Cheltenham Festival.

With Cheltenham only a few weeks away, felt in warranted a "sticky" for your inputs and comments.
I cant remember having so many short priced runners at the festival, where traditionally the bookies meet the punters head on in a dual that generates huge cash bets on the course over the 4 days.
A couple of the Turffontien die hards are taking the yearly (expensive) trek and a couple of shrew business men find themselves stuck in this area at this time of year.

The 4 days start on Tuesday the 10th of March with the Champion Chase and its hard to see past Binocular at 16/10.
On Wed the 11th we should see the shortest priced fav since Arkle? I may be mistaken, but even the 9/20 for Master Minded looks generous.
On the Thursday we have Kasah Bliss at 14/10 for the World Hurdle and Voy Por Ustedes 17/10 for the Ryanair Chase.
Then the big one on the Friday with Kauto Star topping the Gold Cup boards at 5/2, Denman at 5/1. Neptune Collonges 7/1 and Madison Du Berlais at 10/1 for what should be a spectacular race.

It makes no difference if you are a favourite punter or fancy an outsider, this is a meeting not to be missed.

I will be having a competition linked to the festival, details to follow.

good punting!

scotia

Doumen: Kasbah could be better than Baracouda

FRANCOIS DOUMEN has given the supporters of Ladbrokes World Hurdle favourite Kasbah Bliss a major boost by declaring that his star stayer could be better than the trainer's iconic dual Cheltenham champion Baracouda.

Kasbah Bliss, who sprinted to an eight-length reappearance success at Haydock on Saturday, was on Sunday reported to be in fine fettle by Doumen, who once again expressed his delight at the 2008 World Hurdle second's Rendlesham Hurdle victory.


The Group 3 Flat winner, who Doumen believes could be superior to Baracouda due to his more straight forward run-style, is now as short as 11-10 World Hurdle favourite with Paddy Power and no bigger than 6-4 with any of the major firms

Neptune could emulate big two, says Nicholls


NEPTUNE COLLONGES could be closing the gap on his more illustrious stablemates Kauto Star and Denman, Paul Nicholls suggested on Monday as he confirmed Christian Williams was set to partner the horse in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.


The grey strengthened his trainer's chance of repeating last year's Gold Cup 1-2-3 by winning the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Leopardstown.

Nicholls said: "Denman and Kauto have won their Gold Cups. You never know, he might be the one of the three to win it this year! He warrants his position in the betting.

Binocular works on grass and set for hurdle school


BINOCULAR worked on the grass gallops at Nicky Henderson's stable on Tuesday morning for the first time since the onset of the bad weather more than two weeks ago, and the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle favourite will have a schooling session under Tony McCoy on Thursday.


Henderson told racingpost.com: "It was goodto get the horses back on the Faringdon Road grass gallops. Binocular will have a pop over hurdles on Thursday, and then work again on Saturday."

Also in action on the grass yesterday was Henderson's Golden Flight, who is likely to make his debut for the stable in the William Hill Handicap Chase on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival.

Henderson said:"Golden Flight is making good progress and I was pleased with him this morning when he worked on the grass. I've been anxious to get a race into him before the National, and the William Hill looks the right opportunity."

World Hurdle firmly on agenda for Tazbar


A TILT at the World Hurdle is firmly on the agenda for Tazbar following his fine effort in defeat at Haydock on Saturday.

The seven-year-old was allotted top weight in the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle but just went down by a neck to Synchronised, to whom he was conceding upwards 14lb.

Trainer Keith Reveley is now hoping Tazbar can find the necessary improvement to hold his own against the best staying hurdlers at the Cheltenham Festival.



He said: "He ran probably a career-best at Haydock as he was running off 152 and was coming back at the line.

"It's nice to have him back to his best and he'll probably go for the World Hurdle now and he'll either be good enough or he won't.

"If he's not, we'll get him well schooled over fences and go chasing next season."

McCoy to take ride on Calgary Bay in Arkle


CALGARY BAY may well have the services of Tony McCoy in the saddle when he bids for glory in the Irish Independent Arkle Chase on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival on March 10.


McCoy was in the saddle when the Henrietta Knight-trained novice took the Dipper Novices' Chase at Cheltenham on New Year's Day but regular rider Dominic Elsworth was on board when he finished runner-up to Panjo Bere in the Lightning Novices' Chase at Ascot later that month.

