A Weekend In Cheltenham

The Cheltenham November meeting took centre stage this week, but for a second it was touch and go if the meeting would go ahead, the Friday of the usual three day meeting was abandoned due to them getting over 37mm of rain, leaving the course waterlogged in places. All the grounds men and staff managed to do an amazing job to give the Saturday and Sunday the go ahead, with the course going amazingly only soft, heavy in places.

We’ll start on Saturday with the Ballymore novices hurdle, this was won impressively by the Persian War winner Thyme Hill, in doing so he’s well and truly put himself in with a shout for the Ballymore come the festival (14/1) it was interesting that his trainer Phillip Hobbs said that he could be a 3m horse on decent ground, which has seen him also get a few quotes for the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle (14/1).

Next up we had the Triumph Hurdle Trial, there was a hot favourite for this race in Mick Pastor, but the race didn’t go to the Nicholls trained horse, it was instead won by Allmankind for Dan and Harry Skelton. This was an impressive performance, for him to make all the running and race so freely and still be able to find something on the run in is worth taking note of, he is definitely one to keep an eye on wherever he turns up next.

Wholestone picked up his 2nd chase win in decent style giving away weight to a few in the field, placed in a Stayers hurdle and clearly acts well around Cheltenham, but I’m not to sure which race I’d rather him go for come March, he clearly gets 3m but i don’t think he’s an out and out stayer and will be better over a shorter trip. 

It was 16 times lucky for West Approach, who finally managed to get his head in front in what was a superb ride by Robbie Power. He knew he that West 

had to be delivered late as possible and that’s exactly what he did, came upside before the last and soon powered clearly up the hill. His next race looks to be the Ladbrokes Trophy (14/1) at the end of the month. Now they know exactly how to ride him you could see him possibly going really close.

The big race of the day was the BetVictor Gold Cup which went the way of Kerry Lee trained Happy Diva, who for me has deserved a big pot like this having not finished out the first three when completing over fences, she was unlucky in this race last year, when travelling well before being brought down with four to jump. She only managed to win by a neck to the Nicholls trained Brelan D’As who himself looks to have a big race in him in the near future. But the one which most people will want to take out of the race is Slate House, he put in a couple of sketchy jumps before making an eye catching move to go level with the leaders 2 out before knuckling on landing. He looked very much like the winner, if he would of won is a different matter but he’s gone up 6lb for the fall.

Sunday we saw Al Dancer and Getaway Trump lock horns again after their previous meeting at Cheltenham last month, but surprisingly it was neither of them that finished with their head in front, this was Henry De Bromhead’s Put The Kettle On. She lead all the way and jumped well throughout winning fairly easy by 2 lengths in the end. Once again Getaway Trump came there around the home turn looking like the winner before making a mistake at the second last which cost really hindered his challenge, better ground and we should see a different horse entirely, if he’s an Arkle contender only time will really tell. 

The Shloer chase on paper looked a real cracker and it didn’t disappoint, Politologue made all the running and was jumping extremely well before hitting the last, but I still feel he was a sitting duck for Defi Du Seuil, who should a terrific turn of foot on ground he wouldn’t really like to power up the hill to victory. In doing so he’s put himself in with a real shout for the Champion Chase in March (7/1), he loves Cheltenham and has that terrific turn of foot, which would see him trouble all horses. His next race looks likely to be the Tingle Creek at Sandown next month which indicates they are heading down the Champion Chase route.

The feature race on the Sunday was the Unibet Greatwood Hurdle, which was won by the Alan King trained Harambe, was held up for the majority of the race before making headway and staying on well to get past the long time leader Monsieur Lecoq who eventually finished 3rd being picked off by Gumball in the closing stages. Harambe has always looked to have a big run in him, which he showed last season at Sandown finishing 2nd in the Novice Championship final, he also looks like he will be one to watch over a fence in the future. I wouldn’t give up on Quel Destin who clearly found it hard carrying top weight around against the older horses, Also Humble Hero for the Skeltons who needs much better ground than what it was on Sunday.

At Punchestown on the Sunday we also saw a couple of horses making their seasonal reappearance, the main race was the Morgiana Hurdle which saw Willie Mullins send three runners, those being Klassical Dream, Sharjah and Saldier, many expected last seasons Supreme winner to get his Champion Hurdle campaign off to a winning start, but nobody told Saldier about that who won himself really well. This was his first start back after a lengthy lay off due to breaking his nose falling last time. In winning the race he has gone from 16/1 to 5/1 joint favourite with dual winner Buveur D’Air for the Champion Hurdle come March. 

Also on the day Blue Sari was another winner for Willie winning well on hurdling debut and adding another form boost to what was a super Champion Bumper last year.

Finally it was also good to see some old faces returning to the winners enclosure, be it starting a new discipline or of a lengthy lay off. Firstly Douvan was back with a bang in the Clomnel Oil Chase returning from over 500 days off the race track to win easily but 9 lengths. Then their was Faugheen who was having his chase debut at the grand old age of 11, he as well won comfortably by 7 lengths. Last but not least Yanworh winning the Risk Of Thunder Chase, he didn’t do it as easy as the other two but the main thing is he got his head back in front and it will be lovely too see them all go forward again this season.

Thanks again for reading, back next week where we hopefully have the showdown with Cyrname and Altior! Plus the Betfair Chase at Haydock.