main race of meeting in my book Mullins had Hurricane Fly bidding to achieve his third Stan James Champion Hurdle, with my other hotpot for the day, My Tent or Yours the winner for me. In a race marred by the fatal fall of Our Conor My Tent or Yours just failed to beat Jezki, with Hurricane Fly back in fourth. Whilst Mullins was obviously downcast after Hurricane Fly’s fourth place, his incredible little mare Quevega then became the first horse to win six races at The Cheltenham Festival when battling in determined fashion to win the OLBG Mares’ Final for the six consecutive year. Incredible mare, incredible training performance.

My day of previewing and tipping for JPFEstival.com in The Gold Cup Restaurant featured one winner and three frustrating seconds! A frustrating day had a sweetener with The Wine Tipster’s day saved by winning the placepot!

Another great day ahead.