Day 3 of the Cheltenham Festival is St. Patrick’s Thursday and the Irish will be hoping to run riot. Leading owner JP McManus has a particularly strong team on Thursday, with four well fancied runners across the seven races. With that in mind, the bookies won’t want to see these horses come in so we’ve put them into a Lucky 15. MyRacing will provide free tips from every race at the Cheltenham Festival and our Day 3 selections are available to view here.
Jeriko Du Reponent looked like he might be near the top of the tree as a novice hurdler last term but things didn’t quite go to plan. He got back on track with a fine run when upped to 2m7f in a qualifier for this last month and stayed on well. A top four finish was all that was needed and he looks potentially very well handicapped.
Fact To File began the campaign by beating stablemate Galopin Des Champs over an exended 2m3f at Punchestown and has been well beaten by him in two starts since. Willie Mullins’ gelding was dominant in the Brown Advisory here last season and remains very much the one they all have to beat.
Jagwar has been well fancied for a Cheltenham Festival handicap for most of the season and it’s interesting that he lines up here rather than in the novice option. This progressive chaser has won three of his four starts over fences, including a course and distance success last time out, and there could be more to come before the handicapper catches up.
Johnnywho was a winner over fences at Carlisle in October and has finished third in three graded races since. You can’t help but feel that this has been the target for the entire season and we haven’t seen the best of him yet. He shaped like a strong stayer as a novice hurdler and Derek O’Connor has been booked for the ride.
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