top of page
  • Writer's pictureElliot Burrow

Cheltenham Festival Day Four Preview - Who's the Champ?

Updated: Oct 28, 2022

The final day, it's Gold Cup day, the big one of the week, let's break it down along with the other races and bang in another few winners.


Day four starts with the Triumph, which some of you might remember had a heart-breaking end to it last year, when Goshen threw off Jamie Moore after they jumped the last 10 lengths clear.

Things didn't get any better on Tuesday for the pair, and his trainer has since said that he may never run around Cheltenham again, which is a great shame, but it does appear as though he has no luck with the track.


Onto this years running though and the market is headed by two unbeaten horses who have improved each time they have ran this season.


Tritonic is a classy horse, and bolted up in the Adonis last time at Kempton and he'll be there fighting it out at the finish.


I'm going to be boring here though and go with the favourite Zanahiyr who has ticked all the boxes so far as he has also proven he goes left-handed, something Tritonic hasn't proved yet over obstacles.


When he won the Grade two at Christmas around Leopardstown his form received a massive boost when the seventh in the race Jeff Kidder won the Boodles at 80/1 on Tuesday.


It'll be tight between the two, but the Irish horse edges it based on that piece of information


Race two is the County Handicap Hurdle and the Skeltons love this race!


Each year they have a horse lined up for this race, and this year they had a few in with a chance, before they went with one, Third Time Lucki.


This horse finished fourth in the Champion Bumper at last year's festival so clearly gets up the hill, and last time at Musselburgh he had excuses due to the fact that his trainer came out and said he shouldn't of ran him because nothing about the track suited him.


This race is always competitive though, but with a brilliant strike rate in this race, and their horses keeping up the good form, Third Time Lucki is my each-way pick for this race.


The next race is very open in the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle so I have an each-way fancy again for The Cob here.


It's a hard race to pick out any certainties but I like the way this horse goes about his business, and he clearly stays the trip after his win at Doncaster last time.


Race four is the big one of the day, the Gold Cup.


Let's give this a proper breakdown then, and we'll start with the winner for the last two years Al Boum Photo.


This horse is brilliant and what he's achieved will always put him down in the history books.


He's going to be fully tuned up for this race and very hard to beat but I think there's one main danger to this field if a return to the longer trip suits.


Champ was dropped down in trip of his reappearance this season, and looked the winner for a long time in the race, before being beaten late on.


His jumping was miles better than some of his efforts in the past, and he'll be there at the finish that's for sure, it's just whether he's able to make that switch back to the longer distance here.


A Plus Tard was good at Christmas and Rachel Blackmore rides this horse instead of Minella Indo who has lost his way this season after a good start.


He's likely to make his presence felt again here and Minella Indo could even step back in the right direction if he was to turn up in the right frame of mind.


Santini ran well back in 2020 but his efforts haven't been great this season, and this is shown by Nico De Boinville riding Champ instead, and Aidan Coleman picking up the ride.


Native River ran him ragged at Sandown with a return to his best and Richard Johnson feels this horse is dangerous to the field with his comments to the media the other week.



I think if he continues in the same form, he could be unstoppable on the day with his pitch perfect jumping being a big plus.


Frodon will make sure they go an honest pace but might find the step up in class too much to handle, even though this horse clearly has the biggest heart of them all in the race, and so does his jockey Bryony Frost.


Lostintranslation, Aso and Black Op aren't dangers here to say the least as none of them have showed any signs of form which could beat any of these horses home.


Kemboy is a good horse but I think a few of the others may be too good for him here, and this brings me onto the last horse who is a fascinating contender in Royale Pagaille.


He's only a novice but his efforts this season have been superb, and on his first start he brushed past Espoir De Romay before then heading to Kempton and beating Cap Du Nord.


He then went back to Haydock in January and showed he stayed 3 mile 2f in atrocious conditions to bring up a facile success and should clearly go very close here if he gets up the hill.


I'll go with Champ here but I think Royale Pagaille will give all the market contenders something to think about, and is a great price for each-way claims.


Race five is the Hunters Chase, and it's a shame we don't have the amateurs able to ride here in this.


I'm going to go with the favourite for Willie Mullins here because Billaway has shown he's better than ever, and will prove hard to stop here with Paul Townsend on board.


Elimay should win the next for Mark Walsh and Willie Mullins, before we round the Festival off with the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockey's Handicap Hurdle.


Langer Dan is my fancy here to at the minimum get placed after his win last week, and his trainer had doubts about him getting in.


But here's got in and he's a danger to all here off what seems to be a mark in which he is still well in on.


Another brilliant day's racing, let's hope for some more winners but more importantly, let's enjoy another great day of racing!




23 views0 comments

Kommentare


bottom of page