Cheltenham Chat...A Round Up

10 Days to go!

Its getting seriously close now to the Cheltenham Festival...less than 2 wees to go till arguably the single greatest day in jumps racing with 4 Grade 1 races on the opening day of the Festival and plenty more to come throughout the week. In this blog I'll round up some of the action and chat from this week, some good gossip and some of the best bookie offers for us punters to lap up!

Preview Night Gossip

Always take information you hear at these preview nights with a pinch of salt; they are great fun and you hear all sorts of chat but a lot of the time the pundits do play to the audience! Still here are a few lines I've heard from the last week:

• Not a preview night as such but Jonny Burke nominates Grand Gesture in a 3 mile handicap race at the festival as his best bet (Thanks to the Final Furlong for this great interview)
• Another cracker from the FF Pod; a top interview with Rich Ricci who nominated his Cheltenham lucky 15 as Faugheen, Annie Power, Champagne Fever and....Blood Cotil.
• Davy Russell would 'walk to Cheltenham in my(my being Davy) underpants top ride Coneygree' and thinks he should go to the RSA. He also wouldn't swap Lord Windermere for anything in the Gold Cup

Will we see this man in his underpants??

• The Druids Nephew has been touted round a few of these previews already in the handicaps.
• Tony McCoy says Jezki is his best chance at the festival, and he won't retire at the end of it!

General Cheltenham News

Now some general info and chat about horses, riders and races at the festival

• The Young Master goes for the RSA and Barry Geraghty rides. The trainer and jockey have a great strike rate when lining up together, ignore the highly progressive horse at your peril.
• Sam Twiston-Davis will ride Blaklion for NTD in the Albert Bartlett. I guess Nige wants the best jockey, and sentimentally his son, on his horse in the big occasion despite not having ridden him in public over hurdles for a while. Also young Ryan Hatch wouldn't be able to use his valuable claim on Blaklion in this race as it is a Grade 1.
• Nigel TD also thinks that The New One should be joint favorite for the Champion Hurdle, not too sure Nigel! Watching last year's race back I really don't think TNO was an unlucky loser; OK he was unfortunate to get seriously checked by the sad fall of Our Conor mid race but this only served to stop him getting involved in the cut throat battle at the front of the race. This meant that TNO could run on past a tired Fly in the latter moments but to say he would have won without being checked in running is a serious shout and not one I agree with.
• Sam TD rates Sire Collonges as his best chance of the festival...in the Cross Country race!
• Plenty of money has come for Annie Power in the World Hurdle. With More of That definitely our of the race (news we heard at the start of the race) could Willie be tempted to let Glens Melody win the Mares race and let Annie have another go at the World Hurdle?
• Noel Fehily will ride Zarkandar in the World Hurdle, leaving the prize mount on Rock on Ruby up for Grabs. However McCoy has said he will ride At Fishers Cross if he runs in the race, Ruby Walsh could be on Annie Power....so who will get this top spare?
• The Tullow Tank heads for the JLT
• Art of Payroll, given good ground, will go for the novice handicap chase.
• Jason Maguire definitely misses Cheltenham for the 2nd year in succession after his appeal against a 14 day ban for Schooling in Public was tossed out of court. Desperately unlucky for the jockey especially after his awful fall before last year's festival.
• Nico De Boinville will get back on board Coneygree whereever he goes for the festival, but will that be the Gold Cup or the RSA?? Still entered in both Sara Bradstock is saying this week that the faster the ground the more likely the horse will end up in the RSA but he is working very well. However if the ground is too quick it'll be nothing!

Coneygree, a beautiful jumper, on his way to victory at Newbury

• Harry Fry thinks Thomas Brown will improve for a step up in trip, says he has been crying out for it, and he will be going for the Albert Bartlett.
• Un Ace has had a wind operation since his last run and is highly likely to go in a handicap, either the Festival Plate or the Grand Annual.
• Alan King wants to send Uxizandre to the Ryanair, thinks Ned Stark is better than ever and thinks Balder Succes has stepped forward now they have his trip right.
• Jonjo O'Neil is seriously tempted by a handicap race for Taquin Du Seuil, formerly targeted at the Gold Cup. The wise trainer, who is coming into some serious form at the right time of season, appreciates TDS doesn't want 3 miles now and thinks his handicap rating could make him ripe for one of those races at Chetenham.
• Ritchie McLernon picks up the ride on Holywell with AP riding Carlingford Lough.
• Sadly for John Quinn his prize mare Aurore D'Estruval will miss the Mares hurdle this year after missing a bit of work recently due to injury. She will now go to Aintree or Punchestown later in the season, hoepfully for the stable she can pick up a big prize at one of those meetings.

Bookie Offers

• William Hill are doing a great offer on the Supreme...all losing bets, up to £25, will be refunded! End of! The refund comes as a free bet but this looks like being one offer you cannot pass up on, you don't need the favorite to win, you don't need your horse to lose...as long as you don't win you get refunded. Make sure to bet online though, in store you are limited to £10 and the £10 is refunded as a bet to be used on a Handicap on the Tuesday, nowhere near as good an offer.
• Paddy Power are also hitting us with a great offer on the festival opening day. You're stake (£50 max this time)refunded as a free bet if either Douvan or Un De Sceaux win their respective races if you have a bet in that race. Not quite as good as the William Hill offer but Paddy do their offer on the Supreme and the Arkle.
• Star Sports are doing a £50 matched bet on the night if you get along to the London Racing Club preview night on Tuesday, details of this night and a great panel below. The London Racing Club always do a load of great events, their pre-season preview night was great craic, so I'd highly recommend joining us at this one for three hours full of Cheltenham chat!

• However a little nugget from a Ladbrookes rep...Don't back Douvan until the Monday before Cheltenham...is that a little enhancement on the horison???

That'll do for now. I'm sure I've missed plenty but there is just so much news coming think and fast that I've tried to pick out a few bits that sound interesting, hopefully you can use these to your advantage!

Cheers for reading

Alex