Key events
Here’s that relentless run to the line from Majborough. Big horse, big future?
Cheltenham 1.30 result
1 Majborough (M P Walsh) 6-1
2 Kargese (D E Mullins) 4-1
3 Salver (G Sheehan) 10-1
12 ran Also: 7-2 Fav Storm Heart, 6-1 Nurburgring 4th
Non Runners: 8,11
“I expected him to be favourite, he was my pick for this race,” says Willie Mullins, who moves on to 101 Cheltenham victories. He adds that jockey Mark Walsh planned to make the running, but the pace kept him in midfield, but that Majborough “jumped beautifully”. Could he be a Gold Cup contender one day? “Maybe a few years down the line, but he’ll go novice chasing first.”
Majborough wins the JCB Triumph Hurdle!
It’s a two-horse race between Kargese and Majborough, who gets the better of the long slog uphill to win comfortably in an all-Mullins battle. Salver comes home in third after a determined effort.
JCB Triumph Hurdle: Salver and Ithica’s Arrow open a five-length gap as Fratas drops back – but the Mullins trio of Kargese, Majborough and Storm Heart are all in the hunt approaching the last …
JCB Triumph Hurdle: The Mullins runners are largely grouped together in midfield, although Highwind is at the back alongside Nurburgring. Storm Heart beginning to move through the field now alongside Majborough, in behind the leading trio …
And they’re off! Salver, Fratas and Ithica’s Arrow the early leaders …
Time for the opening race – the JCB Triumph Hurdle, which is a Grade One, two-mile and a furlong affair.
Will today bring drama to match the 2013 Mascot Gold Cup at Wetherby? Impossible, surely. Oh, Snappy! What might have been …
1.30 JCB Triumph Hurdle (Grade One) odds
The top four in the betting for today’s opener are all trained by Willie Mullins. He had a blank day on Thursday, but don’t expect a repeat of that this afternoon.
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Storm Heart 7/2
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Kargese 5/1
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Bunting 6/1
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Majborough 13/2
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Nurburgring 7/1
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Salver 8/1
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Salvator Mundi 12/1
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Mighty Bandit 20/1
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Ethical Diamond 28/1
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Highwind 40/1
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Fratas 40/1
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Peking Opera 100/1
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Ithacas Arrow 150/1
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Odds via Oddschecker
Market Mover from Oddspedia:
A couple of later non-runners to mark on your cards: Hansard in the County Handicap (2.10) and Carole’s Pass in the Mares’ Chase (4.50).
There’s just half an hour to go until our first race of the day, the Triumph Hurdle. Get tips for all seven Friday races from Greg Wood:
Greg Wood
2.10 County Handicap Hurdle
A typically deep and competitive field for the County, but the punters have latched on to a relative handful of the runners over the last couple of days. King Of Kingsfield, the favourite, is the obvious place to start, as it is hard to recall a runner in a Festival handicap whose form has been so thoroughly franked earlier at the meeting. Gordon Elliott’s novice was a fairly close third in a Grade One at Leopardstown last month – 14 lengths behind the winner, Ballyburn, who ran away with Wednesday’s opener, and seven lengths behind the runner-up, Slade Steel, who was a comfortable winner of Tuesday’s Supreme.
He races off a mark of 140 here, which puts him towards the top of the weights with some hardened and classy handicappers in opposition, but could well take another big step forward on what will be only his sixth start over hurdles. L’Eau Du Sud, the runner-up in the Betfair Hurdle last time, has also caught the eye of backers, as Dan Skelton, his trainer, has already also showcased his remarkable talent for saddling handicap hurdle winners at this meeting when Langer Dan took Wednesday’s Coral Cup for the second year running. Skelton also runs Favoir, who will bid to repeat the same trick having won this race 12 months ago off a 2lb lower mark.
