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Two down, two to go. We’re halfway through the Cheltenham odyssey and in keeping with the theme of the last few days, we’ll keep up to date with all the latest news, results and snipey remarks on our blog.
CURRENT “HELL OF A HORSE” COUNT: 2 (+ one “Hell Of A Fall”)
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5.02pm It was a day for the British horses and the bookies alike as they regained ground they lost in yesterday’s carnage. The Hell Of A Horse Count was disappointingly low, but then again fancied Irish runners were few and far between. With the two short price favourites being beaten, it was a difficult day for the majority of punters but with Gold Cup day to come, remember the words of a famous rock band and Don’t Stop Believing.
There’ll be a lot more rambling interspersed with occassional tidbits of useful information tomorrow.
4.52pm Another kick in the pants for punters as the heavily backed Poker De Sivola fails to deliver in the last race of Day 3. Coming over the final fence it looked like 6 or 7 of them had a chance, but it was Character Building who took the honours.
The result
1st Character Building 16/1
2nd Pretty Star
3rd Newbray Prop
4th Bowleaze
Super extra bonus place 5th Butler’s Cabin
4.30pm
Kim Muir Chase Preview
Poker De Sivola has been well backed all day and since I was rather caught on the hop, the value has long since gone so I won’t be backing him. That’s not to say he won’t win, but I’d like a bigger price in a 24 runner handicap. Call me old fashioned, but I’d be looking for more bang for my guinea in a race like this. That’s why in short, I’m going for Le Duc who has won around Cheltenham before and will surely restore my faith in the course and distance form I so dearly cherish.
4.20pm It turns out that Paul Carberry suffered a punctured lung in his fall off Jaamid in the Jewson. That’s pretty nasty so obviously he won’t be riding again at the Fesitval. I once had a puncture, but I was able to fix it with a puncture repair kit and a couple of spoons. I’d imagine this puncture might be more difficult to repair.
4.15pm Channel 4 decide that watching Noel Edmonds prance around opening a load of boxes is more entertaining than the Kim Muir Chase. It’s over to Racing UK for the last race of the day and as always, you can watch live streaming online on the condition that you have a €/£5 bet on the race. What’s that you say? That’s a great deal. It certainly is, Mr. Imaginary Conversation.
4.08pm It’s called Ladies’ Day but they way things have gone today, it should probably be rebranded Venetia Williams Day. Something Wells and Ping Pong De Sivola provided a one-two for Williams to go along with the win of Kayf Aramis earlier in the afternoon.
The result
1st Something Wells 33/1
2nd Ping Pong De Sivola
3rd Notable D’Estruval
4th Three Mirrors
Super extra bonus place 5th Cossack Dancer
3.42pm
Freddie Williams Chase Preview
Right, the two big favourites of the day got turned over and it’s not going to get any better in the Freddie Williams Chase. Going against Ruby at the moment looks extremely foolish, but Oslot looks like he has just too much weight to carry in a really competitive race. Finger Onthe Pulse needs to improve but he’s knows his way around here and looks a solid bet.
3.30pm Finally, a winner! I had forgotten what that felt like. Kasbah Bliss fails to justify favouritism as Big Bucks claims the second Championship race of the Festival for the Walsh/Nicholls combination.
The result
1st Big Bucks 6/1
2nd Punchestowns
3rd Kasbah Bliss
3.05pm I quite like that Hokey Pokey market phrase I came up with yesterday and thankfully, the betting for the World Hurdle gives me a chance to wheel it out again and give myself a nice firm pat on the back. Kasbah Bliss drifted earlier, but the money has come for him again, Punchestowns has gone in and back out throughout the day and Big Bucks is doing something similar.
2.50pm A couple of jumping mistakes didn’t help Voy Por Ustedes and Imperial Commander held on to claim the Ryanair Chase.
The result
1st Imperial Commander 6/1
2nd Voy Por Ustedes
3rd Schindlers Hunt
2.32pm As promised, here’s some bitchiness about what the women are wearing.
OMG! What’s that fashion reporter on Channel 4 wearing??! How many Kevin Keegan perms had to die for that?
2.12pm Kayf Aramis takes the spoils in the Pertemps Final:
The result
1st Kayf Aramis 16/1
2nd Buena Vista
3rd Pennek
4th The Sliotar
Super extra bonus place 5th Green Mile
2.02pm They’ve been very scarce today, but Ted Walsh has provided us with our second Hell Of A Horse of the day.
1.54pm Paul Carberry has been stood down for the day after a bad fall in the Jewson and news not unrelated to that has reached the Live Blog desk.
