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We have finally have gotten to the end of the festival, it's always a shame when it happens as we have a whole year before we get the best show on turf on our screens. We close the Festival with the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle.
Cheltenham 5:30 – Cool Survivor 5/1 (1pt ew)
You'll normally not go far wrong if you're backing the horse with the best conditional jockey on board. The man of the moment, Michael O'Sullivan rides for Willie Mullins with, Spanish Harlem. On the form, I couldn't back this horse with stolen money. He finished 2nd to Three Card Brag, but was battered by 12L and was then beaten at odds-on the time after by a horse who did nothing in the Coral Cup today. Being trained by Willie Mullins will more than likely mean he has more to come but based on the form he has too much to prove.
Gordon Elliott has a lot of runners in this and he won this race back in 2017 and 2018, winning it with horses who went on to win Grade 1s, so you know the type of horse he likes to send to this race. Out of his bunch, I like Cool Survivor who is ridden by Sam Ewing, who rides a lot of Gordon. This horse probably has the best form in the race and considering he finished 4th in a Grade 1 last time around, you've got to say he is a clear Graded horse in a handicap. He wasn't embarrassed in that race either, finishing 4.5L behind the winner. The winner went on to run well in the Ballymore, and I thought he stayed the 2m 6f really well that day, which will put him in good stead for this race over shorter but on testing ground.
Iroko seems to be getting plenty of attention, and I think that is probably due to the owner, JP McManus. People seem to think when one of his wins on the bridle that they are instantly well-handicapped, which is fairly accurate, but like we saw with his runner in the Pertemps today, it's never that easy getting a winner at the Cheltenham Festival no matter how easily they won last time around. This race is much tougher and there will be plenty in this race with pounds to spare from the handicapper, so I'd rather go with the solid form in the book.
I thought Haxo was an interesting runner. He is now owned by the Noel Fehily Syndicate and was quite well-fancied to win last time around. This Syndicate are shrewd with Noel Fehile and David Crosse doing some great business, I don't think they would come here if they didn't think they had a live chance. Before they owned him he was put into the 2022 Ballymore. He was 125/1 that day, but that shows that Willie thinks he is a Graded animal, even though he was shocking. I thought the run last time around was a real staying type of performance and I can see him running well.
Henry De Bromhead's runner, Spirit Of Legend was one on my shortlist. He is a lightly raced horse with not much experience, but he travels nicely through his races over shorter and gives the impression he might stay this trip. He was running a nice race at Navan before he was brought down. Path D'oroux won the race, and he runs earlier on today, so if that horse runs well, this horse will shorten.
