Paul Nicholls is one of the finest trainers that National Hunt racing has seen, but even he cannot edit what is written into a horse’s genes and it is a slight surprise to see his six-year-old Il Ridoto challenging for favouritism in the valuable two-and-a-half mile handicap chase on Saturday at Cheltenham, which will need to pass an inspection at 7.30am to get the go-ahead to race.
Il Ridoto has run near-identical races over track and trip on his last two starts, travelling well and making a strong move into contention before fading on the run to the line. The going is, if anything, a little more testing on Saturday and his price of around 6-1 is easy to resist, not least with the progressive Fugitif (1.50) in the field and on offer at similar odds.
