IT is going to be a strange, subdued Cheltenham Festival this year, something of a silent movie, and that will be most noticeable, symbolically at any rate, when the runners approach the tapes for the first race on Tuesday. Normally, there would be an almighty roar from 60,000 people in the packed grandstands, signalling that the nation’s four-day celebration of jump racing has started.
Next week (March 16–19), however, if you see a pint of Guinness, it is a mirage and if you spot an amateur rider, it might be Patrick Mullins, the 12-time Irish champion amateur, who was considering hastily taking up a professional licence in order to honour a book that included Sharjah in the Champion Hurdle.
The Festival today is the legacy of the two-decade stewardship of the late Lord Vestey, who died last month, as chairman—perhaps it’s better he does not see it in this muted incarnation—and his managing director, Edward Gillespie. Between them, they turned it into something much more than racing, a carnival of life, of spring, friendships, horses and, above all, sport.
In 2021, it will be stripped back to the bare bones. There are some who might rather enjoy that and, actually, ITV Racing has got this down to such a fine art after a year of crowd-less racing that its audience sitting on the sofa at home will hardly notice the difference.
Denne historien er fra March 10, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 10, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds