Key events
Greg Wood
1.45 GALLAGHER NOVICE HURDLE, 2m 5f PREVIEW
Every Festival winner still matters to Willie Mullins – his intensely competitive nature demands it – but if he will have been frustrated not to win the opener here yesterday despite having the first and second favourites, the annoyance was tempered somewhat by the identity of the horse that beat them. Slade Steel was brushed aside by Mullins’s Ballyburn at the Dublin Racing Festival in February, and his comfortable success in the Supreme also confirmed Ballyburn’s status as the biggest banker of the meeting from his yard. And just in case – you can never be too sure, after all – Mullins also fields the next two in the betting, Ile Atlantique and Predators Gold. Neither has posted a run as yet that would pose a serious threat to the favourite, but hey, you can never be too sure and the second-place prize money is pretty good too. The main danger to a Mullins 1-2-3, on ratings at least, is Nicky Henderson’s Jingko Blue, but the stable’s form is so abject at present – five of six runners on Tuesday were pulled up – that the unbeaten Handstands, from Ben Pauling’s yard, could prove to be a bigger threat.
SELECTION: BALLYBURN.
That revised schedule in full.
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13:45 – Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle, 2m 5f
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14:30 – Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, 3m 1/2f
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15:15 – Coral Cup Hurdle (Handicap Hurdle Race), 2m 5f
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16:00 – Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase, 2m
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Abandoned – Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, 3m 5 1/2f
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16:50 – Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase, 2m
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17:30 – Weatherbys Champion Bumper (Standard Open NH Flat Race), 2m 1/2f
That Nicky Henderson statement on Shishkin and Champ.
“Very sadly it will not be possible for Shishkin to run in the Gold Cup on Friday. He was scoped as have all our potential runners this week, but unfortunately he has shown an unsatisfactory picture on which he couldn’t possibly run.
“He appears to be 100 per cent in himself and has been working and schooling better than ever and we were really looking forward to Friday, it is hoped that along with all the other non-participants this week that they will be back in time for Aintree or Punchestown.
“Regrettably Champ has also succumbed and will not run in tomorrow’s Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle and the equivalent race at Aintree could be on the agenda.”
Here’s Tuesday’s finishes at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.
Poor Nicky Henderson has had a terrible festival so far. Luccia running a cracker in the Champion Hurdle seemed to come as an almighty shock to someone otherwise distracted. Champ, the horse named after AP McCoy won’t be in the Stayers, either.
Tuesday was a day of trebles, of trixies and Yankees. Punters had to bet big to win big.
John Brewin
John Brewin here, your guide for a slightly truncated Wednesday race card. The Cross-Country will be missed. No Cheese Wedges or Aintree fences this year. And though there will be a smattering of Henderson horses, the Seven Barrows team is all but packed up and headed home. Jonbon, brother of Douvan the destroyer himself, would have added a dimension to the Champion Chase, and Shishkin missing the Gold Cup is a what a might have been story, for one of chasing’s mystery horses. On with the Mullins procession today? More than likely, we’re looking to the likes of Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead to lower their fellow Irishman’s colours.
Barry Glendenning is here all week, and took in a rather low-key opening day for everyone not called Mullins or Townend.
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Cheltenham where, sadly, one disappointment has followed another this morning ahead of the second day of this year’s Festival.
News that today’s seven-race card had shrunk to just six with the abandonment of the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase was followed by the scratching of three runners from Nicky Henderson’s yard, including Jonbon, the second-favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase, amid concerns about the health of his string.
Five of Henderson’s six runners here on Tuesday were pulled up, and the trainer said in a statement posted on X that he had “been forced to make some very tough decisions following the disappointing performances of all bar one of our horses yesterday”.
The statement continued: “It was there for all to see that there is obviously something affecting nearly all our horses and consequently we have reluctantly decided that Jonbon, First Street [in the Coral Cup] and Kingston Pride [in the Champion Bumper] will not run today. It is impossible to identify any reason for all the disappointments and none of these horses have given us any cause for concern and all yesterday’s runners were scoped clean post-race and I am glad to say all are sound this morning.
“There will unfortunately be further non-runners on Thursday and Friday. I hope everybody will appreciate that we have to do this in everybody’s interests, particularly the horses. It is very, very disappointing for everybody.”
Shishkin, the third-favourite for Friday’s Gold Cup, has since been added to the list of absentees, and there will be obvious concerns that Sir Gino, the favourite for the Triumph Hurdle earlier in the day, could join the list.
The Cross-County Chase, meanwhile, has been abandoned following an inspection this morning. “Following 11mm of rainfall throughout yesterday, there has been no improvement in the conditions on the cross-country course and with areas of the track unraceable, the Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase has sadly been abandoned,” read a statement. “The forecast for the remainder of the week continues to look unsettled, with further showers likely on both Thursday and Friday. There will therefore be insufficient improvement by Friday 15 March, and the decision has been taken not to reschedule the Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase at the Festival.”
As a result, the start time of today’s first race, the Gallagher Novice Hurdle, has been pushed back to 1.45pm and the full revised running order is:
1.45 Gallagher Novice Hurdle
2.30 Brown Advisory Novice Chase
3.15 Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle
4.00 Queen Mother Champion Chase
4.50 Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup
5.30 Champion Bumper
It has been an inauspicious opening to the day, and El Fabiolo is now long odds-on at 1-3 for the feature race after the scratching of his main market rival. There is still plenty to look forward to, however, including the distinct possibility that Willie Mullins will become the first trainer to register 100 Festival winners. He has the favourite in the Gallagher (Ballyburn), the Brown Advisory (Fact To File) and the Champion Chase, and a treble on all three is currently paying out at around 5-2.
