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We enter the final day of the Festival, and hasn't it gone quickly? The first race to kickstart Gold Cup day is the JCB Triumph Hurdle Grade 1 which is the pinnacle for the Juvenile hurdlers.
Juvenile races are often tough to get right. I've mentioned it a lot over the past three years since I started here that form can often go out the window with 4-year-olds and shocks do happen as they are inexperienced horses who find a spurt of improvement out of nowhere. They aren't mature so their bodies are still physically progressing and they are still getting used to the jumps, for most of them.
The Irish have won the last four renewals and five of the last six. The British have had the ante-post favourite for a long time, but whether or not he is effected by the Henderson bad form time will tell.
Cheltenham 1:30 – Storm Heart 9/2 (1pt) & Mighty Bandit 25/1 (0.5pt EW, Coral 4pl)
Well, the Nicky Henderson saga continues as Sir Gino was removed from this race on Thursday morning, which is a real shame. On all known form and the visuals that we've seen from this horse he would've won this race.
Willie Mullins has a very good record in this race, who'd have thought? He brings an army over for this race with seven runners, and I think it would have been a really tough task for Paul Townend to choose. He's stuck to his guns from the DRF and rides Storm Heart again, which isn't a huge surprise as he clearly got a good feel off him on debut for him to ride him in the Grade 1 at Leopardstown. He finished 2nd that day to Kargese and if you cast your minds back to a month or so ago, David Mullins was riding like a demon that day, as he so often does at the DRF, so it was hardly a surprise to see Kargese get a win that day. The latter named horse is interesting as Willie had the front three in this race last year, all with mares, and this is the only one he has sent for this race this year. She gets 7lbs from the boys, and has already proven that she is a Grade 1 level competitor at this age group, and considering she won by over a length, she has to be firmly in the picture. However, Storm Heart seemed to be caught a bit flat-footed by the pace of the winner, and I think Cheltenham will suit him much better, with stamina more of his thing at this trip, and I struggle to see him not hitting the frame.
Salvator Mundi is the interesting runner in this race. He is making his stable debut for Willie Mullins in the Triumph, which goes to show the level of horse that connections think he is. He is owned by the same connections of Sir Gino, and they tend to buy extremely well, proven by Sir Gino, Shishkin, Melon, Al Boum Photo and many more. He was second to Sir Gino on his sole start in France, and apparently didn't jump as well as the winner that day, but connections clearly felt he was top class as they bought the pair. Brian Hayes came out and said that he's been telling Paul Townend to ride this lad after Brian had sat on him a couple of times and gave him a very good feel on the gallops. He mentioned that Paul was potentially swaying towards picking him, and if he did, he would be half the odds he currently is. Brian must be buzzing as he gets the ride, and if he is as good as what he is making him out to be, he could spring a surprise. History is against him though with the last 25 winners running between 18 and 55 days before.
Majborough is the new favourite for this race with Sir Gino being a non-runner, and I can see why. He was chucked into a Grade 1 on stable debut and was decently well-fancied at odds of 5/1, he is always going to be strongly fancied in the betting for today as he is trained by Willie and owned by JP, but I think this lad is going to be better in the future. He is a big lad and will love a fence, and if he wins today then fair play, he has the world at his feet, but he is getting short in the market now.
I thought Mighty Bandit was of interest at a big price. He was owned by the Caldwell lot when trained by Gordon Elliott, he was sold at their dispersal sale for 420,000 Euros, but that saw Warren Greatrex get him. Warren hasn't had the best of times over recent years, his stable stars have retired and his numbers has gone massively down hill, so it's nice to see him get a potentially very nice horse. This lad did nothing wrong on debut, he romped home and in hindsight, the form looks very good. The runner-up who was smashed by Mighty Bandit was the winner of the Boodles Juvenile handicap on Day 1, and that horse won that race with ease. The fourth was in the race at MB won on debut as well. Last time out, he went off 13/8F for a Grade 2, but that wasn't a true showing as he finished 9th. He had nasal discharge after the race, so you can forgive him for that run and he has had a wind surgery since. Obviously, those setbacks aren't ideal, but if he was still owned by his previous owners and trained by Gordon Elliott, I'm fairly certain he'd been much shorter in the market. When the likes of Salver are 9/1, there are far worse EW bets than this lad.
