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TUESDAY, MARCH 15 – SUPREME NOVICES’ HURDLE
The opening Festival race showdown between stable companions Jonbon and Constitution Hill as well last week’s Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle winner Dysart Dynamo is still on despite the former’s win in the Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle at Haydock on Saturday drawing different reactions from connections and our odds boffins.
Nicky Henderson pointed out that Jonbon was encountering a speed track and very soft ground and thought the performance was ‘good’, while the traders were less impressed and pushed him out for the Supreme.
To be fair to the winner, he gave all his rivals 5lb and still won comfortably and with this trio and others lining up on March 15, there might be an even bigger roar than usual.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16 – CHAMPION CHASE
The match-up between Shishkin and Energumene in Saturday’s Clarence House Chase at Ascot was billed as an Anglo-Irish heavyweight clash and the race certainly didn’t let us down with the former showing extreme bravery to catch his rival towards the finish and prevail by a length.
There’s no more 11-10 left about the winner for the rematch in this in what must now be considered the race of the Festival.
Champion Irish trainer Willie Mullins was left mulling how Energumene can turn it around at Prestbury Park and conceded that “it’s going to be difficult,” but anyone considering taking short odds on Shishkin could be in for a nerve-wracking four minutes judging by the way he won at the Queen’s track and got out of all sorts of trouble to land the Supreme by a head a couple of years’ ago.
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THURSDAY, MARCH 17 – RYANAIR CHASE
Allaho’s front-running easy victory in the Horse & Jockey Hotel Chase at Thurles on Sunday for the second year running meant he was shortened not just once but three times to also capture the Ryanair twice in succession.
Winning pilot Paul Townend told Willie Mullins that Allaho was ‘flying at the finish’ which bodes well for a couple of months’ time and it’ll take an awfully good horse to stop him over about two and a half miles.
Sure he was beaten in last year’s Champion Chase at Punchestown, but that was by a very good animal in Chacun Pour Soi over just two miles and he’s not been beaten over the extra half a mile since December 2020.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18 – CHELTENHAM GOLD CUP
Shishkin quite rightly took the headlines, but Royale Pagaille’s game success in Saturday’s Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock was also right out of the top drawer and we took the knife to his Gold Cup odds.
In a performance akin to some of Arkle giving lumps of weight away to rivals over half a century ago, Venetia Williams’s winner carried top-weight with all his rivals humping almost at least a stone less and still managed to score by half a length.
Winning owner Rich Ricci, sporting a very fetching new hairstyle, was delighted and he’s a lively outsider for the blue riband given soft ground.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18 – ALBERT BARTLETT NOVICES’ HURDLE
Gerri Colombe probably didn’t win in the style of a long odds-on shot, working hard to remain unbeaten over timber, but ultimately he won a novice hurdle at Thurles on Sunday going away from his six rivals and contracted for Cheltenham.
Winning handler Gordon Elliott ran here as he didn’t think his charge had the experience to go straight for a top-class race at the Dublin Racing Festival, but this will have been hugely beneficial to his education as the Tipperary track wouldn’t have suited and we’ll see him next in public in the Albert Bartlett.
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FRIDAY, MARCH 18 – COUNTY HURDLE
Winning trainer Harry Fry proudly declared to ITV Racing viewers “That was the real Metier” after he had kept on well to justify favouritism in Friday’s Sovereign Handicap Hurdle at Lingfield.
This was the first time that Metier had encountered heavy ground since he had scored at the highest level in last year’s Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle and it seems that the closer a meeting is to being abandoned, the better for the six-year-old.
The double-carpet for the County Hurdle quickly evaporated and he also more than halved in price for the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury on Saturday, February 12.
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*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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CHELTENHAM ANTEPOST TIPS:
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