Timeform 1-2-3 Tips: Thursday March 17

Timeform UK SmartPlays / Adam Brookes / 17 March 2011 /

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David Pipe will be all smiles if Grands Crus can provide him with his first winner of the meeting

"Big Buck's will be popular to land the hat-trick, but, as we saw with Master Minded and Big Zeb yesterday, winning the same race at the Festival evidently becomes harder each year..."

The St Patrick's Day celebrations will have started a day early after the Irish won six out of the seven races at Cheltenham on Wednesday, but Thursday could belong to the home-based trainers, and they will hopefully land the feature race, the World Hurdle...

Who'd have thought it? Prior to January 29, Grands Crus (15:20) was merely a staying handicap hurdler with potential, but, after a scintillating performance in the Cleeve Hurdle, he's now a razor-sharp thorn in the side of a double champion. David Pipe's grey eased to a 10-length defeat of Knockara Beau over course and distance last time (Bensalem fifth), always travelling supremely well before asserting readily coming up the famous hill, and whilst he won't have it all his own way today, we feel the outcome could well be the same. Big Buck's will be popular to land the hat-trick, but, as we saw with Master Minded and Big Zeb on Wednesday, winning the same race at the Festival evidently becomes harder each year, and, with Mourad and Fiveforthree also in the line-up, this promises to be a very stern test for Paul Nicholls'eight-year-old. What's more, should Grands Crus' upward curve continue in the manner we believe it will, Big Buck's will have to at least match his performance of last year to even have a hope of holding him at bay.

Katie Walsh and Ferdy Murphy combined successfully with Poker de Sivola in the National Hunt Chase at last year's Festival, but with Ms Walsh committing to ride for Willie Mullins in the Kim Muir Chase, Murphy turns to another top Irish female jockey, Nina Carberry, to partner our fancy Galant Nuit (16:40) in the race. Don't let the fact that he was pulled up in his only start this year put you off, as that was merely a prep run for the Welsh Grand National (a race he didn't make through injury), and his close third behind Ballabriggs in this race last year is much more a measure of his ability. Expect him to be dropped out early, as is his wont, before progressing through the field and wearing down the leaders up the hill. Well that's the plan anyway, and with his trainer saddling Divers to do something similar on Tuesday, we're confident that we won't be too wide of the mark in our assumptions.

If you're still standing after enjoying the rewards of those two winners, then you might want to consider supplementing your gains with A Stones Throw in the last at Towcester (17:35). On just his second start for the yard, A Stones Throw rallied well for his jockey in a handicap hurdle for lady amateur riders at Catterick last time and it's hoped that, with promising conditional Jake Greenall taking over the reins, he can build on that performance and take all the beating in a weak race

Recommendations

Back Grands Crus @ [3.8] Cheltenham 15:20
Back Galant Nuit @ [8.8] Cheltenham 16:40
Back A Stones Throw @ [3.2] Towcester 17:35

Get a 100% Betfair commission refund on the Jewson Chase (Cheltenham 13:30)

Get the Timeform Jury's tips for every Channel 4 race at the Cheltenham Festival this week with Timeform TV Focus. Click HERE to find out more.

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