First off Ste, Charlie boy has the WORST Festival record of anyone currently training! Take a good long look at the fellas to avoid, some surprising names in there! Charlie Longsdon 0-45 Tom George 0-43 Tim Vaughan 0-38 Nick Williams 0-35 Henry Daly 0-33 John Ferguson 0-28 Paul Webber 0-27 Martin Keighley 0-27 Peter Bowen 0-26 Charlie Mann 0-24 Nick Gifford 0-23 Nicky Richards 0-23 Ian Williams 0-22 Victor Dartnell 0-20 KILCOOLEY is obviously at or near the very top of the tree as far as staying hurdlers go but he has a long absence to overcome. He hasn't had a bad injury but he has had niggle after niggle. He is however a fantastic price based on what he has done. Charlie will have him as good as he can be or else he will miss this and go to Aintree but even so the lack of a recent run when taking on the top hurdlers is a huge negative. The horse that the yard have the highest hopes for when it comes to breaking the festival duck is OUR KAEMPFER in the Pertemps. Last seen in the Fixed Brush at Haydock when backed by this whole forum he was shockingly unlucky to get brought down. He has been given time to get over that and goes well fresh. The rumour at the yard is that he is the best handicapped horse that they have ever sent to the Festival. It is the Pertemps however and we all know there will be more than one plot horse in the line-up. He would be the one that I would recommend. Looking at the list above it wouldn't surprise me if John Ferguson were to break his duck this year. Has a nice one in the bumper and a few with chances in the hurdle races.
Crikey there are some bad stats there. Another I've read is Tom Scu being 0/94 on his Cheltenham festival hurdlers. That said on none of those 94 occasions has been on Thistlecrack.
Cheers Ardent, easy win by PSG! Down to Leicester next year to fly the flag for the PL in the Champions League
