Cheltenham clues in Scotland and Ireland

The Cheltenham Festival starts in 5 weeks on Tuesday and today´s meetings at Musselburgh and Punchestown should give us some valuable clues. The weather in Scotland has not been nearly as bad as in England, and Musselburgh´s card is their best of the N.H. season. The better groiudn shoudl cefrzainly suoit Kie (Donald McCain/ Jason Maguire), as he is out of a Surumu mare, and he should go close in the Scottish Champion Chase, actually handicap, at 15.00 CET. The unknown quantity here is ex-French Upepito (Venetia Williams/ Aidan Coleman), but the trainer, who is in fantastic form, has entered him for Cheltenham, in which case he miust get involved here. The listed Scottish Triumph Hurdle at 15.30 is the headline feature, and German-bred Broughton (John Ferguson/ Denis O´Regan) is likely to start a hot favourite after his excellent hurdling debut. He was the top lot at the Baden-Baden yearling sales in 2011, ironically bought for the Maktoums by Ferguson, who now owns and trains him.

However this will not be easy, as Nicky Henderson´s useful bumper Adeupas d´ycy (Barry Geraghty) is a danger, as are the two Irish challengers Clarcam (Gordon Elliott/ Maguire) and Space Ship (Robbie Hennessy/ Sam Twiston-Davies), who was actually rated a few pounds better than Broughton on the flat and also made a pleasing debut over sticks. Henderson and Geraghty should in any case take the Future Champions Chase at 16.30 (can´t see any champions here, but still..) with Ericht, who is weighted to reverse earlier form with Funny Star (Paul Nicholls/ Daryl Jacob).There are 2 German-breds in the Scottish County hurdle at 16.30, Lyvius (Henderson/ Geraghty) and Local Hero (Steve Gollings/ Paul Bohan) and both could be placed; the lightly-weighted Franciscan and Clever Cookie are the dangers here, but we shall stick with Local Hero, and also with Fährhof-bred Los Nadis, who runs his best races here, at 17.30.

There is also a decent card at Punchestown and we expect another Willie Mullins/ Ruby Walsh benefit, as they can take both the main events, the listed novice hurdle at 15.10 and the Grade Two Tied Cottage Chase an hour later, both over 2 miles. In the former race their candidate Wicklow Brave is moving up in class after a very easy win of his first hurdle race, after 3 bumper victories. but he looks the real deal and should go on from here to much better things. Arvika Liegonnaire in the later race is unbeaten at Punchestown and should stay so after today. In both cases the Gigginstown Stud runners are the main dangers.

Musselburgh - betting forecast:
1. Race: Mister Dillon - Crowning Jewel - Pay The King
2. Race: Medieval Chapel - Powerstown Dreams - Clondaw Hero
3. Race: Upepito - Kie - His Excellency
4. Race: Broughton - Clarcam - Adeupas D`ycy
5. Race: Funny Star - Ericht - Top Of The Range
6. Race: Yorkist - Sametegal - Lyvius
7. Race: Brassick - Themilanhorse - That`S Rhythm
8. Race: Sud Pacifique - Los Nadis - Scots Gaelic