Cheltenham Festival 2011 Preview

From Tuesday 15^th to Friday 19^th of March, the standout event in the horseracing calendar, the Cheltenham Festival will be taking place. A week of emerging heroes, fallen dreams, drama and excitement is in the offing as the best horses in the business go up against each other for the most prestigious national hunt prizes.

On Tuesday the highlight of the day is the Champion Hurdle, which looks to be as keenly contested as ever this year. My money is on Menorah; the Phillip Hobbs trained 6-year-old offers a strong chance having won twice at Cheltenham already this season, showing a frightening turn of foot when beating Cue Card last time out. He won the Supreme Novices Hurdle last year; always a sure sign of a potential Champion Hurdler and is saddled by the dependable Richard Johnson. His biggest challenge could perhaps come from the Willie Mullins’ trained Irish raider Hurricane Fly, who is unbeaten this season, but is an unknown quantity outside of Ireland. Last year’s winner and A.P. McCoy favourite Binocular can never be discounted, while many punters fancy the unbeaten Peddlers Cross, who also won at the Festival last year.

Meanwhile, Cue Card is expected to justify strong favouritism to land the Supreme Novices Hurdle, although he could face stiff competition from Recession Proof who was impressive in winning at Newbury last weekend. In the Arkle Chase, Medermit is strongly fancied, but I definitely believe this horse can be beaten; it may be worth taking a gamble on Captain Chris, who has been consistently impressive in this his breakthrough season.

On to Wednesday, and the highlight is certainly the Queen Mother Champion Chase. The line-up oozes class; Big Zeb is likely to go off favourite after his dominating victory in this race last year, but it looks as if the classy two times winner of the race Master Minded will be lining up alongside him in a bid to regain his crown. This could be a fascinating battle, but it would be unwise to rule out Somersby, who may have something to say about the outcome if he is on song.

One of the safest bets of the festival is surely Time For Rupert in the RSA Chase provided he jumps well, and it remains to be seen whether the Paul Nicholls trained Aitenthirtythree can come of age to mount a serious challenge. The Coral Cup has always been something of a lottery due to the big field, but if I had to make a selection I would say that Get Me Out Of Here should provide good each-way value.

Thursday’s World Hurdle exhibits one of the greats in Big Bucks; the powerhouse has incredibly won his previous ten races and is bidding to secure a hat-trick of world hurdle victories. This year he faces a young pretender in Grands Crus, who was mightily impressive winning at Cheltenham a few weeks ago, and David Pipe will no doubt have got his crown jewel in great shape for this one.

The Ryanair Chase is always a memorable clash of top-class steeplechasers and this year Poquelin looks set to head the market after a fine run last time out, but he is not consistent enough for me. There are plenty in with shouts and the Birmingham based Weird Al could be an interesting proposition should he run.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is the pinnacle for jumps horses, jockeys and trainers and on Friday this should be the theatre for some fantastic entertainment as the usual suspects lock horns once again. Those connected with Imperial Commander will be confident that he can repeat last year’s success when he surprised many punters by beating the favourites Kauto Star and Denman, who will be seeking retribution. A lot has been said about the in-form Nicky Henderson’s young horse Long Run, who was superb in putting his rivals to the sword in the King George Chase at Kempton Park in January, while Irish horse Pandorama could be in with an outside chance, having only failed to win one of his trips over fences. It is a mouth-watering reunion and a race that is bound to be filled with excitement and drama.

So get down to your nearest bookies, place some bets, and sit back and enjoy the ‘Sport of Kings’. It promises to be a week of five star entertainment!