Three Horses to Follow for the 2020 Cheltenham Festival

Which horses have emerged as strong fancies for the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, the four-day extravaganza of British National Hunt horse racing?

The meeting attracts the best jumps horses from both Britain and Ireland to the racecourse at Prestbury Park in the Cotswolds. There are already some leading contenders for victory in the ante, post-Cheltenham Festival markets.

Paisley Park

Last season’s champion stayer Paisley Park extended his winning run to six after his victory in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury’s Winter Carnival. The three-mile division over the smaller obstacles looks entirely at the mercy of Emma Lavelle’s stable star.

Paisley Park was very progressive last season after his trainer and owner Andrew Gemmell plotted a campaign that saw him start in class 2 company at Aintree and culminate in two Grade 1 successes. After taking a graded staying handicap at Haydock, he took the Long Walk at Ascot and Cleeve Hurdle around Cheltenham before returning there in the spring for Festival glory.

He is already a strong market leader with bookmakers to retain his Stayers’ Hurdle crown, but first bids to repeat in the Long Walk before Christmas and the Cleeve on Festival Trials Day. Paisley Park is the one all staying hurdlers have to beat.

Honeysuckle

Irish trainer Henry De Bromhead has a very special mare in his care in Honeysuckle. This Fairyhouse track specialist has won two Grade 1s in 2019, the first in novice company on Easter Sunday, before scooting clear of the triple Hatton’s Grace heroine, Apple’s Jade, at the Winter Festival.

Lightly-raced and still with improvement to come, the world is at the feet – or hooves – of Honeysuckle. Willie Mullins is usually the master in Ireland with mares, but some major races are coming under consideration for this one.

De Bromhead essentially has to choose between dropping Honeysuckle back in trip for Champion Hurdle or keeping her over two-and-a-half miles. According to the latest 2020 Cheltenham odds from Paddy Power, she is 15/8 for the Mares’ Hurdle on the same day at the Festival.

Lostintranslation

Colin Tizzard has had some of the best staying chasers in Britain in his Dorset stables. Native River won the Cheltenham Gold Cup for the yard in 2018, but Lostintranslation is a leading fancy this year. After racing for much of his novice campaign over fences at intermediate trips, this Irish point-to-point winner stepped up in trip to great effect at Aintree’s Grand National meeting in April.

Grade 1 glory followed for Lostintranslation. He has since won his return to action at Carlisle and landed another valuable prize at Haydock Park. Regular jockey Robbie Power rode him cold on Merseyside to lower the colours of course specialist Bristol De Mai.

It was a fabulous display and, with the prospect of more to come, it’s easy to see why he is 4/1 for the Gold Cup. Don’t let a King George VI Chase bid at Kempton Park over Christmas worry you if that tight track doesn’t play to the strengths of Lostintranslation.