It has arrived: the Christmas of National Hunt racing. While flat types rave about Royal Ascot, the Breeders Cup and the Melbourne Spring Carnival, nothing beats the roar of the Cheltenham crowd when the first race of the famous festival begins.
I’ll preview the three big races on day 1.
Race 1 – Supreme Novices Hurdle:
The first race of the festival is for novice hurdlers over two miles. The favourite My Tent Or Yours is the highest rated novice hurdler in 30 years. If he runs to his rating he should win this, however racing and especially jumps racing is not as simple as that.
Others to consider are Jezki who has won four on the trot and acts on soft ground (the likely going) and the Willie Mullins trained Un Atout.
Race 2 – The Arkle:
This race is named in honour of the greatest steeplechaser of all time, the mighty Arkle. It’s for two mile novice chasers and seems to be a battle between just two, Simonsig and Overturn.
Overturn is a diverse performer who came 2nd is last years Champion Hurdle and was 2nd in the Chester Cup on the flat, he won’t enjoy it too soft.
Simonsig is a winner at the festival last year who goes well on the soft ground and because of this I favour him of the two horses.
Race 4 – The Champion Hurdle:
The big race of the day is for hurdlers at a distance of two miles. 2011 winner Hurricane Fly is up against it with age and the fact that its been 1975 since a horse regained the title. However he’s a class horse who is in good form this year, winning his last three.
I tend to favour last year’s winner Rock on Ruby who enjoys running at this course. He lost two races back to another contender for this race Zarkandar but I’m willing to discount this because of the heavy ground.
Zarkandar is a horse on the up, he came fifth in this last year but will appreciate the soft going and will challenge them.
The action starts Wednesday morning at 00:30am AEDT with the first race, the Supreme Novices Hurdle.
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