Not content with having all the best horses, Paul Nicholls has to be one of the shredest judges in the business. We gave him a £500 Charity Bet and he chose to stick it on Chapotureon in the last race. That means there’s around £4,000 of our money heading to the Injured Jockeys’ Fund. Fair play Mr. Nicholls.
1.41pm
World Hurdle Preview
Weighing up all the evidence, you’d have to think Kasbah Bliss is an absolute banker for the World Hurdle. Course form, good recent form and no Inglis Drever to contend with - he has a lot in his favour - but the market moves have given the race a different complexion. The French horse hasn’t been massively popular while Big Bucks has been tipped up in many quarters as the value bet of the race and Punchestowns is being spoken about in glowing terms. It could be a tale of two jockeys because on one hand we’ve got the French jockey who has been criticised by various people for his style and on the other we’ve got Ruby who was imperious yesterday. Big Bucks offers enough value to make it worth opposing the favourite.
1.36pm What looked to be a tricky puzzle was made to look very simple as Chapoturgeon hacked up in the opener on Day 3.
The result
1st Chapoturgeon 8/1
2nd Isn’t That Lucky
3rd Cresent Island
4th Northern Alliance
1.15pm The market moves of earlier have continued in the betting for the Jewson Novices’ Chase. Isn’t That Lucky is in to 10/1 and Astarador is 20/1. At the top of the market, Kia Kaha is at 7/1 for the McCoy/McManus/O’Neill partnership.
12.27pm We get a “Hell Of A Fall” from that lad on Racing UK. It’s a slow day, so I’m counting it.
12.22pm Francois Doumen is interviewed on Racing UK about Kasbah Bliss. Sadly he doesn’t give us the holy grail of “Hell Of A Horses” - “Il Est un enfer de un cheval” - but he is extremely bullish about his runner. “My only regrest is that Inglis Drever isn’t running, because if he was, we’d kick his ass as well as all the others,” he pretty much said, although we may be paraphrasing to an certain extent.
11.57am If you’ve already picked out your winners for today, then why not try our brainteasing brainteaser, See It, Say It? See, you can’t think of a valid reason not to.
11.55am
Ryanair Chase Preview
On all the form, Voy Por Ustedes is the nailed on winner. He’s beaten most of these horses at various stages in the past and he’d have to seriously underperform to lose this one. Tidal Bay is a remarkable horse - in his 18 races, he hasn’t finished out of the places once, winning 10 times, but his remarkable consistency just reinforces the fact that he’s not quite good enough to displace Voy Por. If you’re looking for a bit more value, you could probably do worse than the straight forecast of Voy Por Ustedes to beat Tidal Bay (click on the Fore/Tricasts tab).
Watch what the experts have to say about Thursday at Cheltenham
11.43am In that exciting bit of breaking Journey news, I think I might have found where the idea for Cousin Vinny’s silks came from:
11.25am We have some exciting Journey related breaking news coming soon, but before that, something altogether more practical and less tight-panted, the Market Movers of the morning.
Jewson Chase
There have been a couple of slight changes to the market leades, but possibly the one to look out for is Isn’t That Lucky who has had some early support and has been trimmed from 12s into 11/1. Astrador has come in from 28/1 to 22/1 after a lot of each way money.
Pertemps Final
Don’t Push It has been trimmed to 13/2 from 7/1, but the big move has been for Ballydub who’s currently 15/2 after opening at 9/1 this morning. Galient is the outsider that has been well backed moving from 20s in to 16/1.
Ryanair Chase
Voy Por Ustedes was a short price favourite and he’s now a shorter price favourite, moving from 11/10 to EVS. Imperial Commander is going the other way, drifting from 5s out to 6/1.
World Hurdle
Kasbah Bliss was 5/4 earlier and he’s now available at 6/5.
Freddie Williams Chase
We assume it has nothing to do with Paddy tipping him up, but Notable D’estruval has been supported from 9/1 in to 8s with 2nd favourite, Clarified moving in the other direction.
Kim Muir Chase
It’s all about Poker De Sivola in the amateurs’ race with the David Pipe trained horse now at 9/2 after being as big as 6/1 this morning.
10.50am Choc Thornton has been to the medical centre and the course doctor has declared him fit to ride to day. In less widely reported news, the course hairdresser has declared his hair “Awesome” and fit to join Journey on their World Tour (that’s surely him playing the piano).
10.31am
Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle Preview
After starring blankly at the screen for several minutes, I still don’t have a clue [that reminds me, play our snazzy and not at all ripped off game, Cheltenham Katchphrase where you can win €100/£100 in Free Bets from about 1pm today]. The Pertemps Hurdle is full of good horses in bad form, bad horses in good form and a load of middling horses in middling form. I’m going to indulge in a spot of favourite backing and go for Don’t Push It because he wasn’t too far behind the highly rated Big Bucks last time out at Cheltenham.
