There is an open look to the feature Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle crown (3.30) on day three at the Cheltenham Festival, with five British runners and five raiders, among them the reigning champion Flooring Porter.
There is every chance of a repeat victory in this staying spectacular, as Paisley Park (2019) and Lisnagar Oscar (2020) are also back. Paisley Park’s improbable success over Champ in the Cleeve was nothing short of incredible in its execution, though the chances are Champ will bounce back and reverse the form.
Flooring Porter must reverse Leopardstown form with Klassical Dream but is more reliable than that rival, who flopped since at Gowran. Moreover, Klassical Dream was essentially gifted half a dozen lengths at the start. The Gavin Cromwell runner is pretty solid in one of the most open renewals of the Stayers’ in many years.
It is not the feature race and only four have turned up for the Turners Novices Chase (1.30), yet who needs a big field when you have Galopin Des Champs and Bob Olinger? This old-school match has been talked up for weeks and bookmakers are struggling to split the pair, both of whom were easy winners here 12 months ago as novice hurdlers.
Ready preference is for Bob Olinger, who produced a devastating turn of foot to take the Ballymore last year. He is two from two over fences and may just have more natural pace than Galopin Des Champs, who has been electric throughout his own two chase starts.
Day three tips
Odds supplied by 888 Sport
1.30 - Bob Olinger (evens)
2.10 - Winter Fog (5-1)
2.50 - Allaho (31-50)
3.30 - Flooring Porter (3-1)
4.10 - Grand Paradis (17-2)
4.50 - Mighty Blue (18-1)
5.30 - Rightplacerightime (20-1)
Perhaps he should have run in the Brown Advisory, but Willie Mullins has stuck to his guns. He is rarely wrong.
We could have the shortest starting price of the week in the Ryanair Chase (2.50). The Mullins-trained Allaho demolished 11 rivals in this last year and it is telling that only one of them returns to take him on again, Mister Fisher.
Allaho is perfect for the Ryanair and the relatively small field will make life fairly straightforward for rider Paul Townend. He can make all or most of the running.
Conflated was a revelation at Leopardstown and goes here instead of the Gold Cup, but trainer Gordon Elliott has been at pains to stress that the horse is not especially reliable. He is relatively unexposed, however, and has a chance.
The Pertemps (2.10) sees an antepost gamble in the shape of Winter Fog, who has the same connections of The Shunter, who landed a gamble at the Festival last year. He travelled like a dream at Leopardstown, only to not last it out — and it is perhaps telling that Emmet Mullins goes for a hood here.
Mark Walsh is a fascinating booking for The Jam Man, who ran a shocker last time but could easily bounce back. Trainer Ronan McNally may again have bookmakers running for cover.
Irish trainers have won four of the past six runnings of the Craft Irish Whiskey Co Plate Handicap Chase (4.10). I like the claims of Grand Paradis, who has not had much luck over fences last time but has plenty of class as a novice — and where better a place to win a chase for the first time than Cheltenham?
The Colin Tizzard-trained Slate House has not won a race since 2019 when a novice. Things have gone awry but there have been signs of life this year and he might out-run his odds.
“The 16-1 about Mighty Blue is appealing,” I wrote here 12 months ago, ahead of the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (4.50). She’s an even bigger price in the same race now, having come back for more, which is exactly what Concertista did before romping home in this race two years ago.
Mighty Blue travels strongly in her races, having shown high-class form on the Flat, and can certainly make the frame. Mullins has won all bar one of the runnings of this and he runs a staggering seven, with Dinoblue perhaps the pick of them.
The Kim Muir (5.30) is the sort of get-out stakes bookmakers love. Frontal Assault is top weight and has contracted sharply in the betting, with Rightplacerightime a speculative pick for Emmet Mullins. He made a bad mistake at Leopardstown at the first last time and ran perfectly well in the circumstances.
