All roads lead to Cheltenham

Another week has gone by, and there seems to still be more questions than answers still, in the run up to the big meeting, the Cheltenham Festival during the middle of March.

Saturday was another stepping stone to the big week, with more contenders in question, with racing on at Ffos Las, Sandown and Wetherby. A large disappointment was the abandonment of a fantastic multiple grade one card at Leopardstown, with the Hennessy Gold Cup being the showpiece of a card that included exciting horses such as Zaidpour, Pride of Dulcote and Mikael D’haugenet to name but a few.

Focusing on the racing that did go ahead, the most visually impressive performance was in the valleys, for the Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las, where the Nicky Henderson trained OSCAR WHISKY duly obliged as the 2/7 favourite won very easily, barely coming off the bridle, winning by 8 lengths. Although he didn’t have the strongest of fields to defeat, the horse should have been put into ideal shape for the Stanjames.com Champion Hurdle, where he is currently a 14/1 chance, from 18s at the beginning of the week. The reigning Champion Hurdler won the Totesport Contenders Hurdle for the second successive year, but like last years race, the 1/10 favourite did not seem to look and win like a 1/10 horse should. Binocular stalked the leader and took advantage of the 50/1 outsider’s mistake at the last to win by 2 lengths. Bookmaker reaction was to ease out the current market favourite to 7/2 from 3/1. Although not visually impressive, trainer Nicky Henderson insists the run will put him spot on for the showpiece on day 1 of the festival come March 15^th.

MEDERMIT booked his place in this fields Arkle Chase with a victory in the Totesport Challengers Novice Chase, more commonly known as the Sicily Isles Novice Chase. The striking grey jumped cleanly and fluently throughout and cruised into contention three fences out before bounding clear over the final fence. The 2 miles 4 furlong trip seemed to stretch the 5/2 favourite, who tired during the final 2 furlongs to eventually only win by ¾ lengths to second favourite Captain Chris, who nearly took advantage of the weary leader, by coming back towards the line. Due to the win, the horse has gradually been supported for the Arkle, and is now 6/1 third favourite after being 12s prior to the race, then 8s and 7s before being confirmed for the Arkle, rather than the Jewson Novices. Phillip Hobbs, trainer of Captain Chris was said to be very pleased with his run, and he will in fact head for the Jewson’s Novice Chase, where he has been supported from 14s to 10s and is now clear second favourite behind the Paul Nolan trained Noble Prince. The son of Montjeu has finished twice in successive starts second behind Realt Dubh, including in last months Irish Arkle.

Perhaps the most encouraging run of the weekend was that of the Nigel Twiston-Davies trained BABY RUN, The horse was cemented in Twiston-Davies folklore when capping off the greatest day of the trainers professional career, when winning the Foxhunters chase last year on Gold Cup day, marking a memorable treble, and even more memorable as it was ridden by the trainer’s son Sam. On Saturday it was the turn of young brother Willie, who rode the horse to an exemplary 37 length winning margin. The 11/8 favourite made all and won from the front, striding clear, with no other horse being able to keep up with the ferocious pace the hose set. The horse is currently 5/1 to repeat his success of last year, which seems a very tempting price, as if the horse turns up in similar form, it could look very generous indeed!