Deciphering the Four Championship Races at the Cheltenham Festival
Author:
Roy Brindley
Haydock, Ascot, Lingfield, Wincanton, Gowran Park and Newcastle are all set to stage race meetings in the UK and Ireland on Saturday. But, with Storm Eunice set to top-up the damage done by Storm Dudley, it is highly unlikely they will all go ahead.
Lingfield and Newcastle are flat meetings scheduled to take place on an all-weather surface, but even they are not guaranteed to overcome what some weather forecasters are predicting to be the worst storm in two decades.
Standing water at Cheltenham, but there is no racing at the Cotswold track until the Festival meeting in mid-March. ©GettyImages
With so much uncertainty, what better time to look at the Cheltenham Festival’s four Championship races. The celebrated jumps racing meeting – akin to a visit to Mecca for National Hunt fans – is now less than four weeks away.
That means the main protagonists in the four daily centerpiece races have made their final public appearances. Their trainers are now applying the finishing touches to their inmates’ preparation on the home gallops.
Sweet on Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle
The main attraction on the opening day of the Festival is the Unibet Champion Hurdle. Here, Honeysuckle is the defending champion and the 1/2 favorite in the race sponsor’s betting list.
Unbeaten in all 14 career starts – 15 if you include her debut point-to-point victory – the wonder-mare was last seen at the start of February when easily winning the Irish Champion Hurdle under her regular rider, Rachael Blackmore.
Theoretically, only one horse can prevent Honeysuckle from joining a distinguished list of dual Champion Hurdle winners. That rival is another Irish-trained horse, Appreciate It. He is 4/1 in the latest Unibet Champion Hurdle betting.
Unbeaten in four career starts over hurdles, his biggest day came at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival when spreadeagling seven rivals by 24-lengths in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Training setbacks mean Appreciate It’s intended switch to chasing has been put on ice. Furthermore, this Willie Mullins-trained horse has not set foot on a racecourse in almost a year.
Shishkin Can Become a Three-Time Festival Winner
Day two’s Queen Mother Champion Chase has a similar complexion. Nicky Henderson’s Shishkin is unbeaten in all seven career starts over fences. He was a Festival winner in 2020 and 2021 and has tamed every realistic Champion Chase rival put before him.
Shishkin winning for the second time at the Cheltenham Festival in 2021. ©GettyImages
His latest of a long list of victims was Energumene – he was seen off in an epic Clarence House Chase at Ascot. That Irish-trained rival looked the winner for much of the two-mile one-furlong contest, but the testing uphill Cheltenham finish is expected to play to Shishkin’s strengths. The best horse racing betting sites make him 4/6 to win at the Festival for a third consecutive year.
Chacun Pour Soi was a bitter disappointment on his last visit to the UK in December. But he started odds-on favorite in last season’s Champion Chase and can run a big race while not challenging the ‘big two’.
Draw a Line Under the Stayers Hurdle
The Stayers Hurdle tops the bill on day three of festivities. This year, the three-mile contest is massively open. Eight runners are currently priced under 10/1. 2021 winner Flooring Porter heads the betting lists at 7/2.
Unfortunately, there are countless confusing lines of form to contend with. The home defense of Champ, Thyme Hill and Paisley Park have taken it in turns to beat one another in recent times.
Paisley Park has the most recent verdict winning on trials day. The 2019 Stayers Hurdle winner is now aged 10. It is noteworthy no horse has won this race twice without taking it in successive years since 1933.
The Irish-trained Flooring Porter has not won in his three outings since taking this contest last year. Klassical Dream has claimed his scalp twice – most recently in the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown. But that contender ran a stinker as a 1/3 favorite at Gowran Park three weeks ago.
Only two favorites have won the Stayers Hurdle in the past decade and the most recent winners have gone off at 12/1, 50/1, 11/8, 12/1 and 10/1. That clearly tells us this is a contest to approach with extreme caution.
Ireland Holds the Aces in the Gold Cup
And finally, Cheltenham’s showpiece race, the Gold Cup on the fourth and final day of the meeting. Here seven of the top eight in the betting are trained in Ireland. These include the defending champion, Minella Indo and Al Boum Photo, the horse that won this race in both 2019 and 2020.
A Plus Tard, last season’s Gold Cup runner-up tops the betting at 10/3. The likely mount of Rachael Blackmore, this eight-year-old won November’s Betfair Chase at Haydock with ease.
However, he was narrowly beaten by Galvin in the Savills Chase over the Christmas period. A big outsider before this victory – despite landing the National Hunt Challenge Cup Novices’ Chase at last year’s Festival – Galvin is now 4/1 second best in the Gold Cup betting.
Minella Indo has disappointed badly in three outings since his Gold Cup victory. He now has a lot to prove. Al Boum Photo did demonstrate his well-being by winning his prep race. Unfortunately, he only beat inferior opponents at odds of 1/6. Resultantly the strength of the form is unclear.
British hopes seemingly hinge on Protektorat. The seven-year-old, part-owned by Sir Alex Ferguson, has four wins and three seconds to show for seven starts over fences. Most recently he relished a step up to a three-miles-plus trip – scoring by 25-lengths at Aintree in December.
