Welcome to this year’s Cheltenham Festival mini jury. Matthew Newman and Adrian Wall will share their Naps and Outsiders for the big week. Check out our Cheltenham Festival Tips for each day of what should be a sublime week of racing.
There are a lot of very short prices at the moment so I’m going to take a chance with a bigger priced NAP in the form of The Glancing Queen (8-1) in the Plate Handicap Chase. She also holds an entry in the Mares’ Chase but she has a stone to find there. This will suit much better.
Runner-up to L’Homme Presse in the Dipper when last in action, she was in front of Fantastikas, Oscar Elite and Come On Teddy that day, three who are well touted up for other handicaps at the meeting. She’s a gorgeous scopey mare and a mark of 141 looks very tempting in a race where the favourite is a ten-year-old.
It might be unoriginal but I am on Tiger Roll (13-8) at 5-2 for the Cross Country Chase for a while now and I think that represents great value. If he turns up in top form, he should win this race by half the track. Now a best priced 13-8 shot, it looks like Davy Russell will partner him for what will be his final run on a racecourse.
There is no doubt that as soon as he obliterated the field in this race last year that he was going to be minded for this race. Forget the fact he has produced some dismal runs since his win here last season. It would be very foolish to think Gordon Elliott isn’t going to have him at his very very best and when he wins the roof will come off the stands.
He’s massively left field but Party Poker (50-1) is interesting in the Cross Country Chase. He was hugely progressive in the 2019-20 season when talked about as an Irish National type having stayed on well into fourth late on in the Paddy Power at Leopardstown at Christmas.
Poker Party made his reappearance this season in that same race off the back of nearly 22 months on the sidelines. He made steady progress down the back, moving nicely into contention coming to two out before the lack of a run told.
A drop to two and a half miles and a run over hurdles last time was no help to him but he is said to be really enjoying these types of fences at home by trainer Henry de Bromhead and shapes as if he will improve for a marathon trip.
I think that Beacon Edge (16-1) has been totally forgotten about in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase and his price is an insult. A very classy hurdler in his time, he was only beaten half a length by Honeysuckle when third in the 2020 Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse, giving her 7lb on the day. He beat Fury Road in the Boyne Hurdle last February over 2m5f, a horse that went on to win a Grade 1 over Christmas at Leopardstown.
Beacon Edge went on to finish fourth in the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival last season and he brings a lot of class to this year’s Festival Novices’ Chase. He won the Drinmore over an inadequate trip when hitting 100 in running, hitting the line hard which would suggest this test will be right up his street.
An early faller in the Ladbrokes Novice Chase at Leopardstown, he ran a brilliant race in defeat when narrowly beaten by Farouk D’Alene at Navan over 3m. He had to give a classy rival 7lb on the day so that effort can be marked up and I personally can’t see him out of the first three at Cheltenham.
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