Key events
1.30 Grade 1 JCB Triumph Hurdle 2m odds
Going update for the big one.
1.30 Triumph Hurdle (2m 179yd) preview
Greg Wood
An almost certain win for Ireland to kick off St Patrick’s Day at Cheltenham, as Jipcot, Jupiter Du Gite and Active Duty are the only British-trained runners in the 15-strong field and they are priced up at between 66-1 and 250-1. It is about 10-1 on that it will be another for Willie Mullins too, as four of his seven runners in all are in the top four slots of the market, including Lossiemouth, the 13-8 favourite, Blood Destiny (5-2) and Gala Marceau (4-1). Lossiemouth remains favourite despite losing her unbeaten record over hurdles behind Gala Marceau in the Grade One juvenile hurdle at Leopardstown last month, as she lost a good deal more ground as a result of traffic problems than the two-and-a-half lengths she still needed to find at the line. Blood Destiny is the weakest of the trio in the market this morning and is making his Grade One debut, but his win at Fairyhouse in January was a fine performance on the clock and he should have plenty more improvement to come. Anyone looking to back a big outsider each-way, meanwhile, may want to consider John McConnell’s Hypotenus at around 50-1. I tend to bang on a bit too much about the trainer’s excellent record with runners in Britain in general, and at Cheltenham in particular, and he got off the mark at the Festival yesterday when Seddon took the Plate. He does not seem inclined to buy any horse a ferry ticket unless he thinks it will do itself justice, and Hypotenus was just three lengths behind Zenta, a 10-1 shot for today’s race, on his only start over hurdles to date.
SELECTION: Blood Destiny. EACH-WAY: Hypotenus.
Per the Racing Post, the crowds are down this year. It felt quieter on Wednesday, though perhaps that was everyone sheltering from the rain.
The combination of a two-day teacher strike and a train strike during this week’s festival has impacted crowd figures at the big meeting, according to Cheltenham’s boss.
Wednesday’s official attendance was 50,387 – down by 14,044 on last year – and Tuesday’s crowd was 60,284, a drop of 8,283 on last year. The maximum crowd for each day at the meeting has been capped at 68,500 this year, with the aim of improving the racegoer experience, and Thursday’s attendance of 62,429 was down by 11,325 on last year.
Cheltenham’s director Ian Renton said: “I think the strikes have definitely had an impact and we saw when they were announced that ticket sales slowed. We’re comparing the figures to a bumper year and we’ve capped the attendance in particular for tomorrow. We were expecting fewer people and everything I’ve heard so far suggests people have had a comfortable experience and that is important.”
The forecast is more rain. Been a bit miserable this year, hasn’t it?
Here’s the Oddschecker market movers for the morning.
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Hewick 50/1 – 25/1 [Gold Cup]
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Path D’Oroux 20/1 – 12/1 [County Hurdle]
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Irish Hill 14/1 – 8/1 [Martin Pipe]
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Ahoy Senor 22/1 – 12/1 [Gold Cup]
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Petit Tonnere 33/1 – 20/1 [County Hurdle]
🚂 🚂
Three steamers from Gold Cup day at the #CheltenhamFestival
👇 Find these daily on our racing market movers page and in our dedicated ‘Steamers and Drifters’ section on the Cheltenham home page.
— oddschecker (@oddschecker) March 17, 2023
Here’s a leading reason to fancy Rachael Blackmore aboard A Plus Tard in the Gold Cup. The ground will be very different, mind, so a stayer has to be fancied if the leading contenders don’t take the fancy.
Here Greg Wood’s tips for the final day. Thursday saw the favourites get gubbed across the field. Greg has picked a former winner for the big one.
His dismal run when favourite for the Betfair Chase in November, the first time in 15 starts over fences he had finished out of the frame, was the result of an infection picked up in transit to Haydock, while a freak knock to a joint immediately before the Savills Chase in December ruled him out of that race.
De Bromhead decided to keep him fresh for the Festival after that minor setback and he reports A Plus Tard has been showing all the right signs on the gallops. It is encouraging, too, that his string has been in excellent form this week, with a winner each afternoon.
Galopin Des Champs is clearly a rising talent, but, like Bravemansgame, he needs to prove himself on the climb to the line. There are no such doubts about A Plus Tard (3.30) and he is an excellent bet at the available odds to become the second dual Gold Cup winner since 2003.
Barry Glendenning was at Prestbury Park yesterday to see the master of Ditchcheat – and formerly Cheltenham – break his duck.
Nicholls has masterminded victory in far more prestigious Festival races but could not have looked more pleased at having finally put one over on the combined forces of Irish raiders sent into battle by Mullins and Gordon Elliott after so long. The Turners Novice Chase may not be the stuff from which racing dreams are made, but Stage Star’s win at least ended something of a nightmare for his relieved trainer as far as this particular meeting is concerned.
It’s not that he’s lost his touch. Far from it, in fact. Nicholls continues to send out winners at a prodigious rate, currently leads the jumps trainers’ championship with winnings of almost £3m this season and before Thursday had saddled 19 Group One winners in England and Ireland since his Cheltenham cold streak began, after Politologue’s victory in the Queen Mother Champion Chase three years ago.
Preamble
Greg Wood
For the first time all week, there is actually a faint whiff of spring in the air at Cheltenham this morning, mingling with the scent of the foot-long sausages sizzling on the frankfurter stand by the entrance as a capacity crowd begins to stream into the racecourse. Which is just as it should be on Gold Cup morning, when one of the season’s most storied and venerable races is just a few hours away.
It is 99 years since Red Splash landed the first Cheltenham Gold Cup at 5-1, and preparations are well under way to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, including a plan (and please don’t ask me why) to take the trophy to the highest points in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. But first, there is the serious business of the 94th running of the staying chasers’ championship event this afternoon, for which 13 runners will be at the post at 3.30.
They include the last two winners, A Plus Tard and Minella Indo, though the market has a clear-cut view on the prospects of Henry de Bromhead’s two runners with Rachael Blackmore’s mount priced up as the 5-1 second favourite to repeat last year’s success, and Minella Indo on offer at 20-1.
The opposition includes Noble Yeats, last year’s Grand National winner, who would be only the third horse to win both races if he comes home in front, and the first to do so after winning at Aintree first. Bravemansgame, the King George winner, is bidding to give Paul Nicholls a fifth Gold Cup, which would tie the all-time record held by Arkle’s trainer, Tom Dreaper, while the certain favourite is Galopin Des Champs, from the Willie Mullins stable. He was a winner here over hurdles in 2021, but remains most famous, or infamous, among Festival-goers for his last-fence departure in 2022 with the Turners Novice Chase at his mercy.
Seven runners are looking to extend Ireland’s current win streak in the Gold Cup to five – and on St Patrick’s Day, too – and the visitors currently have the favourite in six of the day’s races after a gamble on Dan Skelton’s Pembroke pushed him to the head of the market for the County Hurdle at 2.10. After beating the British 5-2 on each of the first three days, this could yet be the afternoon when it ends up as a 7-0 thrashing for the first time.
As ever, the Guardian’s live blog will be the place to find the entire cavalcade of news, views, results and even high-speed in-running race commentaries, and the action on the track gets underway, as ever, with the Triumph Hurdle at 1.30.