A huge crowd enjoyed Cheltenham’s New Year’s Day meeting on Thursday, breaking the record attendance for the meeting, and actually attracting more people than the Wednesday of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival.
They were given an excellent performance to savour too, a horse that seemingly booked his place in the Stayers Hurdle and that was Kabral Du Mathan.
With plenty more to take from the meeting, it was a good day all round.
New Year’s Day Review: Kabral the Star Attraction
It’s all systems go for the Stayers Hurdle for the Dan Skelton-trained Kabral Du Mathan after he won the Relkeel Hurdle.
Transferring to the Skelton yard from Paul Nicholls over the summer, this horse won a handicap with ease on his first stable start and then went much better to land this Grade Two contest.
He was excellent on the day, but I am unsure as to whether the Stayers Hurdle will suit as well. He looked like a horse that had plenty of gears and a real turn of foot. Would an additional half a mile bring out more? I’m not sure it would.
Take absolutely nothing away from his performance, though. He did all he could on the day, and the two-and-a-half-mile trip was something he got perfectly.
Matata Takes Advantage of Handicap Slide
In the feature race of the day in terms of prize money, the Betfair Exchange Handicap Chase, Matata took advantage of his slip down the weights to win in great style.
At the time I tipped up Matata to win the race, he was double figures and the outsider of the field. He returned at 6/1 after being well backed, and did the business in style, to win by almost 10 lengths.
He’s going to be hit hard by the handicapper, and that could leave him in a position where he’s rated too highly for handicaps, but not good enough for graded racing. One positive though is I think two and a half miles is definitely his trip.
Il Ridoto, who finished in second, wasn’t done any favours in the early part of this race, and while he wouldn’t have won, I’d have him marked up for his performance. He could be one to keep on the right side of moving forward.
Regent’s Stroll Disappoints in Novice Chase
The award for biggest disappointment of the day has to go to Regent’s Stroll, who finished second in the novice chase on the card.
I was expecting a really good performance from him to back up his win last time out, but he failed to fire and ran well below his current mark, despite finishing second.
There could be a small silver lining, though, especially if it turns out the horse wasn’t quite 100%. This second place finish will mean he’s either going to be kept on the same mark or potentially dropped. With the 2m4f race at the Cheltenham Festival now a handicap, he could get into that, which he probably wouldn’t have done had he won here.
Finally, looking at the last two races, Ma Shantou won the penultimate race on the card for Emma Lavelle and Harry Cobden. After winning on the old course here in October over three miles, he’s now won on the new course over the same distance.
This win will take him into the 140s, so he’ll have to move up in grade here to a top handicap.
In the last, Solly’s Gold won the junior bumper under Sean Bowen to take his career record to a perfect two from two. Sent off favourite he won by two and a half lengths.
Trained by James Owen, he’s sure to go somewhere big next time, though he didn’t win in the style of a top-quality animal, so that may be where he finds life a bit tougher.