well it can't get any worse than today that much i do know! mullins hot pot after hot pot going in & a new pair of pants where needed after UDS demolished the arkle field after laying the first two jollys & things had to pick up. the druids nephew was a welcome winner & then it was back to the lay plan.. only to watch faugheen play with them in the champion & bound up the hill in effortless fashion & it was time to dispense with the underpants & just replace them with a nappy at this stage!! so what to do..lay annie for the sweep as planned? it was a case of in for a penny in for a pound & rounding the home turn the nappy was pretty much full to bursting until the gambling gods intervened and what happened at the last well we all know the answer to that. i believe though over a season your luck will even itself out & theres plenty ive backed that have fell at the last with the race at there mercy as annie had today. i'm the first to hold my hands up & admit i got the day completely wrong though & with both ruby & annie getting up safely to fight another day i was quite happy to count my minimal profit on the day & count myself a very lucky boy. onto tomorrow & its champion chase day so thats where we'll kick off..
3.20 cheltenham 2m Queen mother champion chase (Grade 1)
this is basically the clash that we wanted to see last year the sire against the sprinter when both at the peak of there powers but alas it never happened. both had questions to answer after reappearances and sire de grugy sort of went some way to repairing his reputation when winning a mediocre handicap which i find amazing that timeform rate as probably the best 2m run by a chaser this season i seen one of theres people say on at the races recently. he beat two pretty exposed nine & ten year olds last time & whilst he ran off a mark of 172 that day thats all well and good provided the horses he ran against also ran to there marks which i very much doubt considering grey golds penultimate run was when stone last behind dodging bullets & sprinter sacre in the clarence house. so onto dodging bullets whos form in the spring (march/april) reads 4-6-9-7 & after three tries at the festival is yet to register a place, cant have him at all. next up is the mullins festival specialist champagne fever who strangely i see people say should have won the arkle..why? was beaten by a better horse on the day for me, ok that horse is a lunatic but fever jumped fine, had the run of the race so not really sure what else could have gone in his favour to be honest & wether you like it or not the stat is there that hes had four stabs at G1 company over fences on his dancecard & has yet to win but has a couple of comfortable victories in G2 company which tends me to swing towards he might be just short of taking a seat at the top table. now onto probably the horse that has excited me as near to how frankel made me feel in his pomp in the shape of sprinter sacre. i see alot of what i class as good judges saying he's finished after one comeback run & it surprises me to be honest. one thing that i will conceed is that being a french bred he isn't going to get better with age thats for sure, they tend to peak early & finish early where as english & irish bred horses tend to get better with age so thats one negative, but not a game changing one. now you have to bare in mind that this is a horse that they basically had to re-write the handicap for because he was that good & an official BHA rating of 188 is something we wont see for a very long time. back in his heyday this horse had muscles on his earlobes & muscles on top of his muscles he looked that well on every occasion & simply on his come back he didnt but after a year off he wasn't ever going to be knocked about & bazza G was far from hard on him & quite simply racing needs champions & i hope & prey he comes there swinging off the bridle round the bend & the crowd gasp at one of his athletic leaps at the second last as he puts the peasants to the sword but alas thats a dream at the moment but the 3/1 may look massive around half past three tomorrow. mr mole is a handicapper trying to make the step up & his G2 win doesn't read great taking into the sire de grugy factor & him not running his race. its taken a while but my fancy for the race is the nicky richards trained simply ned. never out of the first three in nine completed chase starts he ran a cracker in a Grade one over in ireland on unsuitable ground last time out & will be seen to far better effect tomorrows quicker surface. on his penultimate start he had dodging bullets a head behind in third in the shloer chase here at cheltenham so the course should have no fears & hes also been given a short break to freshen him up as hes won three from four completed starts on the back of a 60+ day break. with alot of this field with far more questions than answers against there name he looks to be the value play to me.
simply ned e/w @ 20/1 available with paddy power
3.20 cheltenham 2m Queen mother champion chase (Grade 1)
this is basically the clash that we wanted to see last year the sire against the sprinter when both at the peak of there powers but alas it never happened. both had questions to answer after reappearances and sire de grugy sort of went some way to repairing his reputation when winning a mediocre handicap which i find amazing that timeform rate as probably the best 2m run by a chaser this season i seen one of theres people say on at the races recently. he beat two pretty exposed nine & ten year olds last time & whilst he ran off a mark of 172 that day thats all well and good provided the horses he ran against also ran to there marks which i very much doubt considering grey golds penultimate run was when stone last behind dodging bullets & sprinter sacre in the clarence house. so onto dodging bullets whos form in the spring (march/april) reads 4-6-9-7 & after three tries at the festival is yet to register a place, cant have him at all. next up is the mullins festival specialist champagne fever who strangely i see people say should have won the arkle..why? was beaten by a better horse on the day for me, ok that horse is a lunatic but fever jumped fine, had the run of the race so not really sure what else could have gone in his favour to be honest & wether you like it or not the stat is there that hes had four stabs at G1 company over fences on his dancecard & has yet to win but has a couple of comfortable victories in G2 company which tends me to swing towards he might be just short of taking a seat at the top table. now onto probably the horse that has excited me as near to how frankel made me feel in his pomp in the shape of sprinter sacre. i see alot of what i class as good judges saying he's finished after one comeback run & it surprises me to be honest. one thing that i will conceed is that being a french bred he isn't going to get better with age thats for sure, they tend to peak early & finish early where as english & irish bred horses tend to get better with age so thats one negative, but not a game changing one. now you have to bare in mind that this is a horse that they basically had to re-write the handicap for because he was that good & an official BHA rating of 188 is something we wont see for a very long time. back in his heyday this horse had muscles on his earlobes & muscles on top of his muscles he looked that well on every occasion & simply on his come back he didnt but after a year off he wasn't ever going to be knocked about & bazza G was far from hard on him & quite simply racing needs champions & i hope & prey he comes there swinging off the bridle round the bend & the crowd gasp at one of his athletic leaps at the second last as he puts the peasants to the sword but alas thats a dream at the moment but the 3/1 may look massive around half past three tomorrow. mr mole is a handicapper trying to make the step up & his G2 win doesn't read great taking into the sire de grugy factor & him not running his race. its taken a while but my fancy for the race is the nicky richards trained simply ned. never out of the first three in nine completed chase starts he ran a cracker in a Grade one over in ireland on unsuitable ground last time out & will be seen to far better effect tomorrows quicker surface. on his penultimate start he had dodging bullets a head behind in third in the shloer chase here at cheltenham so the course should have no fears & hes also been given a short break to freshen him up as hes won three from four completed starts on the back of a 60+ day break. with alot of this field with far more questions than answers against there name he looks to be the value play to me.
simply ned e/w @ 20/1 available with paddy power
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