One week to Cheltenham!

The Cheltenham N.H. Festival starts a week today and is grabbing far more attention than any of the races to be run this week. Big race on the opening day is the Champion Hurdle and the bad news for Irish racing fans is that Sublimity misses the race, while Solwhit is doubtful. However Noel Meade´s Go Native, chasing a million pound bonus, can still win this event for Ireland, while the best British hopes would appear to be Nicky Henderson´s trio of Punjabi (last year´s winner), Zaynar and Binocular.

The Irish banker for the whole meeting is Dunguib, in the opening novice hurdle, while British hopes will be pinned on Paul Nicholls´ Master Minded (Champion Chase), Big Bucks (World Hurdle) and Kauto Star and Denman in the Gold Cup. With the weather improving and the track drying out, they have started watering the course, always a controversial decision. The aim is to provide good to soft going.