Cheltenham Handicap Focus: Tuesday

/ Rory Delargy / 11 March 2010 / Leave a Comment

One thing which many punters do at Cheltenham is to look for the "plot horses" - those which have been running down the field and now look well treated, but the truth is that the handicaps at the Festival are so competitive that doing so means possibly missing the cut and the vast majority of winners are those who arrive at the track in demonstrably good form and I'll try to narrow down these races each day to find the real value.

14:40 William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase (3m 1/2f)

The Wiiliam Hill Trophy is always a classy handicap chase and five previous winners have gone on to win the Gold Cup itself, the last being Charter Party back in 1986. This year's renewal looks well up to scratch with eight of the runners rated 150 or more. Historically, it's been very difficult for fully exposed handicappers to win this and those with such high ratings rarely have any secrets from the handicapper, so I'll pass over those in that group which include the well fancied Niche Market, Razor Royale and The Totherone. The first two mentioned probably left their chance behind with tough races in the last few weeks anyway.

In looking for the winner of this, I prefer to look at a horse who has had less than a dozen races over fences and may still have a bit of improvement in him (I'd say "or her" but the only mare to have won this was subsequent Gold Cup winner Kerstin over half a century ago, and she had only 10-5 that day), and it's a race in which novices have done well (Wichita Lineman, Dun Doire and Fork Lightning have all won in recent seasons). Horses with previous form at Cheltenham in March also do well in this race (Maximize, Ad Hoc, Irish Hussar and Juveigneur were placed in this having done so previously, or in the case of the first named, won the Kim Muir).

My shortlist at this satge comprises the following:

• The Package


• Character Building


• Theatrical Moment


• Bensalem


• Ogee

The Package was an impressve scorer earlier in the season at the track and went into my book as a horse who would pay to follow. He's taken a while to get his cat together but routed a fair field that day with a telling turn of foot. This furlong shorter trip will suit him even better. Character Building is attempting to do the Kim Muir/William Hill double which has so far proved elusive but the amateur race is of better quality these days and he's no forlorn hope to do so, despite this being a prep for the Grand National. He's lightly raced for a horse his age and may still have a standout performance in him. Theatrical Moment is a novice who needs to improve his jumping but he's getting better with each outing and has impressed by the way he's travelled in his few chases to date. He was the top bumper performer in the UK a couple of seasons ago and has a touch of class about him. He's also versatile regarding tactics which is a benefit here." Bensalem is another novice who has jumping issues but the handicapper has taken a chance with him off a mark of 143 and he would have a massive chance if avoiding the errors that have marred his last two runs. That's a big if though and he seems an all-or-nothing type in a race like this. The last of a trio of novices to catch the eye is the Renee Robeson trained Ogee, who may prove the value if he goes here (both he and Bensalem remain in the RSA) as he's taken well to fences and was a Grade 1 winner over hurdles last season.

At this stage, I favour Theatrical Moment, who currently trades around the 12/1 mark.

16:00 The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase 3m 7f

This is the weakest race at the Festival by some way, for all that it is viewed as a great spectacle, and we still don't "do" Cross Country Chases like the rest of Europe. The race as it stands is perfect for one particular type of horse - those trained by Enda Bolger. The master of Howardstown House is simply an out and out banks specialist as he has shown since the days of Risk Of Thunder who would have won every renewal of this for six years had it existed when he raced. Other horses such as Spot Thedifference and Garde Champetre have come through the ranks to dominate the sport and the latter still has another couple of years in him before his star wanes, so will be hard to beat in a bid to follow up his win in the last two renewals of this race. The handicapper has him 11lb higher than in 2009 but, in truth, weight seems to make little difference on this twisty-turny circuit as it does on conventional tracks, and he deserves to be a strong favourite.L'Ami was second last year and reopposes on better terms but, for a horse who has run Kauto Star to a neck at levels, he only seems to win when it's handed to him on a plate. Monkerhostin is a classy recruit to this sphere but had his first schooling session for this in the last few days and his inexperience for such a test will surely be enough to stop him. Sizing Australia has taken surprisingly well to this discipline and looks the main danger, having been 3rd and 2nd at the previous races at the track this season. Still only eight, he's pretty much the only horse in the field who is liable to improve and he is excellent each way value given how much dead wood there is in the contest. Silver Birch isn't the force of old and A New Story could be the outsider to back place only as he's run well before and ran an excellent prep last weekend over hurdles. Don't back him to win though, as he's rattled up a current losing sequence of 49!