Kieran Packman: Long Run the one for me!

The Cheltenham Festival / Kieran Packman / 18 March 2011 /

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Long Run: will younger legs be too much for the older brigade to overcome?

"For what it’s worth, I think one of the front two will win, that the pair should be much shorter and that it’s probably Long Run, whose career is still heading vertically, who’ll prove the one."

There was just a fleeting half second when it seemed as though the wonderful Grands Crus was actually going to go by, but then Big Buck's spied his challenger and asserted his authority as (arguably) the most talented horse in training. The World Hurdle was a truly fantastic race, quickening the pulse of even a cynical punter such as I. Made even better by the fact that Pipey's grey did the decent thing and at least came second.

There was just a fleeting half second when it seemed as though the wonderful Grands Crus was actually going to go by, but then Big Buck's spied his challenger and asserted his authority as (arguably) the most talented horse in training. The World Hurdle was a truly fantastic race, quickening the pulse of even a cynical punter such as I. Made even better by the fact that Pipey's grey did the decent thing and at least came second.

Sadly, Aimigayle also finished second, far less rewardingly. But what a week for the burgeoning talents of jockey/trainer-in-all-but-name Keiran Burke. Second with the hugely progressive Sparky May, then a handicap winner with Holmwood Legend, who saw off the game mare in the Byrne Group Plate. A brief nod to the slightly more established (Sir) Henry Cecil who did what we all knew he would when bringing one to Cheltenham.

Final reflection on yesterday, a very rare bit of credit from this quarter for Jonjo O'Neill, rarely the punter's pal, but deserving of considerable praise for bringing Alberta's Run back from a genuine horror fall at Ascot.

Gold Cup day looms and a year when, probably more than any other in recent memory, the market is wide open and theories, arguments and question marks abound. For what it's worth, I think one of the front two will win, that the pair should be much shorter and that it's probably Long Run, whose career is still heading vertically, who'll prove the one. It'll also be fun to watch Tidal Bay run on for fourth.

It will also be a spectacle to see Kauto Star and Denman both possibly bowing out from this most exalted of stages. As you may have gathered, I'm far from a 'horsey' type and find much of the sentimentality in racing baffling, but this is a rare example when I do just hope nothing bad happens. It's been a dismal winter when it's come to injuries and fatalities (no need to put a list of names here, but you know who I mean) and something similar here would cause new found levels of reflection and concern.

Aside from the main event today, one for the back-to-lay-to-green brigade, as I'msingingtheblues will hopefully be tanking coming to the final fence in the last. If he's in anything like the form that saw him do just that here two runs ago, before his stamina gave way over a trip too far, he'll surely reward such tactics.

It's been impossible, frustrating and fun as usual. Hope you've had a good one.

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