6 months today…

(or 26 weeks today in old money) the old boy starter will mount his rostrum, shout at the jockeys for a few moments (well, ever job has to have its perks) and then commence the 2020 edition of the ‘Cheltenham Festival’. With that in mind now seems the perfect opportunity to ask the membership, right here, right now, what is your best recommendation re the ’20 Festival. This can be any type of bet be it single, double, treble, Yankee or anything in fact.

Mine would be an each-way double on -

SANTINI (CGC, 12/1).
DICKIE DIVER (RSA, 33/1).

That is mine. Crew, what are you advising????

 

Delta Work GC @14s

 

HEART OF A LION 25/1 Festival bumper
Looked a horse that will go on improving when making a winning bumper debut at Southwell. The second and the third have both come out and won since. It would be an odd place for the bumper winner to start his career but we all remember Cue Card dont we.....

 

Ballymore Novices Hurdle

Dlauro 25/1 e/w.

 

Chacun pour soi has been put up by Ricci Richi as his next big thing.

 

Does anyone buy this Altior up in trip malarkey?

 

In a word, ‘no’.

I said recently on here that, in my opinion, it’s simply an afterthought now that it is, perceived, that Altior has lost some of his speed. And at approaching 10 it’s all a bit ‘late in the day’ for me as well.

But don’t forget we shouldn’t be totally dismissive as Lieutenant Henderson’s brilliant brain and magic hands will be overseeing the whole operation.

 

I'd be surprised if Altior didn't step up in trip for the King George. I don't see why, with his engine he wouldn't cope with 2.5 miles, and 3 miles at Kempton is probably not much different than 2.5 miles at somewhere like Sandown, provided good ground at Kempton

 

3 miles is 3 miles.

 

Cheltenham 2020 is alll about ALTIOR

 

I was really impressed with how Klassical Dream won the supreme so will be interesting to see which route he goes but I am hoping Al Dancer goes over fences this season (not sure if that is confirmed) and I can see him being a real contender for the Arkle. Think he's a monster of a horse and for some reason wasn't right last March.

 

I backed Klassical Dream for the Champion Hurdle at 10/1 because he looked a bit special. It was tragic that reigning champ passed away and Klassical Dream is now 7/2 but knowing my record he'll probably find a way to get beaten. It would seem madness to go anywhere else with Klassical Dream with the Champion Hurdle crying out for a quality act.

So many of the horses hold multiple entries at Cheltenham and it makes for few Ante-Post options. Of the horses I felt may have Cheltenham potential Andy Dufresne stood out for me and the Gordon Elliott trained Doyen gelding was purchased by J P McManus shortly before dotting up in a Bumper. The runner up won the next twice before being out of his depth in the Punchestown Champion Bumper but his best RPR of 128 makes Andy Dufresne look a decent prospect wherever he goes. Looking at the odds for a horse to win ANY race at Cheltenham, I saw Andy Dufresne at 10/1 but that's a bit skinny for me. Maybe JP can invest and get back some of the £335,000 he paid for the big, raw, rough diamond who won a PTP on his only other start.

 

I would have thought Pentland Hills was more of a stayer than a 2 mile horse. Still with Lieutenant Henderson’s brilliant brain and magic hands etc, etc.

This might get scoffed at but re the ’20 Champion Hurdle if he were mine I’d be tempted to chuck Altior into it. I still think it one of life’s great mysteries why the owners went for the ’17 Arkle rather than that years CH (the trainer wasn’t moaning as he had the winner anyway). Switching from hurdles to fences and back to hurdles may make the racing purists (remember them?!?) wince but he would have won that years very poor renewal (rather than the far less prestigious and less valuable ‘Meghan Markle’) by a long way in my humble opinion.

Altior would have 5 possible options (sone very unlikely admittedly) at the Festival and just where does he go??? Champion Chase (has seemingly lost a bit of pace and its suspected he might get done for toe), Ryainair (oh pa-la-ease!), Stayers Hurdle (no), CGC (that Charlie Slater remark springs to mind), Champion Hurdle. Some of those CH races develop into right slogs and wars of attrition often suited to horses who, in effect, are really 20 furlong animals so it has to be an option, at any rate, for the old boy.

 

He has one option in my book. The QMCC.

 

Most likely, by far, I agree. In fact it could be argued that those bookie chappies are taking a huge risk by going 4/1 about a horse who since ’16 is 4/4 at the meet and has won the past 2 runnings of the race. Normally a horse with such a profile would be a lot, lot shorter – even 6 months before the event.