Cheltenham: open meeting, third and final day

Cheltenham´s Open Meeting closes today with another fine card. These three days have shown conclusively that six top races are sufficient to guarantee an excellent day´s racing. Today´s main event is the Grade 3 Greatwood Hurdle over 2 miles at 15.20 CET; although only a handicap, this event has been won repeatedly by horses that have gone on to run well (and even win!) the Champion Hurdle and Philip Hobbs has a good record here, which he obviously hopes to improve, as he saddles 4 runners including the favourite Pateese (Richard Johnson). He won a Sandown handicap with the greatest of ease only 8 days ago, for which he now carries a 5 lbs penalty, while his rating has gone up by 10 lbs, so theoretically he is 5 lbs well in. However it is not a simple as that, and this race looks much more competitive -although we shall be surprised if any of the runners wins the Champion Hurdle!

Moon Dice (Paul Flynn/ Tom Doyle), one of 4 Irish runners, looks a big danger; he has run only twice this year, winning both times, and last time out landed the valuable Galway Hurdle in the summer. He is up in the weights, but looks one to follow. The Betchworth Kid (Alan King/ Jimmy McCarthy), 8th of 23 in the November Handicap a week ago, and Abergavenny, 13th of 33 in the Cesarewitch and unbeaten over hurdles, are useful flat handicappers who also go well over sticks, while Brampour (Paul Nicholls/ Harry Derham) beat several of these last time when winning at Ascot. His penalty is to a large extent cancelled out by the allowance of his talented young rider, Nicholls´ nephew. Another one we like is Olofi (Tom George/ Paddy Brennan), who was fifth last year (when it was a stronger field) and whose stable is coming back to form. At the likely odds, he is our best each-way bet here.

In both the first two races there are two interesting runners with German pedigrees -Lancetto (Evan Williams/ Paul Moloney) and Bellvano (Nicky Henderson/ Tony McCoy) in the opening Grade Two novice chase, and West with the Wind (Williams/ Moloney again) and Gauvain (Nick Williams/Noel Fehily) in the Grade Two chase, also over 2 miles, at 14.45. Gauvain actually won this race last year, but all of them have to give weight to two Paul Nicholls hotpots- Al Ferof and Woolcombe Folly respectively, which will not be easy. Both will be ridden by Ruby Walsh (3 winners here yesterday) and Al Ferof in particular is highly regarded and expected to go right to the top.
Nicholls and Walsh also have chances with Rangitoto at 15.55, Polisky at 16.30 and Salubrious in the concluding bumper, but in these races we prefer John Ferguson´s Perpetually (Mick Quinlan), Fingal Bay (Hobbs/ Johnson) and the Mullins family entry respectively.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Al Ferof - Bellvano - Lancetto
2. Race: Woolcombe Folly - Gauvain - West With The Wind
3. Race: Pateese - Moon Dice - A Media Luz
4. Race: Perpetually - Rangitoto - Tenor Nivernais
5. Race: Fingal Bay - African Broadway - Grandads Horse
6. Race: Montbazon - Supreme Carolina - Salubrious