The Amateur Jockeys Association have been particularly vocal about the changes as professional jockeys can now take part in the National Hunt Chase which will become a Novice Handicap Chase
Thursday 26 September 2024 19:26, UK
There were mixed reactions from within racing to the changes announced for the Cheltenham Festival which encompassed the programme, the value and the experience.
Sarah Oliver, chief executive of The Amateur Jockeys Association of Great Britain, says she is devastated.
The Amateur Jockeys Association initially took to X to share their disgruntlement saying "A sad day for the Amateur Jockeys with racing turning its back on our heritage and the rich diversity of our top class jockeys."
This is a result of the National Hunt Chase becoming a Novice Handicap chase and now open to professional jockeys.
Oliver said: "We have lost one of our main races of the season and it's extremely disappointing especially as I knew nothing about this until 10am this morning.
"These races mean the absolute world to our members and for this to be taken away without any warning, it's almost as if it's an afterthought."
She added that she believes they should have been able to make a case for the race and if needed make changes to the conditions that allowed amateurs to ride like they did with the Kim Muir.
"We seem obsessed with change, but it's not always for the best. Do we really need another novice handicap chase."
The 10-time Cheltenham Festival winner Jamie Codd ismuch of the same opinion and struggled to hide his despair on the decision: "I can't understand why they've done it."
Codd won this race three times and believes it is the event that every amateur wants to win.
However, former amateur jockey and trainer Jamie Snowden is fully behind the changes.
He doesn't dispute the level of ability held by these jockeys or the long history of the race. But he said, "If we were sitting down and thinking what race should we have at the Cheltenham Festival, and we came up with a four mile chase for novice horses and novice riders, people would think we're nuts!"
Snowden had strong views on different changes including the new requirement for horses to be eligible to run in non-novice handicaps they must have five hurdle/four chase starts.
He says he would go one step further to make it that one of these runs should be in England. This would help with handicapping and encourage in his view more English people to own horses here.
Regarding the other changes to the programme, on a whole these were well received.
Kevin Blake has been a long-time advocate for change to the Festival. He believes the issues were particularly highlighted last year and that everything that has been done is a positive.
However, Blake would argue some of the biggest areas of problems have been largely ignored. These being the Mares' programme and the Novices' Hurdle programme.
Blake said: "It doesn't stack up to me. I think the problems will continue with the novice hurdles.
"The changes to the Chase programme reduce the opportunity for trainers to duck and dive, I'm disappointed they didn't do this to the hurdle programme too."
Fitzgerald believes most of the changes will make it more competitive, describes the changes made to the Cross Country Chase converting it to a handicap as a 'great idea'.
