Un Temps Pour Tout returns for a second crack at the Ultima Handicap Chase, the first handicap of the festival. He comes into this off the back of some very indifferent chase form this season, and, unless David Pipe can rekindle a somewhat unlikely revival, he looks quite vulnerable off…
1pt each-way Buveur D'Air @5/1, 15:30 Cheltenham, Tuesday
There are many great races in the racing calendar, yet it’s the Champion Hurdle on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival I look forwards to the most each year. The very best two-mile hurdlers from Britain and Ireland – or at least those who have avoided sick leave – go head-to-head at…
1pt win Melon @3/1, 13:30 Cheltenham, Tuesday
In racing’s equivalent of Christmas eve, we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s Cheltenham Festival opener: the SkyBet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle won last year in an exceptional renewal by the brilliant Altior. While Altior will be going for Arkle glory in the second race on the card at odds of 1/3, the…
1pt win Fox Norton @14/1 NRNB, Ryanair Chase
Unfortunately our ante-post pick for Thursday’s Ryanair Chase, Ar Mad, has been ruled out of the Festival through injury, which means his Sandown conqueror Un De Sceaux has tightened into 5/2 favouritism. There’s a messy market behind him with second-favourite Empire Of Dirt possibly set to replace his injured teammate Don…
2pts win Fox Norton w/o Douvan @9/4 NRNB, Queen Mother Champion Chase
Thanks to a perfect record for his stable, Willie Mullins’s Douvan bosses the betting for the Queen Mother Champion Chase on the third day of the upcoming Cheltenham Festival. Nicky Henderson’s Altior would be the only horse in training I’d want to take him on with – though if that…
1.5pt win Le Mercurey @2/1, 16:00 Kelso, Saturday
It’s now less than two weeks’ time before we’ll know our Gold Cup winner and the 2017 Cheltenham Festival will be a thing of the past. We’re keeping things quiet before the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle on day one but can’t resist a poke at LE MERCUREY tomorrow at Kelso. Paul Nicholls’s…
1.5pts win Baie Des Iles @3/1, 15:30 Saturday, Fairyhouse
There is no good reason to stop BAIE DES ILES from following-up his impressive success in an Irish Grand National Trial at Punchestown three weeks ago. The handicapper gives him a 5lb rise for that, but with this being a conditions race, he picks up a handy 7lb for his…
1pt win Minella Rocco @6/1, 16:00 Leopardstown, Sunday
What a competitive betting heat we have for the Irish Gold Cup this year, with the winner of the last two renewals, Carlingford Lough, third in the betting at 9/2. He’s been campaigned specifically for a hat-trick bid this season and has to go close, but the race rather fell…
1pt win Our Duke @7/2, 15:30 Leopardstown, Sunday
Leopardstown hosts four Grade 1 races this Sunday, and there might be some value in OUR DUKE‘s 7/2 quote for the Flogas Novices’ Chase at 15:30. He’s only got Willie Mullins’s Bellshill ahead of him in the betting, and it’s hard to argue the market has them the right way around given…
2pts win Altior @4/7, 15:00 Newbury, Saturday
Odds-on favourite for the Arkle at Cheltenham, ALTIOR runs over two miles today at Newbury in open company, facing Colin Tizzard’s exciting Fox Norton and the untapped potential of Gary Moore’s Traffic Fluide. Fox Norton is returning from injury and it seems unlikely he’ll be fully wound up, with an eye on…