Knight said: "AP McCoy will ride Calgary Bay at the moment - it looks like he will be available.

"We just hope for some nice Cheltenham ground - he's a better horse on better ground and it was a bit too sticky for him at Ascot last time."

Leading jockeys sign up for Cheltenham preview


LETS LIVE RACING'S Cheltenham Festival preview takes place on Monday 9th March at the Royal Oak in Prestbury. Charities such as the Greatwood Retired Racehorse Sanctuary and the Injured Jockeys Fund will benefit from the function.


The typically high class panel consists of top jockeys Robert Thornton, Tom Scudamore, Joe Tizzard and Sam Thomas. If the guys are anywhere near as good as last year, guests will go away with loads of winners, some bismarks and plenty of quality opinion.


* Due to ever increasing hire costs tickets are £12.
* The preview starts at 7.30pm with a proposed finish time of 10.30pm.
* Bar food will be available and the bar is open until midnight.
* There will be a raffle with prizes including a pair of breeches signed by the panel and a £100 free bet.
*Restaurant bookings can be made by telephoning the Royal Oak on 01242 522 344.

This event will sell out by the end of February so buying your ticket as early as possible is strongly advised. For more details visit letsliveracing.com.

Little Shilling could head straight to Cheltenham


LITTLE SHILLING, unbeaten in six starts for trainer Tim Vaughan, is unlikely to run in Sunday's Totesport.com National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell.

Instead, the seven-year-old is pencilled in to go directly to the Cheltenham Festival for the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle.


"If there were only four runners at Fontwell we might have a go, but he looks so wrong at the weights," Vaughan said.

"I think we'll probably go straight to Cheltenham for the Martin Pipe race, which has got a lot of prize-money. He's still improving and he ticks so many boxes."

Stablemate Ski Sunday will also swerve an engagement at Fontwell to head straight to Cheltenham.

The four-year-old landed an impressive victory at Taunton on Tuesday and a tilt at the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices' Handicap Hurdle is now in the offing.

"I'd have thought he would get a mark of anything between 125 and 133, so he should definitely get in the Fred Winter," said Vaughan.

"That win at Taunton should have got his eye in and he should be fresh as paint for Cheltenham.

"He's progressing all the time, which is what you want for the Festival."

Nicholls concern over Denman Gold Cup bid


PAUL NICHOLLS has admitted time may be running out to get Denman back to his brilliant best for the Totesport CheltenhamGold Cup on March 13.


The runaway winner of the 2008 renewal made a belated return to action at Kempton earlier this month following treatment for a heart abnormality, but could only muster a lacklustre second behind Madison Du Berlais.

Nicholls said: "Going to Kempton proved that right-handed is not ideal for him, but I had no other opportunity to get a run into him.

"The day out and the race has brought him on enormously and it was the best thing to ever happened to him.

"If you take out the winner he would have beaten Albertas Run 25 lengths and be red-hot favourite (for the Gold Cup) but I am not sure how the form of that race will work out.

"The ground was dead and he wasn't as ready as we thought. He has improved, but he has to as he wasn't the same horse the other day as he was last year.

"I don't know if we have the time to get him back to that level, and it might be that he'll run a nice race in the Gold Cup and another summer off will get him back to how he was.

Master Minded has 'improved enormously'


RED-HOT Queen Mother Champion Chase favourite Master Minded has "improved enormously" ahead of his bid to repeat his sensational success of last year.

That is the view of Paul Nicholls, and with serious opposition thin on the ground, bookmakers rate him as short as 1-3 to bag the Seasons Holidays-sponsored contest on the back of what has been a faultless campaign so far this term.


"He won the Tingle Creek and didn't come out of a canter to win the Victor Chandler at Ascot," said the champion trainer.

"He looks in fantastic form and I think he has improved enormously physically from last year.

"Last year we went into the race not knowing what we had, but we do now and he is in really good order.

"He is not the easiest to train and has a few little issues but when he is right he is hugely impressive.

"To space his races out is ideal and he'll probablyjust have the three runs this season.

"He is just where we want to be for the Champion Chase and on all known form he will be hard to beat."

can feel a comp coming on....

how about a tipping competition, a set unit bet in every race say 50 units per race 50 unit win or 25 units e/w with the bet stake deducted from the running totals

best plus or minus tally wins er. er, er, something

The plan is to have two prizes, one for the most winners over the 4 days and one for the highest profit, details to follow.