Lucinda Russell’s William Hill blog: Cheltenham Festival reflections

William Hill ambassador Lucinda Russell looks back on a winning week for the team at the Cheltenham Festival.

Cheltenham Festival reflections

The 2025 Cheltenham Festival was a classic mix of everything for me and the team, and we really did experience all the emotions of it. It was obviously fantastic to have a winner with Myretown, but we also had a big race faller and some disappointments thanks to bad starts.

We best start off with Myretown, though, who was brilliant in the Ultima, and we were beyond thrilled with his performance. We came into the race thinking he was the riskier proposition of our two runners, but he put all his talent together on the day in a big way. Yes, he’s a young novice, but he seems to be going in the right direction, particularly with his mind. He’s a real typical one of ours, really – a classic staying chaser, and it was great that he showed it at Cheltenham on a marquee day. It was a big win for the yard, but we were all so delighted for Patrick (Wadge) too, as he’s not had the easiest time of it with injuries in the past year or so.

As regards future plans, I’d say that will probably be his final run this season. We’ll likely keep him in training for a week or two more, just to let him down properly, but I don’t think we’d gain much by running him again this term. In my mind, his big target would be the Coral Gold Cup at the end of November. Now, it’s all about next season for him.

While things went perfectly for Myretown, they went awfully for Whistle Stop Tour. He got incredibly unlucky with the faller hampering him so badly at the first, and then after a bad mistake at the next, he was just never involved. These things can happen in big-field handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival, but actually, he’s not had a hard race and Derek (Fox) did the right thing in pulling him up when he did. He probably will run again this season, and we’d look at something like the Scottish National for him as that ought to be a race that suits.

The Grand Annual can be a messy race given the number of buzzy two-mile chasers jockeying for a good position, and as it turned out, it was one of many races ruined by having to begin from a standing start. I’m not a jockey, so I can’t say what the golden bullet is to rectify the issues with the starts, but something needs to be done as it’s incredibly frustrating to see your horses’ chances evaporate at the start. Primoz was particularly affected and didn’t get into any kind of rhythm, and actually Traprain Law ran pretty well on ground that wasn’t soft enough for him. I’d say we’ll see them both again, perhaps at the Scottish National meeting.

It wasn’t to be for Idem in the Pertemps, and he probably didn’t jump quite well enough to have a say on the day. To win these big-field Festival handicaps, you almost always have to be there travelling and jumping well, otherwise you just get left behind. However, we still like him a lot, and who knows, he may come back next year with a bit more experience and that might just stand to him.

It was fantastic to see Derryhassen Paddy finish third in the Albert Bartlett. It was funny when we were in the parade ring, because he just looks like such a bigger horse compared to the other runners, and he really is a big chaser in the making. He’s had some great experiences this year over hurdles, and we hope that’ll stand to him when we go over fences next term. I think the way he jumps hurdles suggest that he’ll be happier over the larger obstacles. Even just focusing back on Cheltenham, though, it was brilliant to be in the parade ring at the third-placed area, as being in and amongst the best at the biggest meeting is what it’s all about. He won’t run again this season, and we’ll let him have a summer off and then we can dream about next year.

We were obviously very disappointed to see Ahoy Senor fall in the Gold Cup. It was an unfortunate error, particularly as he’d looked much more relaxed, settled and professional generally up to that point. It was almost as if he lost concentration at the fence. I’ve seen him make much worse mistakes and jump worse across the board, but we move on and he’s come home fine. The Aintree Bowl will be next for him.

Weekend runners to watch

It’s a decent weekend of racing up north and I’ve picked out three runners of ours to watch out for.

First up is Johnny Ringo in the 3.20pm from Musselburgh on Friday. He’s a juvenile we like a lot and I think he’s a real standout for us this week. We also really like the chances of Prince Of Perth in the 4.25pm from Musselburgh that day – he loves it around the track and we’d expect him to go well. Then comes Indian Louis in the 3.55pm at Carlisle on Sunday – he’s a lovely horse with hopefully a great chance of winning.