Cheltenham International meeting: second day

The second and most important day of Cheltenham´s International Meeting features some very competitive racing, headed by the big handicap chase over 2 miles 5 furlongs at 1.30. This event now sponsored by leading owner Andy Stewart (Big Bucks) and in aid of his charity for spinal research, is almost a re-run of the Paddy Power Chase over this CD 4 weeks ago. Great Endeavour (David Pipe/ Timmy Murphy) was an easy winner of that race, with Quantitativeeasing (Nicky Henderson/ Barry Geraghty) and Divers (Ferdy Murphy/ Keith Mercer) taking the places. Great Endeavour has gone up 10 lbs for that success, and more significantly has had another hard race in the meantime, when 4th in the Hennessy over a distance that was too far; under these circumstances we opposo him today. From a handicapping point of view, Divers should come out best of these today, but the stable is not really firing while Henderson is going great guns, so we prefer Quantitativeeasing; but he is owned by JP McMa nus, who has two other runners here and his jockey Tony McCoy prefers to get down to his lowest weight to partner Jonjo O´Neill´s Sunnyhillboy, third here a year ago and an eye-catching 7th over hurdles last time. German-bred Ghizao (Ruby Walsh) looks the better of Paul Nicholls two runners, while Roudoudou Ville (Vic Dartnall/ Andrew Glassonbury) won nicely at Sandown despite making several mistakes. He can´t afford to jump sloppily here and our 3 against the field are Ghizao, Quantitativeeasing and Sunnyhillboy.

Main supporting feature is the Grade Two International Hurdle at 16.05. Another strong field but we have no hesitation in making Menorah Philip Hobbs/ Richard Johnson) a confident selection. He unseated his jockey on his first attempt over fences, but is a top hurdler, finishing fifth in the Champion Hurdle and is otherwise unbeaten in 3 starts over this CD, including this race last year. Overturn (Donald McCain/ Jason Maguire) is a strong front-runner and in top form, but he finished behind Menorah in the Champion- as did Clerk´s Choice (Oliver Sherwood/ Leighton Aspell), and we see no reason why it should turn out differently today. Grandouet (Nicky Henderson/ Geraghty) looks a bigger threat, but it is not easy for 4yo´s against older horses. Nicholls also has 2 runners here, another 4yo Brampour (Harry Derham) and Sanctuaire (Walsh) but we shall be surprised if any of them can trouble Menorah.

As usual, Nicholls and Henderson look to dominate the card, and we expect the former to take the opening 3yo hurdle at 13.10 with the very promising -French performer Hinterland, while Henderson can counter with Mossley at 13.45. They each have 2 runners in the handicap chase at 14.20, but here we have a slight preference for Oh Crick (Alan King/ Robert Thornton), whose stable seems to be coming back to top form.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Hinterland - Highly Efficient - Canna
2. Race: Champion Court - Mossley - Join Together
3. Race: Astracad - Havingotascoobydo - Tanks For That
4. Race: Halley - Deireadh Re - Rev It Up
5. Race: Quantitativeeasing - Ghizao - Great Endeavour
6. Race: Grandouet - Menorah - Overturn
7. Race: Oscar Whisky - Any Given Day - The Knoxs