Check out our team's best bets for a mouthwatering opening day to the Cheltenham Festival.
4.50 Metamorpheus (Kieran Clark)
The Boodles Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle is definitely the most trickiest puzzle to solve on the opening day, though one that catches the eye at 20/1 is Metamorpheus. Paul Nolan has his string in good form at present and the select team he brings over for the Festival always warrant the upmost respect, only needing to go back two years to find his latest success with Mrs Milner in the Pertemps.
Metamopheus was successful on his second start over hurdles in a 21-runner maiden at Punchestown when travelling with notable ease and clocking a respectable timefigure in the process, and it’s easy to forgive his latest start behind 4 reappearing rivals when left poorly placed in a slowly-run event.
The large field and strong gallop should be to his benefit and he also boasts a smart pedigree, so there are reasons to expect improvement and he makes plenty of appeal trying to land this prize for the yard for a second time with some firms paying six places.
5.30 Gaillard Du Mesnil (Graeme North & Billy Nash)
GN: If there is a banker on Tuesday that doesn’t go by the name of Constitution Hill, then it must be Gaillard Du Mesnil in the National Hunt Challenge Cup. To my eyes he should be odds on and probably something like 4-7 and not the even money he can still be backed at.
Not only does he have an outstanding chance on form - he is 12lb clear of his nearest rival Mahler Mission - on time but he is even further clear on time. Proven at the trip, having finished third of twenty-seven off a mark of 154 in the Irish Grand National last spring, he’s capable of showing the same level of form at Grade 1 level at around two and a half miles as well and that’s not something you can say about any of his rivals.
He also brings a wealth of experience to the table as well as a blemish-free record over fences never having finished out of the first three in eight starts, and it’s hard to see him getting beaten.
BN: Call me captain obvious but i find it impossible to get away from Gaillard du Mesnil in the National Hunt Chase. Third in a strong renewal of the Brown Advisory last year, he gained a deserved first victory over fences in a Grade 1 at Leopardstown's Christmas meeting and he should have too much class for the opposition here.
He is well clear on Timeform ratings, handles soft ground well and is one of the few in the field that is guaranteed to get the trip.
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