Anyone planning to keep their eye on the ball this National Hunt season would want to be up bright and early, as lots of the top horses’ campaigns are already under way.
This weekend, if you want some Cheltenham festival pointers, I suggest you don’t have a mad one on Saturday night because Sunday is back to back with phenomenal racing.
At Cheltenham, we have Sprinter Sacre PLEASE GOD making a comeback in the Shloer Chase at 2.10. It’s startling to think that this once 188-rated “one of the all time greats” chaser is around the 5/2 mark to win this Grade 2, but this Pegasus seems to have lost his wings.
Plagued by serious health problems, last season was utterly inconclusive in determining whether he should be written off, having been pulled up twice, yet having 2 encouraging runner-up efforts to keep the dream alive for us legions of fans.
I’ve lost money on this horse, but will back him, not because my head tells me to, but because my heart does.
The Greatwood Hurdle at 2.40 isnt the pointer for the Champion Hurdle that it once was, but its a nice competitive race for having a flutter.
Trainer John Fergusson gets a lot of classy flat horses and transforms them into smart National Hunt performers, but these speedy types aren’t always good at getting up the hill at Cheltenham. However, his Devilment has shown he can already and although he shoulders plenty of weight, I think he’s likely to run into a place.
At home at Punchestown, I’d say I’ve more chance of being Johhny Depp’s third wife than Nichols Canyon has of beating Faugheen. Neither scenarios are impossible (fingers crossed) but will remain in the confines of our imagination I suspect. He’s awesome. He’s phenomenal, and its amazing to think that his hit-and-miss jumping is an irrelevance, because he is that good…
In the 1.05 Craddockstown Chase, Sizing John returns to Punchestown where he was last seen making a winning start over the bigger obstacles. He was good that day and got better the further into the race he got. He has a bit of a way to go to convince me he’s an Arkle horse yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing him take on Lord Scoundrel, from the mightiily in form Gordon Elliot yard.
But before super Sunday, we’ve got the Paddy Power Gold Cup on Saturday. I hate trying to get to the bottom on these type of races, but I might shell out a small each-way sum on ART MAURESQUE and I expect John’s Spirit to run another cracking race again.
This article was brought to you by Ladbrokes.
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