Cheltenham Festival 2015 - Day 4

After a brilliant day on Wednesday, CowCow rather let himself down yesterday, only achieving a single fourth place out of all his predictions! Today is the final day of race week though, so we've given him a pep talk and he's looking lively.

Despite it being very overcast here in Cheltenham today, CowCow was keen to dress up and has put on his new sunglasses. If any of his predictions are wrong today, you'll know it's because he simply can't see what he's doing! But at least he looks cool, eh?

So, without further ado, here are today's predictions.

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 13th March 2015

Race 1 (1:30pm) - Petite Parisienne

Race 2 (2:05pm) - Waxies Dargle

Race 3 (2:40pm) - Out Sam

Race 4 (3:20pm) - Holywell

Race 5 (4:00pm) - No Loose Change

Race 6 (4:40pm) - Macnicholson

Race 7 (5:15pm) - Turban

Cheltenham Festival 2015 - Day 3

Well, CowCow was on fire yesterday! Not literally, luckily, but we wouldn't put it past him... Two of yesterday's mystical predictions won their races, and a further three came third in their races. A very impressive result for a psychic cow thrown at a paper spinner, we're sure you'll agree!

Today, CowCow is celebrating his success by dressing up in his "very clever cow" glasses, to make sure people take him seriously. We're not sure it's working. We now also have a colleague somewhere in the office who is unable to see properly...

Anyway, the spinner has been spun, the cow has been launched, and we have a new set of predictions for you, ready for today's racing.

Here are CowCow's chosen horses for today.

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 12th March 2015

Race 1 (1:30pm) - Splash of Ginge

Race 2 (2:05pm) - Henryville

Race 3 (2:40pm) - Taquin Du Seuil

Race 4 (3:20pm) - Lieutenant Colonel

Race 5 (4:00pm) - Edgardo Sol

Race 6 (4:40pm) - Gold Bullet
Race 7 (5:15pm) - Hurricane Ridge

Cheltenham Festival 2015 - Day 2

This week is race week here in Cheltenham, so our mystical moo-cow is on the case, making bold predictions and causing havoc in the office as he launches himself at his special psychic spinner, scattering stationery all over the place and generally making a mess.

CowCow got off to a great start and successfully predicted one winner yesterday. He's particularly looking forward to Ladies' Day today (we're sure we heard him muttering about "beautiful bovines" earlier...), and is hoping to improve on yesterday's predictions.

So, here are his tips for today!

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 11th March 2015

Race 1 (1:30pm) - Windsor Park

Race 2 (2:05pm) - Wounded Warrior

Race 3 (2:40pm) - Goodwood Mirage

Race 4 (3:20pm) - Dodging Bullets

Race 5 (4:00pm) - Uncle Junior

Race 6 (4:40pm) - Verawal

Race 7 (5:15pm) -  Wait For Me

Cheltenham Festival 2015 - Day 1

With our offices located just two miles up the road from Cheltenham Racecourse, the Cheltenham Festival is very hard for us to avoid (as are the merry, tweed-clad racegoers who like to wander about in the middle of the road as we're driving home from work!). Traffic everywhere, an abundance of fascinators and tweed, the sight of normally sensible people drinking Guinness for breakfast... There's nothing quite like the buzz of race week, and we love it really. Maybe.

For the last couple of years our psychic office bovine, CowCow, has made race predictions throughout the Festival, with varying degrees of success. Last year was particularly good, with a number of winners correctly predicted by our inexplicably mustachioed friend! This year, CowCow is back with his trusty spinner board and he's feeling confident.

In case you're new to CowCow's mystic antics, here's how it works. CowCow has a special spinner for each race, featuring equal-sized segments representing the number of horses due to run. A long-suffering human staff member then sets the spinner spinning and CowCow launches himself upon it, stopping the spinner in its tracks. The number of each segment corresponds to a horse in the race, and the one the spinner lands on is CowCow's prediction. Simple yet inspired, we're sure you'll agree.

So, on with the show! Here are today's race predictions!

