Champ Can Bring the House Down on Cheltenham Trials Day
On Saturday, Prestbury Park Racecourse stages a dress rehearsal for its March carnival with a Trials Day meeting. It is a big afternoon for connections of horses with Cheltenham Festival aspirations.
Stayers Hurdle hopefuls will get course and distance knowledge in the Cleeve Hurdle. Gold Cup candidates will contest the Cotswold Chase and five last-time-out winners clash in the Classic Novices’ Hurdle.
Champ, seen galloping up the Cheltenham hill to victory in the 2020 RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase, is favorite for Saturday’s Cleeve Hurdle. ©GettyImages
And the result of the Triumph Hurdle Trial, where two big reputations are on the line, will have an impact on the betting market for the JCB-sponsored Festival race. These are just four of the contests on an excellent ITV Racing televised card. It is complemented with three races broadcast from Doncaster where the Grade-2 Sky Bet Handicap Chase is the feature.
Champ Can Be and Beat Fabulous
The Cleeve Hurdle will give some clarity to the Stayers Hurdle betting market. Champ – returning to hurdles this season after a disappointing year over fences – is 7/2 to take the three-mile championship contest. To justify those odds, he needs to score convincingly in Saturday’s 3.05 pm.
Here Paisley Park, the fairytale 2019 Stayers Hurdle winner, is his chief rival. Beaten into third in last year’s contest, Paisley Park has run relatively flat in three starts this campaign. Vitally, Champ beat this rival by over five lengths on equal terms when they met at Ascot in December.
McFabulous could be a stronger opponent. 33/1 in the Stayers’ Hurdle betting with the best betting sites, he made his seasonal debut in the Relkeel Hurdle on New Year’s Day. Finishing second, he visibly appeared to need further than its two-miles-and-four-furlongs trip.
During the off-season, Paul Nicholl’s eight-year-old had wind surgery which can improve horses. Such was the strength of his form during his early career, McFabulous was sent off as favorite to beat Paisley Park and the classy Thyme Hill in his only previous start over three miles – at Ascot in November 2020.
But Champ is the class act. He won the 2020 RSA Novices’ Chase despite being anything other than a natural jumper. Over the smaller obstacles, he is a three-time Grade-1 winner.
Lightly raced – making just four racecourse appearances in the past two years – he is difficult to oppose this weekend. Sadly, bookmakers agree, and he will be an odds-on favorite at the off.
Doubts About Chantry Form
At 16/1 Chantry House is the eighth favorite in the Gold Cup betting list. Remarkably all seven horses before him are trained in Ireland. A polished effort in Cotswold Chase, due off at 2.30 pm, could see him shortened for the sport’s premier race.
Another expected to start at odds-on, and like Champ representing the J.P. McManus and Nicky Henderson owner/trainer combination, Chantry House has a fine profile winning eight times from his 11 career starts.
However, the eight-year-old was favorite when disappointingly pulled-up on his most recent outing in King George Chase on Boxing Day. He will need to show this dire effort was not reflective of his current ability.
There is more than one question mark over his past results. The formbook shows Chantry House landed the Marsh Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. But his task was helped by the early fall of 4/9 favorite Envoi Allen. And in a subsequent Aintree contest, he was left clear when the leader, Espoir De Romay, fell two fences from home.
Simply Strong at the Trip
Given these doubts and those short odds, Chantry House is one to oppose. There are three strong rivals that could conceivably take his scalp. They are the Scottish-trained Aye Right, Paul Nicholls’ Simply The Betts and Santi. The latter was runner-up in the 2020 Gold Cup for Nicky Henderson but is now in the care of Polly Gundry.
Simply The Betts is the best option. A handicap winner at the 2020 Festival, he was spotted staying on strongly at Prestbury Park on New Year’s Day over two-and-a-half miles. On the forecast good ground, Simply The Betts, 3/1 in Ladbrokes early betting, will surely appreciate this step up in distance. He can, at the very least, give Chantry House something to think about.
