Omar's Diary to 9th March 2024

I could hardly believe it earlier today when Ticker, my personal turf accountant, popped by to remind me that the 2024 Cheltenham National Hunt Festival starts this week. We offered him a generous lunch and some libations but he refused. He excused himself on the grounds that he had to collect some rather large outstanding accounts from some 'faces' around his 'manor'.

It all sounds rather seedy to me.

He did remind me he could only take wagers in cash as the batteries in his card payment machine had gone flat. We offered him some spare ones and even offered to fit them but he declined our kindness. As a result he would not be extending any lines of credit. It was nothing personal, just business he assured me.

The first race starts at 1330 on Tuesday 12th March and the last race is at 1730 on Thursday 15th March. Oh what a bumper of National Hunt delight over the 28 races scheduled. And at the time of writing this diary there were well over 500 runners declared.

Even today, Sunday, it is too early to make any selections for Tuesday as there are going to be withdrawals, that is horses pulled from the card because of injury, illness or changes in the state of the going to cite just a few reasons. There will also be eliminations. These are the result of the maximum number of runners in any one race being exceeded so the lowest weighted horses will be scratched from the entries.

Dare I say that for those whose horses maybe eliminated it is a question of 'weight and see'.

Earlier today at the stables Lady Servant was leading out the family veteran, no not Man Servant although he is getting on a bit, Rainbow who is now 32 years old. They were heading back to the field quietly when all of a sudden Rainbow strode out elegantly and elevated looking very classy. The only problem was that as she accelerated Lady Servant was unable to keep up and had to let her go. While this was happening Man Servant was lunging Skye in the arena and watched it all happen in slow motion like a car crash. As Lady Servant was draged past the school her last word to Man Servant were along the lines of 'It's all your fault and it's not funny!...heeeeellllllllppppppp!!'.

Rainbow was eventually caught, by Man Servant, and taken out to her field like a little lamb.

No lives were lost.

In light of this I did make a quick scan of the runners this week hoping to find one whose name was connected with Rainbow but alas my precursory search proved fruitless. However, I did notice a couple with a family connection. They were Envoi Allen in the 1450 on Thursday at 7/2 and Fighter Allen in the 1610 at 40/1.

Serendipity or coincidence based on two data points might pay off.

During the week I will be publishing my selections for the day ahead. I have jus been into the library here at Omar Towers, dusted off my copies of Timeform and have started my research in earnest. I will be looking at each horse's best performance, what ground it was on and the distance. Nothing more complicated than that. Beau has dusted off her litter tray and filled it with some fresh litter. Her contribution to this week's shenanigans will be selecting horses using the tried and tested 'litter tray' method. I won't bore you with how this method works as I am sure that just from the name you have worked out what is entailed.

Look out for my diary for Tuesday 12th March in which there will be four selections to follow.