It’s a bit of a conundrum, what makes these two courses the same when to most people they’re different, and they’re over fifty miles apart.
But they are connected by one thing.
Well, more than one thing, but one thing that comes to mind very quickly. And that is…
On Saturday I put Cheltenham down in the email when I was writing about Newbury!
Okay they have something else in common as well… John Burke was watching them closely to see if there are any EyeCatchers to give to members.
Which, if you’re not currently part of, you can join right here.
The kind of analysis he does to find horses to watch, looks a bit like this:
As ever the ‘Hennessey’ was a great spectacle with 19 runners going to post for this historic handicap with the race being won by the favourite the Colin Tizzard trained Native River. The six-year-old was up with the pace most of the way and when he took up the running two out he soon asserted and although he idled on the run-in, in reality, he was never really likely to be caught by the albeit strong finishing Carole’s Destrier who ran a fine race with next year’s Grand National in mind. The winner was given an excellent and very positive ride from the off by jockey Richard Johnson who was incidentally winning his first ‘Hennessey’. What was notable for me was the way he travelled through his race all this from a horse that last season often would hit a flat spot in his races. He clearly has earned a go at the Cheltenham Gold Cup and if connections can get Richard Johnson on board again the horse will be a danger to all.
As I mentioned earlier I thought the run of the Neil Mulholland-trained Carole’s Destrier was an excellent trial for a Grand National. The 33/1 that was still available when I last looked on Oddschecker about his chance for the big one at Aintree looks generous given that his trainer has said at the start of the season that the race was the horse’s target.
Interestingly there has been much speculation amongst pundits that the second season chasers weren’t as good a group and the RSA novice chase form might not be that great although the winner of that race Blacklion was an honourable 5th on Saturday. There is no doubt that it is worth looking back at the form of the last seasons 4m National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham. Native River was 2nd to the Jonjo O’Neill Minella Rocco in that race and the 5th Vicente went on to win the Scottish Grand National. If you fancy Native River for the Gold Cup you would have to respect the chance of Minella Rocco who can be backed at a generous 33/1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
And there’s more of that in today’s blog post, which is why you should check it out now.
Oh yeah, I didn’t mention, there are two free EyeCatchers to follow at the bottom of the post too. So yes, you will need to read all the way to the end!
All the best,
Michael and the Race Advisor team
P.S. If you want us to give you the horses you need be watching, you should to take advantage of this now.
P.P.S. And as with everything on the Race Advisor, it will allow you to track your own horses as well as being updated with all the ones we follow ourselves. Nuff said 🙂