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 10th March 2015

Race 1 (1:30pm) - Shaneshill

Race 2 (2:05pm) - Sail By The Sea

Race 3 (2:40pm) - Azure Fly

Race 4 (3:20pm) - Faugheen

Race 5 (4:00pm) - Caroles Spirit

Race 6 (4:40pm) - Thunder And Roses

Race 7 (5:15pm) -  Gores Island

Cheltenham Festival 2014 - Day 4

Today is the final day of this year's Cheltenham Festival, and CowCow is planning to go out with a bang. Yesterday saw two more wins for CowCow, plus another of his predicted winners came in a very respectable second place. This cow is on fire.

The "aviators of victory" stayed firmly on CowCow yesterday, and he also took a seat on his very own throne following his first win. As his second prediction came true, he leapt from his throne in great excitement, and has been positively insufferable ever since. We will, quite frankly, be relieved to see the end of race week and our bombastic bovine's celebratory antics. It's all getting a bit much.

This morning CowCow has thrown himself, quite literally, into today's predictions. Fingers crossed his winning streak continues and he hasn't been too over-confident!

To read an explanation of CowCow's prediction technique, read Tuesday's blog post here. You can also catch up on his predictions for Day 2 and Day 3.

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 14th March 2014

Race 1 (1:30pm) - Guitar Pete
Race 2 (2:05pm) - Alaivan
Race 3 (2:40pm) - Captain Cutter
Race 4 (3:20pm) - On His Own
Race 5 (4:00pm) - Divine Intavention
Race 6 (4:40pm) - The Skyfarmer
Race 7 (5:15pm) -  His Excellency

Cheltenham Festival 2014 - Day 3

With a second correct prediction and another horse which placed, CowCow's aviators stayed firmly on yesterday, as he basked in his own awesomeness.

Today, our emboldened bovine has confidently picked out another set of predicted winners for you, launching himself enthusiastically at the mystic spinner. If you're just joining us on the blog today, you can read an explanation of CowCow's predicting method in Tuesday's blog post here.

Will CowCow's aviators of victory be required again today? Here are his top picks:

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 13th March 2014

Race 1 (1:30pm) - Captain Ocana
Race 2 (2:05pm) - Fingal Bay
Race 3 (2:40pm) - Hunt Ball
Race 4 (3:20pm) - Big Buck's
Race 5 (4:00pm) - Colour Squadron
Race 6 (4:40pm) - Spring Heeled

Cheltenham Festival 2014 - Day 2

CowCow got off to a brilliant start yesterday, with his predicted horse winning the first race! To celebrate his first ever correct prediction, he put his aviators on and acted like a complete diva for the rest of the afternoon.

Sadly, things went a little downhill after the first race, but overall his first day was not entirely terrible (especially compared to last year!). Today's predictions are below, and CowCow is feeling optimistic! If you need a reminder of exactly how CowCow makes his predictions, see yesterday's post for details.

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 12th March 2014

Race 1 (1:30pm) - Knock House
Race 2 (2:05pm) - Le Bec
Race 3 (2:40pm) - Son of Flicka
Race 4 (3:20pm) - Sire De Grugy
Race 5 (4:00pm) - Star Neuville
Race 6 (4:40pm) - Keltus
Race 7 (5:15pm) -  El Namoose

Cheltenham Festival 2014 - Day 1

As you may be aware, our offices are just a couple of miles up the road from Cheltenham Racecourse. This means that we all tend to pay particular attention to the Cheltenham Festival, if only to try and plan creative routes to and from work to avoid the race traffic!

Regular blog readers may remember that last year, our office bovine "CowCow" made daily race predictions by launching himself at a pile of printed horse names. You'll also recall that what he lacked in accuracy, he made up for in enthusiasm and facial hair. Nevertheless, he's back this year with a new prediction technique and a general aura of luck about him. Though that may, of course, just be his moustache shedding a bit. Either way, he's good to go!

CowCow (complete with jaunty moustache), numbered spinners for each race, and the sophisticated spinner system which uses a winning combination of drawing pins, paperclips, cardboard and blue tack.

