Cheltenham Festival Day 1: Champion Day
Cheltenham Festival Day 1: Champion Day
Transcript
00:00 Lee, it is Cheltenham this week, we're going to go through each of the four days from Tuesday
00:05 to Friday and rattle through some of the main races, some of the shortest odds as to who
00:11 might win. So if we start with day one, Tuesday, which is the champion day, it kicks off with
00:16 the Supreme Novelist's hurdle and then the feature race that day is the champion hurdle.
00:21 Now, of course, the big news in that one is that Constitution Hill will not be running.
00:25 So does that leave the door open for state man?
00:29 It should do realistically. Yeah, we'll go through each of these days, obviously, and
00:32 there's an awful lot of short price favourites during the week. And a lot of people will
00:36 have them like sort of like gathered together in accumulators and whatnot. And, you know,
00:40 the chances are that most will probably win. But every year at Cheltenham, it's the same.
00:44 There's a lot of bankers and not all of them win. So some of them will probably fall by
00:47 the wayside. And I don't know about state man, listen, it should win. It's got the best
00:51 form in the race. It's miles clear on the ratings. As I say, second to Constitution
00:55 Hill last year, but there's no Constitution Hill this time. So it should leave the door
00:59 open. And, you know, it's won every race apart from basically certainly a lot of races in
01:03 a row since that defeat to Constitution Hill. It's a fantastic course, but very, very short
01:08 odds. And obviously, you know, it doesn't take a genius to sit here and say that should
01:11 probably win. But I just wonder whether the second favourite Irish point is probably the
01:17 advice in this race, because you can do it each way, obviously about five or six to one.
01:20 Gordon Elliott trains it. Yes, it's got an awful lot to find on the figures, but it's
01:23 still a young horse. It's improving. And basically, it'll definitely stay as well. I think Gordon
01:28 Elliott is saying nothing will be staying on stronger at the end. It was obviously entered
01:32 also in the World Hurdle, the Stairs Hurdle. So obviously, it shows you probably will get
01:35 further. So if you're going to give a bit of advice for that race, rather than sort
01:38 of like go smashing into state man at four to eleven, maybe the way to do it is to do
01:42 Irish point each way in that one. Look, obviously, state man is the most likeliest winner. And,
01:47 you know, we'll probably get people's accumulators off to a winning start with that one. And
01:52 it is one of the shortest prize fancies of the week, obviously trained by Willie Mullins
01:54 as well. We'll go through these races. I mean, Willie Mullins, I mean, however many winners
01:58 he could have this week, it could be staggering. I mean, it could be like a record-breaking
02:02 total when I've gone through it and looked at the fancies he's got. But yeah, look, state
02:06 man's the most likely winner. But if I'm going to give a bit of advice, I'd probably say
02:08 do Irish point each way, because if it doesn't cause an upset and beat state man, I expect
02:12 it'll probably be second. And obviously, at that price, it's a good each, you know, you've
02:15 got to get your money back plus hopefully a bit more. Yeah, you're right. Obviously,
02:20 the Supreme, there's always a massive draw. The big Cheltenham draw when the tapes go
02:23 up for that one. Mullins has got the first two in the market there, could well win that.
02:27 I just wonder about Jericho de Ropenay and that for Henderson. That's a progressive horse,
02:31 15-2, I could see that going well. He's got Lozzie Mouth as well on the Tuesday, which
02:36 is 4-6. I think that should probably take a lot of beating. Again, that'll be in a lot
02:40 of the accumulators. And then obviously, the Arco is quite open. Kwik Kwileksos maybe in
02:45 that one at about sevens. But my main one really, other than looking at the champion
02:49 hurdle, is there's another Willie Mullins-trained horse called Meeting of the Waters on the
02:53 first day, entered in the Ultima. And the interesting thing with this is that it's been
02:57 bought by legendary owner J.P. McManus just ahead of this race, basically. Willie Mullins
03:02 has already said in his Sporting Life column that the target for this horse is the Grand
03:06 National, but he thinks this race is probably within its compass. It was unseated as rider
03:10 last time. I'm pretty sure it's on a good mark. And, you know, like, I mean, if you're
03:14 looking for clues, I mean, the fact that J.P. McManus has gone out and bought a horse just
03:17 before it runs at Cheltenham is surely a massive clue. And that's a decent price as well, around
03:21 about six to one. Yeah, it's favourite or near enough favourite, but it's not like you're
03:24 taking short odds. So there's a few fancies there for the first day. Meeting of the Waters,
03:28 I say, would be my main one because of the odds on it. But yeah, I mean, the champion
03:31 hurdle is the big one. And it does look an open goal for Stateman, like you say, but
03:35 I just wonder at those prices whether the Elliot Horse Irish point each way is the way
03:38 to play it.