For me, the most intriguing option is Emmet Mullins’s So Scottish, who ran well over fences in the Plate Handicap here last year and is able to run off a significantly lower hurdles mark today. He showed plenty of speed when finishing fourth in a Listed two-mile handicap at the Dublin Racing Festival and Mullins, like Skelton, knows how to get his horses handicapped to win. Unfortunately, since I picked him out yesterday, So Scottish has also caught the eye of Tom Segal, one of the Racing Post’s most respected tipsters, and from an early price of 14-1, he is now vying for favouritism at 6-1. I’ll take it as a positive sign that Tom agrees with me. Tom, on the other hand, may see it the other way round.
Selection: So Scottish
Catch up on Thursday’s Festival action here:
Greg Wood
1.30 Triumph Hurdle
The profile of this race has changed completely since the introduction of the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle in 2005, with the 28-runner fields that were a familiar sight at the turn of the century replaced by an average muster of 15 over the last decade. It has changed fairly significantly over the last seven days too, with Sir Gino, the certain favourite, now out due to the malaise that is currently affecting the Nicky Henderson yard.
That leaves an open-looking contest, albeit one in which Willie Mullins holds all the aces and most of the picture cards too, including the first four horses home in last month’s Spring Juvenile Hurdle, Ireland’s main trial for this race. Kargese, Storm Heart, Majborough and Bunting were separated by a grand total of two-and-a-quarter lengths at Leopardstown and it promises to be a close-run thing again today, with Storm Heart, who looked likely to appreciate this stronger test of stamina, perhaps the value bet at the likely odds.
Selection: Storm Heart
The Gold Cup is one of the biggest horse races in the world – but when it was first run, it wasn’t even the main event at Cheltenham. Greg Wood takes a look back at 100 years of history:
Good morning, everyone. Here’s the Friday schedule and the latest odds from Oddschecker.
1.30 JCB Triumph Hurdle – odds
2.10 BetMGM County Handicap Hurdle – odds
2.50 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle – odds
3.30 Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase – odds
4.10 St. James Place Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase – odds
4.50 Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase – odds
5.30 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle – odds
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Cheltenham, where the first full house of the week (we think) is pouring into the track – and absolutely legging it, in some cases, to bagsy seats in the bar – ahead of the final day of the Festival meeting, and to mark the 100th birthday of the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Declining crowds at the Festival have been a theme of the week, and yesterday’s figure was 12 per cent down on last year, which was, in turn, well down on the year before. But there is a definite buzz around the area today, and a sense that there are just a lot more people here already, so it will be a real cause for concern if the attendance figure falls below the official “cap” of 68,500.
It probably helps that the feature race of the week has a bit of something for everyone, including an even-money favourite in Galopin Des Champs, the defending champion, who demands to be either backed or opposed. Willie Mullins’s chaser has looked magnificent at times since his victory here last year, not least when he ran away with a race at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting, but there has been a sub-par performance or two along the way as well, and Fastorslow, the second-favourite, is 2-1 up in their three meetings so far.
Hewick, the King George winner, has sadly been ruled out, but it is actually possible to make some kind of case for every runner in the field. Two of the biggest outsiders – Monkfish and The Real Whacker – are former winners of the Brown Advisory Novice Chase here over three miles, while two more – Gentlemansgame and Jungle Boogie – are so lightly-raced over fences that they really could be anything, and represent trainers with a fine Gold Cup pedigree.
Among the shorter-priced alternatives to the favourite, Gerri Colombe was touched off in the Brown Advisory last year, while Bravemansgame is a former King George winner and L’Homme Presse – the third former Brown Advisory winner in the field – has looked tailor-made for this race since his Festival success two years ago, when he powered through the line as if he wanted to go around again.
It is a fascinating puzzle and a suitably competitive race for the Gold Cup’s big anniversary, on a card that also includes two more Grade One events for novice hurdlers – the Triumph Hurdle and the Albert Bartlett. And as ever, if you can’t (or would prefer not to) be there, you can follow all the action as the Festival builds to a crescendo here on the Guardian’s live blog.