This year, we've created a numbered spinner for each race, featuring equal-sized segments representing the number of horses due to run. Each numbered segment corresponds to a different horse. To predict each race, the spinner is spun (with help from a human staff member) and then CowCow launches himself upon the spinner, stopping it in its tracks. Whichever numbered segment the spinner stops on becomes CowCow's prediction. Brilliant, we're sure you'll agree.

So, without further ado, here are today's predictions!

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 11th March 2014

Race 1 (1:30pm) - Vautour
Race 2 (2:05pm) - Grandouet
Race 3 (2:40pm) - Tour Des Champs
Race 4 (3:20pm) - Our Conor
Race 5 (4:00pm) - Pass The Time
Race 6 (4:40pm) - Rogue Angel
Race 7 (5:15pm) -  Ericht

Cheltenham Festival - Day 4

As the Cheltenham Festival draws to a close today, we are taking some time to reflect on CowCow's predictions so far. He has predicted one winner correctly, and many of his other predictions have almost finished their races - great success! But like they say, it isn't over until the fat pony wins...

If you need a reminder of what's going on and how CowCow generates his predictions, visit Tuesday's blog post. You can also read back over the last three days of predictions, which are all up here on the blog.

CowCow has selected a "diverse" selection of horses today, so we'll see what happens! As always, follow us on Twitter for photographic reminders of CowCow's chosen horses throughout the day.

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 15th March 2013

Race 1 - Gassin Golf
Race 2 - Ifandbutwhynot
Race 3 - Inish Island
Race 4 - Silviniaco Conti
Race 5 - Chapoturgeon
Race 6 - Make Your Mark

Race 7 - Oh Crick
 

Cheltenham Festival - Day 3

After a slightly better performance yesterday (he successfully picked a winner and a second place!), CowCow has thrown himself, quite literally, into choosing today's horses. We're still not 100% sure that he understands the concept of horse racing yet, but we're feeling confident nonetheless...
 

If you're a bit confused about what's going on, check out Tuesday's blog post, which explains why a cuddly cow is predicting races, and how he's doing it. Keep an eye on our Twitter account throughout the day too, as we'll be tweeting photos of CowCow with his predictions.

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 14th March 2013

Race 1 - Captain Conan

Race 2 - Ballybough Pat 

Race 3 - For Non Stop

Race 4 - Wonderful Charm

Race 5 - Tartak

Race 6 - Prince of Pirates

Race 7 - Freneys Well

 

Cheltenham Festival - Day 2

After yesterday's "slightly iffy" start, CowCow is hoping to redeem himself today with some fantastic predictions for the races. Only time will tell whether he's destined to be a cash cow or a crash cow though. Yesterday's Cheltenham Festival predictions from our bewildered bovine included horses which fell, had false starts, and which came in last place, so surely things can only get better..?
 

Here are today's predictions. For more info on exactly how CowCow chooses the horses, see yesterday's blog post! As with yesterday, you can also follow us on Twitter to see photos of our lovely CowCow with his predictions shortly before each race.
 

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 13th March 2013
 

Race 1 -  Top Smart

Race 2 - Taquin Du Seuil

Race 3 - Terminal

Race 4 - Sprinter Sacre

Race 5 - Meister Eckhart

Race 6 - Another Sensation

Race 7 - Fascino Rustico

Cheltenham Festival - Day 1

As we are based in Cheltenham, less than 2 miles down the road from the racecourse, we thought we'd share our predictions for the races this week. As the now infamous Paul the Octopus demonstrated at the last World Cup, animals are great at this kind of thing. We therefore asked CowCow, our resident office animal, to do the honours. 

For each of the day's races, we printed out the names of the horses, and CowCow launched himself enthusiastically at the names. The one his moustache landed nearest to each time is listed below.
 

Visit the blog each day for his latest predictions. You can also follow the action over on Twitter, where CowCow will be proudly posing with the name of his chosen horse, a little while before each race.

CowCow's Cheltenham Festival Predictions - 12th March 2013

Race 1 - Pique Sous

Race 2 - Arvika Ligeonniere

Race 3 - Summery Justice

Race 4 - Grandouet

Race 5 - Stone Light

Race 6 - Fourjacks