The Cheltenham November meeting gave us three very good days of racing, with plenty of eye-catching performances inside. Amongst those were some festival clues for March, while the betting markets also reacted, with some horses shortening for various races at the March showcase.
Potters Charm Steals the Show on Friday
Looking back to Friday and Potters, Charm remained unbeaten under rules, beating the well-touted Valgrand and doing so in style. Reports after suggest connections were worried the ground was going to be too quick for him, but that didn’t stop him from being an impressive winner.
The Gallagher Novice Hurdle or Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle are his two potential festival targets, and he’s halved in price for both, generally around a 20/1 shot to win either race.
In the Shloer Chase, Jonbon recorded a workmanlike success. Connections were delighted, given they felt he would come on a lot for the run, and that should set him up nicely for a Champion Chase bid in the spring.
Finally, a mention for Sweet David, who took the Cross Country Chase. The race didn’t go to plan for him, and he was almost wiped out when hitting the rail, but that didn’t stop him from coming away to win by six and a half lengths.
Out of the handicap, he’s sure to go up a lot in the weights but will still be competitive if coming back in March.
Il Ridoto Lands Paddy Power Gold Cup for Team Nicholls
Il Ridoto put up an excellent performance in the Paddy Power Gold Cup to land the feature race of the meeting in style for Paul Nicholls and Freddie Gingell. While not the most fancied of the Nicholls runners, as he also trained favourite Ginny’s Destiny (pulled up), he was a good winner on the day.
However, there are plenty of reasons to be cautious moving forward, not least because of the stats around winners of this race. Just one of the last 12 have won again in the same season, and of the previous 12 winners, eight went on to run at the festival in the same season, and none of them won.
The card opened with East India Dock and trainer James Owen showcasing their Triumph Hurdle claims. An 18-length winner, now two from two over hurdles, he’s as low as 7/1 for the Triumph after being as high as 33/1 before the race.
Owen looks to have a really strong hand when it comes to three-year-old hurdlers. This is just one of his contenders.
Another novice to shine on Saturday was L’Eau du Sud for Dan Skelton, who won the Grade Two Arkle trial by 11 lengths, and in doing so, he threw his ring into the hat for the Arkle in March.
Foot perfect over the fences, he travelled strongly into the race, and then, when asked by jockey Harry Skelton, he powered away to win the race with ease. He’s now as low as 8/1 for the Arkle.
Burdett Road Claims Greatwood Hurdle
There was more success on Sunday for trainer James Owen, as Burdett Road, one of his star three-year-olds from last season, came back to hurdles and claimed the Greatwood Hurdle, Sunday’s feature race.
He made all and held all the challengers off to take the race by half a length, and afterwards, talk immediately turned to a potential Champion Hurdle tilt. He would go there as an outsider unless he can back up this win with more in graded company, and is a general 33/1 chance for the race.
Peaky Boy was a good winner of the novice handicap chase on the card, and while it’s not the horse that is worthy of mentioning, it is the trainer, Nicky Henderson. After a lot of troubles to end last season, when a bug in the yard forced him to withdraw some of his Cheltenham Festival runners, things appear to be back to normal at Seven Barrows.
He saddled seven runners at Cheltenham over the weekend, and from those, he had three winners and a second place. He sent three horses to other meetings over the weekend, and all three won. It seems Team Henderson is back, just in time for the return of Champion Hurdle favourite Constitution Hill in less than two weeks at Newcastle’s Fighting Fifth.