Excellent Cheltenham card

There is an excellent card at Cheltenham today and the most interesting race could be the cross-country handicap over 3 miles 7 furlongs at 14.15 CET with 16 runners, 6 of them trained in Ireland. Enda Bolger is the king of the cross-country and he saddles 3 runners here, including top-weight Garde Champetre (J.T. McNamara), who is clearly the outstanding performer in this discipline, having won 7 of his last 11 races, including 4 this CD, one of them this race last year.

However he is now 12 lbs higher than in 2008 and faces a huge task in giving lumps of weight to some other specialists, notably his stable companion Heads onthe Ground (Nina Carberry), runner-up to him last time and now10lbs better off. Sizing Australia (Harry de Bromhead/ Andrew Lynch) was a close third then and so also comes into the reckoning, while we have not given up hope with 2007 Grand National winner Silver Birch (Gordon Elliott/ Denis O´Regan), even though he is not so well handcapped.

In the unlikely event of a British-trained winner, King Harald (Mark Bradstock/ Mattie Batchelor) would have a chance at the weights, but our two against the field are Heads on the Ground and Silver Birch.The other races look very tricky, but we suggest Weird Al (In Williams/ Noel Fehily) in the novice chase at 13.15, Yetholm (Philip Hobbs/ Rhys Flint) in the handicap hurdle at 13.40, Pomme Tiepy (Willie Mullins/ Robert Thornton) in the listed handicap chase at 14.50 and German-bred Macaillou (Paul Nolan/ Aidan Cawley) in the stayers handicap hurdle at 16.00 as potentially profitable each-way bets. The final novice hurdle at 16.35 is another fascinating event, which sees 3 smart bumper horses from top stables making their debuts over sticks.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Weird Al - Minella Theatre - Pigeon Island
2. Race: Calzaghe - Spirit River - Still At Lunch
3. Race: Garde Champetre - Sizing Australia - Heads Onthe Ground
4. Race: The Tother One - Kia Kaha - Any Currency
5. Race: Gaora Lane - Manmoon - Sound Stage
6. Race: Earth Planet - Wolf Moon - Trenchant
7. Race: Ghizao - Lidar - General Miller