'You need to keep your powder dry' - Aidan Coleman on Cheltenham's two tracks as action switches to the New course

For those of you who weren't aware Cheltenham has two separate tracks – the Old course and the New course – with this week's meeting taking place on the New course for the first time this season. While running parallel to one another, the two tracks ride completely differently. Grade 1-winning jockey Aidan Coleman walks us through each track and explains what characteristics suit each course best.

New course

The fences all ride pretty well and the tricky one here is the fourth-last. It’s positioned just after you come off a bend and you run slightly downhill to it as well.

The first time round in a Gold Cup when you’re travelling it doesn’t pose many problems. But second time round, when you’re just swinging off the top of the hill, it is pretty tricky.

Once you’re over that you roll down to three out and you think the race is developing but when you turn in, you have so much running left to the line. It takes a lot of getting and you really need to be conservative riding the New course. They’re parallel and they cross over at different points but the two tracks might as well be in different countries, in my opinion.

You ride one very differently to the other. Turning in on the New course there’s still so far to go and I used to love riding it.

You’ve so much more time and you get far fewer hard-luck stories, even in the handicaps with bigger fields. There’s two jumps in the last seven furlongs over hurdles, which gives you more time, and you see a lot of winners coming from much further back. Look at the race that Paul Townend rode on Absurde in the County Hurdle, and it was similar when State Man won, although I’m sure he would have won whatever the tactics.

I cannot stress enough what a different track it is and you really need to be keeping your powder dry.

Old course

The Old course is where you run the speed races, the Champion Hurdle and the Champion Chase, whereas the stamina races – the Stayers’ Hurdle and the Gold Cup – are run on the New Course. That’s the way I try to get people to think about the differences.

The Old course is tighter and you’re on the turn a lot more. Over hurdles you run down the hill to three- and two-out, which can be quite a tricky one. You’re downhill until the last few strides when it starts to come back up at you, while you’re at a stage in the race when you’re flat out.

When you turn in you don’t have half of the running you do on the New course. The undulations and the intensity of the races all play their part too.

Although it comes up before the race develops in earnest, the first hurdle down the back is slightly downhill and can cause a problem. You have to travel around there and you’ll have nothing if you’re not on the bridle from the top of the hill to the bottom.

I’m old enough to remember the old second-last fence, which really caught a lot of horses out. That fence can still catch you out because it comes up very quick off the bend and you have to be doing something down to it. If you’re off the bridle you’re just praying you come to it on a good stride. It can be pivotal.

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