10.10am Doubtless clean-shaven, freshly showered after a 5 mile early morning run with a spring in his step, a song in his heart and absolutely no trace of Guinness-breath, Paddy has emerged from the e-wilderness to announce his first tip of the day on Twitter:
Paddy Power is certain that Notable D’Estruval in the 4pm is the bet of the day . Currently 9/1 but not for long.
You have been warned.
9.56am
Jewson Novices’ Handicap Chase Preview
Day 3 kicks off with an absolute minefield of a race. When you think about, that’s not the best of analogies, but what I’m trying to say is you’ll need to tread carefully when looking for a winner in the Jewson Handicap Chase. If there is a chance that you’ll lose a limb if you don’t pick the winner, then you’re probably betting more than you can afford. I’m going to abandon the course form criteria that hasn’t really worked anyway and plump for Exmoor Ranger, but as you’d expect, there are about 20 horses who have a genuine chance of winning this 20 runner race.
9.35am There is a God and he wants people to say “Hell Of A Horse”! Some lad on Racing UK gives us our first Hell Of A Horse today to describe Voy Por Ustedes.
9.26am Before I bring my summary of the Morning Line to a close, I’d like to give you my tip of the day that occured to me during the last ad break - The Duchess is crap, don’t watch it. It’s not just me being all macho, I was watching it with a girl and she thought exactly the same thing.
Morning Line Naps Of Day 2
Jim McGrath: Big Bucks in the World Hurdle
John Francome: Synchronised in the Pertemps Final
Ted Walsh: Northern Alliance in the Jewson
Barry Geraghty: Punchestowns in the World Hurdle
Lesley (she’s the female presenter and I didn’t include her selections before because I didn’t know her name): Shouldhavehadthat in the Kim Muir
Mike Cattermole: Voy Por Ustedes in the Ryanair Chase
Also, the Hell Of A Horse Count is dangerously low after quite a subdued performance from Ted.
9.22am Bookie Ellen Martin says that yesterday was terrible for her. You can tell she’s telling the truth because it looks like she’s been forced to wear one half of those cow costumes you see in really bad am-dram productions [it's Ladies' Day today, so I'm going to be bitchy about what people are wearing - more so than yesterday]. She says Voy Por Ustedes is the one to avoid for today.
9.14am Awwwww! A bit like a child being told there’s no such thing as the Tooth Bunny Claus, Ted is momentarily deflated as he tells everyone to keep an eye for Hills Of Aran in the Pertemps Final only to be told he’s a non runner. There’s a flurry of tips as the Morning Line team rocket through their selctions for the Jewson Novices’ Chase and the Pertemps Final Hurdle:
Jewson Chase Selections:
Jim McGrath: Kia Kaha
John Francome: Chapoturgeon
Ted Walsh: Northern Alliance
Barry Geraghty: Tranquil Sea
Pertemps Final Selections:
Jim McGrath: Synchronised
John Francome: Synchronised
Ted Walsh: P’tit Fute
Barry Geraghty: Galient
8.57am The Morning Line preview of the Ryanair Chase was extremely brief and despite good conditions, we’ve yet to hear our first “Hell Of A Horse” of the day. Voy Por Ustedes does a Slumdog Millionaire with a clean sweep.
Ryanair Chase Selections:
Jim McGrath: Voy Por Ustedes with Tidal Bay the main danger
John Francome: Voy Por Ustedes with Our Vic the main danger
Ted Walsh: Voy Por Ustedes
Barry Geraghty: Voy Por Ustedes
[WE'VE DONE THAT ON TIME SO INSERT YOUR OWN ANNOYING BUGLE SOUND HERE]
8.50am The betting for the World Hurdle would suggest that the race is there for Kasbah Bliss to take, but oddly enough, none of the Morning Line panel tip him up for the big race:
World Hurdle Selections:
Jim McGrath: Big Bucks - each way value
John Francome: Punchestowns
Ted Walsh: Big Bucks
Barry Geraghty: Punchestowns
Read what another bunch of experts have to say about the World Hurdle
8.42am Barry Geraghty reveals that he wouldn’t have gotten off Punjabi in the Champion Hurdle, even if the chance to ride Binocular came up. He’s a good liar.
8.32am Officially - and quite possibly unofficially - the going for today is good to soft.
8.20am Choc Thornton was stood down yesterday [I know it's bad grammar, but it's jockey speak] for getting “a kick in the kidney” which doesn’t sound nice. He’s back today and his best chance looks to be Voy Por Ustedes in the Ryanair Chase. He’s not the most straightforward of horses and you can’t switch off when riding him says Choc as “one day I did relax on him and ended up on my arse.”
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