Graeme North looks at the Cheltenham Festival from a timefigure perspective and has one recommendation for Gold Cup day.
Cheltenham Friday preview
After an unaccustomed start to the meeting, Cheltenham’s final-day card has a reassuringly familiar look to it but with twenty-six runners in both the handicap hurdles, the biggest field in the Triumph Hurdle since 2012 and a record twenty-two going to post in the Albert Bartlett finding winners isn’t going to be easy.
J P McManus landed the first juvenile hurdle of the week with Saratoga and he looks to have another leading candidate for the Triumph with Proactif who put up one of the better performances amongst the field on the clock when winning at Fairyhouse in January on his first start since coming over from France.
That puts him just 8lb behind the race-leading Highland Crystal who had Saratoga back in second when winning at Naas last month, but Gordon Elliott's poor start to the meeting isn’t confidence inducing and with several others in contention on time too – notably Maestro Conti, One Horse Town and Minella Study – I can pass this race over.
Just 4lb splits the top six on time (Tripoli Flyer, Sticktotheplan, Ooh Betty, Bowmore, Wellington Beach and Sixandahalf) in the County Hurdle. I mentioned earlier in the week that seven horses have landed the County having finished in the first five in a Grade 1 contest at Cheltenham the previous year and while Tripoli Flyer doesn’t strictly fill that criteria he did start favourite for the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree last season after missing Cheltenham before finishing third to Final Demand at the Punchestown Festival.
