The Cheltenham Festival / David Stewart / 18 March 2011 /

The stats aligned with the results for us on Thursday with success for Big Buck's in the World Hurdle and from the three 10-year-olds highlighted in the Ryanair Chase, two of them finished first and second - Albertas Run beating Kalahari King. Now for the final day of the Festival on Friday...

Big Race - 15:20 totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase

Flashstats: We're in for a real treat this afternoon with three previous winners competing for another victory and in the case of Kauto Star, a third. He would surely set a never-to-be-repeated stat of regaining the Gold Cup TWICE. Looking further back in the history books (and taking out triple winner Best Mate for a moment) multiple wins are not so common in recent years. Even the greats of the 80s and 90s Desert Orchid, Jodami and Dawn Run could only manage the single victory. Looking at the winners' SP, single digit winners have held the sway the race but the race isn't immune from throwing up a massive shock - cue Nortons Coin 21-years-ago at 100/1. Winning age averages between 7 and 8 and Paul Nicholls clearly holds the edge in recent renewals in the training category. Crucially, for fans of last year's winner Imperial Commander, a break is far from ideal and a recent winning run is a positive.

So where on earth does all that leave us in the context of this year's race? Sadly we will have to eliminate all three previous winners on the basis of age so there could well be a new name on the trophy.

We've filtered it down to four runners - and, given the results this week, are quite happy that two of them are trained in Ireland.
Contenders: Kempes, Long Run, Midnight Chase, Pandorama

Extra Race - 16:40 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle
Flashstats: We are dealing with a very short sample size in this years' renewal - in fact just two, but six-year-olds have won both runnings to date and playing the six six-year-olds blind might not be the worst strategy given they include the David Pipe trained Shoegazer. Pipe has enjoyed a good Cheltenham so far with two winners and an excellent run from Grands Crus in the World Hurdle. For obvious reasons this is a race he would dearly love to win. Six runners is a larger than normal list of contenders but when you look at the prices in this 24-runner handicap you'll realise that dutching them all is possible at the prices. Shoegazer was the shortest price of the sextet on Thursday evening so an equal stake on all would also guarantee a profit should you wish to play that way.
Contenders: Siberian Tiger, Shoegazer, Higgy's Boy, Dantari, Master Hyde, Rose Of The Moon

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