Races

Cheltenham Festival – What to expect

Posted on | Posted by Andrew Hawkins

Cheltenham is here once again!

The biggest meeting in the jumps world, it is like a combination of Royal Ascot and the Melbourne Cup Carnival, fused into one. It is four days of non-stop action with plenty of winners to be found.

For the novice National Hunt enthusiasts, there are steeplechases – or just chases – which are over the bigger fences at a minimum height of 1.37m. There are 13 of those over the traditional fences, as well as a 14th – the Glenfarclas – which is contested over the Cross Country course, a more rugged and testing circuit with more natural obstacles.

There are 13 hurdle races, which are contested over smaller obstacles that are uniform across the track at 1.06m. There is also a bumper, which is a flat race restricted to horses who are bound for the National Hunt circuit and are yet to race over obstacles.

There is a mix of set weights, conditions and handicap events and there are races restricted to amateur and conditional riders as well as to different types of horses. It can all be quite confusing but, hopefully, our guide throughout the week will help you to understand each race as well as to find the winner!

So what are the main highlights of the week?

The Cheltenham Roar

There are few sensations in racing quite like the Cheltenham Roar which kicks off the four days of racing in the Cotswolds.

Perhaps the cheer that accompanies the start of the Melbourne Cup is the closest thing worldwide, but it is a unique sensation that is eagerly awaited every year. It is also something that many Australians will associate with the Festival as it is at a palatable time in the evening.

It helps that the first race is the fascinating Supreme Novices Hurdle, a race that often unveils the next star of the National Hunt scene – much in the same way that a Guineas does on the Flat.

This year, there is a sentimental favourite in that race by the name of Facile Vega. Winner of the Champion Bumper, the sole flat race at the meeting, last year, he had looked every bit an emerging hurdler before his last-start defeat at Leopardstown.

Still, there is plenty of hope that the real Facile Vega may be seen here and, if so, he will be very hard to beat.

His dam Quevega dominated on this day, winning the Mares Hurdle six years in a row from 2009 to 2014, and it would be fitting to see him take her mantle here.

There is also potentially a bit of an Australian link with High Definition lining up for Joseph O’Brien.

While his form tapered off throughout the season last year, he was a neck second to Alenquer in the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in May last year. Alenquer is set to make his Australian debut in the All-Star Mile at Moonee Valley next Saturday, so the pair have certainly gone in different directions since.

A bad run doesn’t mean the end of the world, though – in 2012, Simenon finished last, a year before he finished second in the G1 Ascot Gold Cup and fourth in the Melbourne Cup.

Constitution Hill

Speaking of the Supreme Novices Hurdle as a guide to future success, last year’s winner Constitution Hill is set to start one of the shortest-priced favourites of the week in the Tuesday feature, the Champion Hurdle.

He keeps winning by big margins and in the most emphatic manner possible. At his last two starts in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle and the Christmas Hurdle, he’s beaten his stablemate Epatante – winner of the Champion Hurdle in 2020 and placed in both 2021 and 2022 – by 12 lengths and 17 lengths respectively.

Constitution Hill also won the Supreme Novices Hurdle at the course and distance by 22 lengths last year, with runner-up Jonbon four from four since and set to start a short-priced favourite in the Arkle earlier in the day.

It won’t be easy against State Man, a Grade 1 winner at his last four starts, but Constitution Hill looks a winner befitting the “champion” tag. If there is one horse to watch this week, it is him.

Potential Melbourne Cup runners

Wednesday’s Coral Cup and Friday’s County Hurdle have been known to produce eventual Melbourne Cup runners before, such as Max Dynamite, Wicklow Brave and Thomas Hobson.

Given all were for Willie Mullins, perhaps you are looking for another from the yard to potentially come down under.

Brandy Love, a daughter of Caulfield Cup fourth and Easter Cup winner Jet Away, is one candidate, as is the emerging Hunters Yarn.

Either way, it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on both handicaps for the future.

Noble Yeats

One of the most intriguing horses of the week is last year’s Grand National winner Noble Yeats, who lines up in the week’s leading feature, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

It’s no easy feat. In Australian terms, it’s the equivalent of a horse winning the Melbourne Cup one year and coming back to win the Cox Plate the next.

Given that’s been achieved only by Phar Lap, Might And Power and Makybe Diva, that shows you the quality required to do the double.

Whether he’s good enough or not remains to be seen but he certainly adds a bit of spice to a Gold Cup that also has stars like Galopin Des Champs, A Plus Tard and Bravemansgame.

Ireland vs the UK

The rivalry between Irish and British trainers has long been a hallmark of the Cheltenham Festival. However, this was officially recognised in 2014 with the introduction of the Prestbury Cup, awarded to the country that comes out on top each year.

One would think, being on British territory, that it would be a British domination. Not so. Indeed, Irish eyes have certainly been smiling in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day in recent years.

Britain won narrowly in 2014 and 2015 and dead-heated with Ireland in 2019, but every other year has been an Irish whitewash. In 2021, the Irish annihilated the British 23 to 5, while last year was a slightly more palatable 18 to 10.

It might be worth keeping that in mind when looking at who is training these horses throughout the week. There is no doubt that the Irish, led by Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead, are intent on keeping the Prestbury Cup in Irish hands.




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