Rest of Cheltenham

Tthe Cheltenham card looks very difficult for punters today with every race extremely competiitive and no obvious favourites (who usually get beat anyway!). The easiest race is probably the opening novice hurdle at 14.30 CET, which will probably be fought out by the two unbeaten runners Faugheen (Willier Mullins/ Ruby Walsh) and Red Sherlock (David Pipe/ Tom Scudamore), both incidentally by sires who were trained by Andreas Schütz - Germany and Shirocco respectively.

The RSA Chase for novices over an extended 3 miles at 15.05 looks as tricky as any handicap. There clould be another Irish winner here, as Ballycasey (Mullins/ Walsh), Carlingford Lough (Jon Kiely/ McCoy), German-bred Don Cossack (Gordon Elliott/ Bryan Cooper) and Morning Assembly (Pat Fahy/ Davy Russell) all hold good chances. Best of the Brits are Sam Winner (Paul Nicholls/ Daryl Jacob) and Smad Place (Alan King/ Robert Thornton), but we expect an Irish win and go for Morning Assembly (each way).

The Coral Cup, a handicap hurdle over 2 miles 5 furlongs with 28 runners, is a really tough one but we hope for a German-bred winner here. He has the (IRE) sffix., but Dell´Arca (Piper/ Scu) is by Sholokhov out of an Acatanengo mare and ran reallyx well last time in the Betfair Hurdle. We think the extra distance will be right for him, and so will the drying ground. There are 27 dangers, some of whom have clearly been campaigned all season with this race in mind, but he looks a solid each-way chance with the stable now in good form.

The cross Country ryce over 3 miles 7 furlongs, also a handicap, also Looks wide open. This is a race for specialists and the field includes the winners of the last 3 runnings - Sizing Australia (2011, Harry de Bomhead/ Lynch), Balthazar King (Philip Hobbs/ Richard Johnson) and Big Shu (Peter Maher/ Paul Carberry). Big Shu has gone up 11 lbs, but cannot be left out and nor can Balthazar King, who has won 6 times here. (Uncle Junior (Willie and Paddy Mullins) is another course specialist, and our longshot here is Any Currency (Martin Keighley/ Ian Popham), third here in November in a similar event and now much better handicapped.

The Fred Winter at 17.40 is a handicap hurdle for 4yo´s át 17.40 and for horses just below Triumph Hurdle class. Nicky Henderson is always dangerous in these races and we go for his Dawalan (Geraghty), while the concluding bumper at 18.15 is usually another irish benefit. It will either be won by one of Willie Mullins´ 3 runners or one of Dermot Weld´s two; it must be significant that Weld has put his top flat jockey Pat Smullen on the beautifully-bred Vigit, so he is the selection.