Graeme North looks at the Cheltenham Festival from a timefigure perspective and has two selections on day one.
Two things might be unfamiliar about Cheltenham’s opening day – the running order, which seems to me less appealing than in recent years, and the re-siting of the final hurdle much further back from the winning post – but the object of this column as ever remains the same, to try and dig out some winners on the clock across the four days.
Mindful that Cheltenham has a very efficient drainage system nowadays, arguably too efficient, I’ll proceed on the assumption that the ground may well be faster than given officially.
The Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle kicks off the first day as it traditionally does. All I’ve read for the last few weeks is how deep a race it is this year but the clock says something different – Old Park Star is 17lb clear on ratings from Mighty Park whose timefigure from his only start at Fairyhouse was very hard to pin down accurately and could have been higher, by some way, than the 139 he was awarded.
Mydaddypaddy earned some sectional upgrades earlier in the season that would put him thereabouts but this looks a shoot out to me between the top two in the market and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Mighty Park turned out to be the real deal.
