The Cheltenham Christmas meeting, often just called the December meeting, is in the books for another season. I think when you look through the two cards we were given, it’s certainly been a little better in terms of quality in the past, I don’t think it was the greatest we’ve had in recent years.
However, as noted in the preview of the meeting last week, I did think there was plenty of interest in terms of watching horses for the future, so hopefully, you’ve been able to add a couple to the notebook from the two days of action.
Friday, December 13 Review
I’ve got two candidates for the best performance from Friday’s card. One was the most impressive I saw, and the other was the horse that looked most likely to have a chance at winning during the Cheltenham Festival in March.
I’ll start with the most impressive, which goes to Jango Baie, who won the novice chase at 12:40 pm by six and a half lengths from Springwell Bay.
The second is a reliable runner at a good level, while the very highly thought of Caldwell Potter was a further six and a half lengths back in 3rd. He may not have run his race, but this was still a very impressive run by Jango Baie.
To win so well was impressive, to do it on chasing debut even more so. He’s in both the Arkle and Brown Advisory. My guess is he goes up in trip rather than down. He’s 20/1 for the Brown Advisory, another good win in a decent race, and that price will start to tumble.
As for a runner most likely to head back to the festival and win, that goes to Stumptown, who won the Cross Country Chase. He’s taken to this style of racing perfectly, is now three from three, and won under a very cheeky ride, he’s well handicapped for sure.
The change to a handicap in March will really suit this horse, he shouldn’t go up too much for winning at the weekend and should go close coming back.
If you want a runner who lost but looks worth following, then Bo Zenith caught the eye in an incredibly competitive handicap hurdle, which was the 1:15 pm.
Off the track for 610 days before this, and moving trainer during that time, he was 3rd on stable debut for Nicky Henderson, beaten six lengths. If you watch the run, he didn’t have a good passage, kept on in very eye-catching style at the end, and was backed from 18/1 down to 7/1 on the course, so connections clearly fancied him to go well.
Saturday, December 14 Review
Gemirande was the winner of the big race on Saturday, the December Gold Cup, giving Venetia Williams another big Saturday win, she’s beginning to fire them in. While I fancy Gemirande to remain competitive off similar marks, the biggest talking point from the race will be the second Madara.
I wasn’t really sure how he got beat. He was hampered two out, but I thought he would win even with that. He’s probably going up a couple of pounds for his run. I think he’ll either become a big cliff horse for a lot of people who keep following him, or he’ll land a very big pot somewhere before the season is out, I can’t make my mind up on him.
Libberty Hunter is a winner from Saturday worth mentioning, running on seasonal debut and winning what looked to be a competitive handicap by four lengths. Second in the Grand Annual at last year’s festival, followed by third in a Grade One at Aintree, he’s still got relatively low miles on the clock.
Finally, French runner Jet Blue took the Grade Two Bristol Novice Hurdle in good style by six lengths. The plan is for him to come back across the sea and run in the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle in March.