Cheltenham Festival preview: Shishkin, Iroko and a dark horse in the Stayers' Hurdle

I’ll have me a piece of that

The Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle was looking a bit bland around the turn of the year but has since come alive in a big way. We’ve seen wins for Teahupoo, Blazing Khal and the French horse Gold Tweet, and all the while the noises from the team behind dual champ Flooring Porter are growing ever more positive, likewise Marie’s Rock.

Nicky Henderson’s mare is a particularly fascinating case. Talked about as a possible Champion Hurdle lurker ahead of a 2020 Intermediate Hurdle at Newbury won the previous year by the same stable’s subsequent Champion Hurdle heroine Epatante, she’s taken an age to learn how to be a proper racehorse.

But as soon as the penny has dropped – she was an impressive winner of the Mares’ Hurdle at last year’s Festival let’s not forget – connections are considering moving the goalposts again by setting her a new task altogether in the Stayers’.

I’m a big fan of Marie’s Rock and her Relkeel form is up there with the best in both the Mares’ Hurdle and this race, but are they just getting a bit greedy by now asking to go three miles? We’ll soon see.

One runner thrust into the mix from left-field this week was Henri Le Farceur, another soon-to-be-supplemented raider from France and whose connections were happy to admit they’d taken one look at compatriot Gold Tweet bolting up on Trials Day and leapt at the opportunity to join the party.

His youthful, eloquent trainer Hugo Merienne says he’s been “going to Cheltenham for many years” and reckons he has a six-year-old at least on a par with the impressive Cleeve winner. It will be interesting to see if the horse’s regular rider James Reveley - out since mid-February after a fall - gets back to full fitness in time. It was a pity to learn that Jack Kennedy won’t make the big meeting this week, but the powers of recovery at this time of year can be quite extraordinary.

Hold on, we’ve been here before haven’t we?

‘Certainty this… certainty that.’ What a lot of bluster. The Cheltenham preview night circuit has been in full force for a week or so and we know it’s all good, clean fun. Unless Davy Russell is on the panel, in which case things can get out of hand quite quickly, but I digress.

Shishkin is the latest horse to be branded with the C-word – presumably after Facile Vega, Jonbon, Lossiemouth and Gaillard Du Mesnil all failed to sparkle in their preps, to varying degrees and for various reasons – and it was admittedly very hard not to fall in love with him all over again last month, particularly after Nicky Henderson’s quivering celebrations in the Ascot grandstand.

But we’ve been here before with Shishkin and the Ascot prep not long before Cheltenham, and we’ve certainly been here before with the Ascot Chase. Cue Card was the last to do the Ascot-Ryanair double in 2013 and it’s been a mixed bag since then with the majority of winners recoiling or missing Cheltenham altogether. The past three Ascot Chase winners to run at the Festival have form figures of F7F.

Shishkin failed to finish as odds-on favourite in last year’s Champion Chase after a bruising Clarence House defeat of Energumene almost a month earlier than this year’s Ascot Chase, which doesn’t exactly strike with great optimism, and I’m content to let others scramble over themselves in ‘getting on’ around the 8/11 mark ahead of the Ryanair Chase.

Best of the rest? Quite possibly…

Remember 2009? You know - Gordon Brown as British PM, Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas, and the launch of Missguided. On top of all that, Hurricane Fly was ruled out of the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and, lo and behold, the horse he’d hammered 10 lengths at Leopardstown over Christmas - Go Native - went and won the Festival opener.

Now, we’re on a different plain here but if Ferns Lock is the most promising young horse operating on the Irish hunters’ chase scene – and colleague Graeme North was all over this development at the start of the year - then oughtn’t we be on the lookout for those who have been following him home, given the six-year-old is unlikely to take up his entry according to trainer David Christie?

Step forward Its On The Line, a not-disgraced 12-length runner-up to Ferns Lock in the INHSC Supporting Point-To-Points Hunters Chase at Fairyhouse in November. He’s since gained a bit more experience between the flags, winning two of his three point starts under Maxine O’Sullivan.

