The David Nicholson Mares Hurdle is a Grade 2 event run over two and a half miles, and has been run now for four years, and has been dominated by Quevega winning the last three. Over the last three years the race has been won by the superstar racemare Quevega and trainer Willie Mullins will [...]
The third race on Thursday will be the eighth renewal of the Ryan Air Chase and the fifth renewal since it gained Grade 1 status. The race is open to horses aged five and above, run over two miles five furlongs, on the Cheltenham New Course, with a total of seventeen fences to be jumped. [...]
The Jewson Novices Chase commences the third day of racing at the Cheltenham Festival. The race is run on the New Course over a distance of two miles and four furlongs, which see’s participant’s jump a total of seventeen fences. Introduced for the first time last year, the race didn’t disappoint attracting a high quality [...]
Tuesday at the Cheltenham Festival never fails to disappoint with quality from start to finish with no fewer than three Grade 1 National Hunt races opening the festival. With the competitive Supreme Novices out of the way the attention firmly turns to the Arkle Chase in which many a Champion Chaser have been spawned. It [...]
I know this is a week away, and we still have some decent racing this weekend to get through but I was browsing through the form earlier and was interested in one at decent odds. The Paddy Power Gold Cup is without doubt the highlight of Cheltenham’s Open meeting, which this year, runs from Friday [...]
Day 1
William Hill Chase
Bensalem is yet to fully convince me over this trip so given Great Endeavour has beaten Sunnyhill Boy on his last three visits here, and has been strongly talked up by the yard; I’ll plump for him with Ogee a bigger priced alternative.
The Royal & Sun Alliance Novices’ Chase is a Grade 1 steeplechase run on the meetings second day.
Won last year by Weapons Amnesty, it’s open to five year old and above novice chasers, run over an extended three miles, on the Cheltenham Old Course, with a total of nineteen fences to be jumped.
The third race on St. Patricks Day will be the seventh renewal of the Ryan Air Chase and the fourth renewal since it gained Grade 1 status. It’s open to horses five year old and older, run over two miles five furlongs, on the Cheltenham New Course, with a total of seventeen fences to be [...]
The Queen Mother Champion Chase is a championship race run over two-miles for five-year-old chasers and above at Grade 1 level. The race itself is the feature on the second day of the Festival (Wednesday) and is always filled with high quality entrants. Traditionally the field sizes for this race are smaller than some of [...]
As the hours tick by the greatest show on turf edges ever closer. The 2011 Cheltenham festival is nearly upon us and from an Irish perspective there has been a rather low key build up this year’s festival. It may be reflective of the state of our country is in at the moment that we are not shouting from the rooftops about our chances at Cheltenham this year. Indeed the first day could be the best one for the Irish…