The Queen Mother Champion Chase brought one disappointment after another for Willie Mullins until he finally broke his duck with Energumene, the winner in 2022 and 2023, and even with his star two-miler sidelined by injury, Mullins should complete the hat-trick with El Fabiolo (3.30) in the festival’s feature event on Wednesday afternoon.
The favourite was a neck behind Jonbon, his main market rival, in a novice hurdle at Aintree in April 2022 but is much better over fences and dispatched Jonbon by nearly six lengths in last year’s Arkle Trophy.
El Fabiolo has since extended his unbeaten record over fences to six races while Jonbon suffered a surprise defeat at short odds in the Clarence House at Ascot and Mullins’s seven-year-old also looks to have the greater scope for improvement.
Cheltenham 1.30 Ballyburn would have set off as a hot favourite for Tuesday’s opener too, but this step back up in trip looks like the right call and Slade Steel’s win in the Supreme franks the form of his dominant success in a Grade One at the Dublin racing festival last month.
Cheltenham 2.10 Fact To File is sure to start favourite here but his winning form in a two-runner Grade One is hardly watertight and Monty’s Star appeals as a potential surprise package. Henry de Bromhead’s gelding sank without trace in a 20-runner Albert Bartlett here last year but already looks much better over fences, albeit in much lesser company. He posted a useful time in testing conditions at Punchestown in December and could outrun his odds of around 6-1.
Cheltenham 2.50 Built By Ballymore has shown more to the handicapper than several fancied rivals, having won his last two starts, but Martin Brassil’s runner went in snatches last time out before running on well close home and first-time cheekpieces could eke out further improvement.
Cheltenham 4.10 This year’s Cross Country Chase is subject to a 6am inspection, but the conditions should be ideal for Coko Beach, a stout stayer and sound jumper who goes well on heavy ground, to make a bold show if the race gets the nod.
Huntingdon 1.10 Twenty Twenty 1.50 Villainess 2.30 Inedit Star 3.10 Jackpot Cash 3.50 Sanitiser 4.30 Pearly Island 5.00 Lumi Plugin
Cheltenham 1.30 Ballyburn
2.10 Monty’s Star
2.50 Built By Ballymore (nap)
3.30 El Fabiolo
4.10 Coko Beach
4.50 Libberty Hunter
5.30 The Yellow Clay (nb)
Newcastle
4.36 Kings Merchant
5.10 Dubawi Time
5.45 Superb Force
6.15 Noble Order
6.45 Initio
7.15 Zarzyni
7.45 Lough Leane
8.15 Havana Party
Kempton Park
5.20 Tribal Star
6.00 Surrey Force
6.30 Bet Me
7.00 First Company
7.30 Logistical
8.00 Global Warning
8.30 Barrel Aged
Cheltenham 4.50 Evan Williams’s lightly raced Libberty Hunter has yet to experience a race of this nature, but in Harry Cobden, he has an ideal pilot to guide him and any improvement on his cosy success over the New course here in January would put him right in the mix.
Cheltenham 4.40 Jeroboam Machin, the winner of possibly the best bumper of the season at Leopardstown last month, misses this due to injury but the form is still well represented by You Oughta Know and The Yellow Clay, second and fourth respectively. Marginal preference is for the latter, who was back from a long break and could have more scope for progress.
