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"Cheltenham Gold Cup day is always a time to reflect upon the wise words of Phil Bull, the founder of Timeform. Among his many pithy aphorisms, his description of sport as our \"magnificent triviality\", captures exactly why we treasure it so much. It's exactly a year to the day since I last worked in the office. In the context of everything of significance that is going on around us, sport is gloriously irrelevant but an opportunity to play should always be eagerly embraced simply for the sake of joy and sanity. It really has kept many of us going this year and for that, I will be eternally grateful.  Our man in the cheese-cutter cap, Marcus Armytage, thinks the 11/4 favourite, Al Boum Photo, the winner of the last two runnings of the Gold Cup and hence bidding for his hat-trick to join the immortal Golden Miller, Cottage Rake, Arkle and Best Mate,  \"looks to have plenty in his favour and is fancied to take plenty of beating. \"But unlike Cottage Rake,\" he writes, \"who made it into poetry, or Arkle, who was celebrated in an Irish postage stamp, or Best Mate, whose life-size image is cast in bronze in the village where he was trained, the Willie Mullins trained nine-year-old may be admired rather than adored and has singularly failed to capture the public’s imagination. Maybe today is the day.\" Marcus is right but I think while you can like a horse for winning you money, the most lightly-raced of the greats never truly command the affection of the race-going public. They like horses with character and that only reveals itself the more you get to appreciate them. So, whatever happens, I'm not sure today or any other can ever truly be the day.  There are six other races on the card, including the Grade One Triumph Hurdle at 1.20pm. It's a race that has been won by big Festival favourites such as Tiger Roll and Defi Du Seuil in recent years and was the first great victory for Persian War in the year of this writer's birth.  If you're just watching for the thrill of the race, enjoy! If you're more financially invested, good luck.  "
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/racing/2021/03/19/cheltenham-gold-cup-2021-live-results-racing-tips-winners-latest/>