It was business as usual for Grade 1 king Willie Mullins on the first day of Cheltenham Festival, with Douvan, Vroum Vroum Mag and, most impressively, Annie Power all bolting up – the latter in a course record time.
Minella Rocco was another favourite to win in what must have been an expensive day for the bookmakers.
Wednesday’s card, along with Arc day at Longchamp, is undoubtedly my favourite day’s racing of the year, with so many fantastic punting races through the card.
Combination bets look the way to go in the Grade 1s, with the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle, RSA Chase and Champion Chase all potential matches between the top twos in their respective markets.
YANWORTH is my biggest liability of the week and looks to join impressive Supreme winner Altior at the top of the novice hurdling ranks.
He’s not come off the bridle yet this season and has been hugely impressive in all his appearances, beating plenty of solid opposition along the way.
It’ll take a very talented horse to beat him and Yorkhill, rerouted from the Supreme, looks the most likely threat, but I think the selection is on another level.
The handicapper has Yanworth up in the clouds with his 158 rating, which would see be enough to see him win 90% of renewals, and such was the striking nature of his win on Trials day that I couldn’t possibly disagree with that assessment.
In the following race, the RSA Chase, the only horse to have ever beaten the new Champion Hurdler Annie Power fair and square, MORE OF THAT, has an outstanding chance of notching his second Festival win.
He’s up against Ireland’s best staying novice in No More Heroes, but Gordon Elliott’s charge has questions to answer after a slightly disappointing third in last year’s Albert Bartlett and all his best form is on slow ground.
More Of That however, a brilliant winner of the World Hurdle a few seasons ago, comes from a stable in good form and will relish the good ground, the three-mile trip and the Cheltenham hill – up which he is very much unbeaten.
At around the 2/1 mark I think he’s more deserving to be closer to evens, so perhaps it’s value despite the significant threat of No More Heroes.
The next Grade 1 is the awesome spectacle of the Champion Chase, and what a renewal we have this year with three past winners taking on the emphatic 2015 Arkle-winning UN DE SCEAUX.
The old guard will run their races and all-time-great Sprinter Sacre would be one of the most warmly received winners in Festival memory.
Emotional bets rarely pay off and I fully expect this to go to Willie Mullins’s new kid on the block, the eight-year-old mount of the red-hot Ruby Walsh.
Un De Sceaux has already put 2014 winner Sire De Grugy to the sword at Ascot and a collateral form-line through the Tingle Creek (Sire De Grugy won from Special Tiara) and Sprinter Sacre’s Desert Orchid Chase (Sire De Grugy second) gives him plenty in hand with today’s opponents.
I doubt reigning champion Dodging Bullets’s best form is good enough for this much hotter renewal, and a clear round of jumping should see Un De Sceaux take his crown.
His biggest danger is himself as he’s fallen twice in his relatively short chasing career, but, crucially, nothing’s ever got close to him when he’s completed.
The three selections combine for a 13/1 each-way treble, where we’ll break even should one let us down and just place.
I fully expect them all to run their races and it’d be a big shock should none of them make the frame.
1pt each-way treble Yanworth, More Of That, Un De Sceaux @13/1
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