Cheltenham Open meeting: day two

The Paddy Power Gold Cup, a valuable handicap chase over 2 miles 4 1/2 furlongs at 15.35 CET, is the main event at Cheltenham today, and with 18 runners,looks very difficult indeed. After rain yesterday, more last night and more expected today, the ground will be soft, which will not suit some of the more fancied runners. One who will appreciate the going is Ballyfitz /Paddy Brennan) from Nigel Twiston-Davies´ in-form stable, and he is likey to start favourite.

Paul Nicholls has never won this race, and fields 3 candidates today, of whom Tatenen (Christian Williams) will possibly be the best on this ground. Irish runners also have a poor record here, although Tranquil Sea (Edward O´Grady/ AJMcNamara) must have chances now. Our Vic (David Pipe/ Danny Cook) is the class act here, a course specialist who will like the ground, but he has a huge weight; however at the likely odds could still be an interesting each-way bet. The other races are all very comoetitive except for the novice chase at 14.20 with only 3 runners. The Twiston-Davies/ Brennan team can take this with Pettifour, who is making his chase debut but was the best of these over hurdles and gets weight from the other 2; his second place to Fair Along last time was a good performance. Chelsea Harbour (Tom Mullins/ Davy Russell) has good prospects in the 3 1/2 mile handicap chase at 14.55, and the same trainer and jockey also have a chance with Time Electric in the listed hand icap hurdle at 16.10; they will certainly have no problems with heavy ground, which has been normal in Ireland all year.

We think that Trumpstoo (Richard Fahey/ Richard Johnson) has a chance of beating the favourite Barizan (Evan Williams/ Tony McCoy) in the 3yo hurdle which opens the card at 13.50, while we fancy Gary Moore´s two runners Psi (Jamie Moore) and L´Homme de Nuit (Philip Hide) could both run well in the concluding novices handicap hurdle at 16.45.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Barizan - Roseska - Trumpstoo
2. Race: Pettifour - Toby Jug - Kanpai
3. Race: Russian Trigger - Galant Nuit - Maljimar
4. Race: Tranquil Sea - Ballyfitz - Chapoturgeon
5. Race: Earth Planet - Time Electric - Green Mile
6. Race: Alazan - Psi - Vinnes Friend