My knowledge of the great Irish racing dynasties is embarrassingly poor, but O'Sullivan - partner of Its On The Line’s trainer Emmet Mullins - obviously won the St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase on It Came To Pass for father Eugene at the 2020 Festival and her cousin, Michael O’Sullivan, has made great strides this year riding for owner/trainer Barry Connell.

Michael will head to Cheltenham with high hopes for Grade 1 winners Good Land and Marine Nationale, though Maxine has been there and done it and looks to have another serious chance herself having been all but confirmed for the ride on Henry De Bromhead's Chris's Dream.

I'm unsure who'll take the ride (Charlie Mullins has some experience on him) but Its On The Line's family tree is worth a mention too. A son of Presenting, he's out of Accordion mare Ten Dollar Bill, making him a half-brother to the Welsh Grand National winner Monbeg Dude, among other smart jumpers, and he should be suited by the extended trip.

He reportedly cost just £8,000 but Mullins likes to do things differently and there are many more colourful chapters to be written in his story yet. Grand National winner Noble Yeats landing the Gold Cup 40 minutes earlier would certainly be up there, and would also tee up the prospect of a rare Festival Friday double, one last accomplished by Nigel Twiston-Davies courtesy of Imperial Commander and Baby Run.

Silence is golden in annual Martin Pipe pantomime

I love the Gordon Elliott-Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle guessing game as much as anyone, but tend to try and remain an interested observer until the final declarations are made.

Knowing the jockeys by that stage clearly helps, and playing late is rarely a bad thing in such a volatile betting heat. Various rumours and soundbites have fuelled the market this week, with Elliott’s Imagine apparently thought to be well-in having been given 139 by the British handicapper.

Personally, the Gigginstown duo Favori De Champdou and Cool Survivor don’t look over-burdened (141 and 140 respectively) in spite of some progressive form, but what’s the one that Elliott has held back for an eleventh-hour gamble, I wonder?

The one they’re not talking about can sometimes be the most intriguing, which leads me to Sa Fureur – who like Imagine runs in the red and white silks of Caldwell Construction Ltd. He also recently landed the Thurles Grade 3 won by Elliott’s Blow By Blow en route to success in the 2018 Martin Pipe. He did so by just a short-head and had to survive a Stewards’, but there was more in the tank.

Unable to register a win in three bumpers across two light campaigns, he’s taken time to fill out, but something has clicked since sent hurdling and he was making it 3-4 when scraping home last Thursday.

He’s definitely one who doesn’t do a lot when he gets to the front. His major asset – and it’s a considerable one at that – is his jumping, which must leave connections dreaming of him following in Mighty Potter’s footsteps come next season. Prior to that, he can do a bit more damage over hurdles this spring as he seemed to enjoy the better ground last time, and we’re surely looking at a horse some way ahead of his BHA mark of 137.

Major breakthrough in maiden season?

Training partnerships have become a lot more popular in recent years and some are proving more successful than others.

There was an interesting line from Mark Johnston earlier this year, when he suggested their powerful Flat yard hadn’t garnered as much attention from the press during the period in which he and son Charlie’s names were featuring on the racecards.

I’m not sure anyone’s genuinely buying that but it got me thinking about Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero which is a bit of a mouthful for some in the media yet it hasn’t stopped them enjoying a remarkable maiden season as a training duo.

A total of 51 winners from 267 runners at close to 20% is a very impressive return by anyone’s standards, and their sole Cheltenham Festival entry, JP McManus’s Iroko (Coral Cup/Martin Pipe) is apparently ghosting into it under the radar (maybe MJ has a point).

He didn’t past muster as a juvenile last year but has rattled off two handicap wins at Wetherby around the turn of the year, last seen slamming solid yardstick Rafferty’s Return by 14 lengths off level weights.

Greenall and Guerriero have yet to have a runner over hurdles at Cheltenham, though a slice of beginners’ luck has evidently served them very well to this point.

More from Sporting Life

• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing features
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org