The major remaining Cheltenham Festival questions should be answered – and can this horse make history in the Imperial Cup?
Click here to add us to your Google preferred sources or find out more here
How many fans of jump racing are able to focus on races other than the ones scheduled for Cheltenham next week? We’ll find out over the next few days, building up to the weekend’s highlight of the Betfair Imperial Cup at Sandown, long established as the last highlight race in Britain before the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
This time, much of the focus will be on Go Dante, trying to become Sandown’s answer to Red Rum by winning this race for a third time. There is just one precedent for such an achievement, Trespasser, who dominated the Imperial Cup from 1920 to 1922, in the days when it was the most important hurdle race of the season.
Only two horses in the past 70 years have won the Imperial Cup more than once, so Go Dante is already a history-maker. Olly Murphy’s ten-year-old underlined his status as a Sandown specialist by winning again there in December and he remains unbeaten at the Esher track.
The opposition is bound to be strong. On top of the prize-money, Sandown will pay £100,000 to connections if the Imperial Cup winner follows up by landing a race at next week’s Cheltenham Festival. It’s a double that has been won in the past but not since David Pipe’s Gaspara in 2007.
Rubber Ball, who kept up the red-hot form of the Neil King yard by pulling clear at Newbury on Saturday, could be turned out again for this. Dan Skelton is bound to have a serious contender, perhaps Sinnatra, who won a novice hurdle at Warwick recently, suggesting the best is yet to come.
WIllie Mullins’ Leinster National army
The big betting race in Ireland this week will be the Bar 1 Betting Leinster National at Naas on Sunday. Rachael Blackmore memorably rode the winner as a 3lb claimer in 2017, a couple of years before her Cheltenham Festival breakthrough.
Willie Mullins seems well placed to dominate, with ten of the top 14 in the weights at this stage. They include potential Grand National contenders like High Class Hero, Quai De Bourbon and Captain Cody, although the latter ran recently in the Bobbyjo.
This race, and others during the week, offers a last chance to gauge the pre-Cheltenham form of the Gavin Cromwell yard, which has had such a tricky winter and is threatening to go quiet again. Cromwell had a seven per cent strike-rate through January and February and is currently on a losing run of 19. Backers of Inothewayurthinkin for the Gold Cup would probably like to see an upturn in the yard’s fortunes.
Ireland offers quality jumps action
Ireland will provide some quality jump racing before the weekend. Thurles stages a Grade 3 novice chase, the Pierce Molony Memorial on Thursday. The Enabler and Fleur In The Park are among the interesting ones entered.
Brechin Castle: entered at Naas on WednesdayCredit: Andrew Parker
At Naas on Wednesday, Willie Mullins has made an entry for Brechin Castle, who could make his obstacles debut in the opening maiden hurdle. Now eight, he was a talented bumper horse with Ben Brookhouse when last seen at the end of 2023. Celtic Dino, winner of the Welsh Champion Hurdle in October, was well behind Brechin Castle when they were placed in an Ascot bumper that year.
Another talented but rarely seen horse from the Mullins yard is expected at Leopardstown on Tuesday. Strutter, last seen winning over hurdles in 2024, is declared for a beginners’ chase.
Cheltenham chatter will take over
In this week, more than any other, the talk will be about what’s to come rather than what we’re seeing day to day. From Wednesday onwards, that will be especially true as we start to see five-day entries published for the Cheltenham Festival and, with a bit of luck, learn of some final decisions about running plans.
Favourites will begin to harden in price and there will be more and more weather chat as punters and connections try to predict the going for festival week. For what it’s worth, forecasts predict drying conditions in the Cheltenham area this week, with temperatures edging into the teens and little rain expected.
Cheltenham Festival entry schedule this week:
- Wednesday: confirmations and supplementary entries for day one
- Thursday: confirmations and supplementary entries for day two
- Friday: confirmations and supplementary entries for day three
- Saturday: confirmations and supplementary entries for day four
- Sunday: declarations for day one
Drying conditions welcome
They could do with some of that at Leicester, where the track is waterlogged in places ahead of Friday’s scheduled fixture. Followcato, seeking a fourth consecutive win, is entered in the handicap chase that would open the card.
Exeter, which has no such ground concerns, could have some big fields that day if entries hold up. The feature contest will be a novice handicap chase in which Largy Belter, Risk De Pluie and Kap Ouest are among the entries.
Read more here
This win acted as a big form boost for a leading Grand National hope – and was an ominous sign of things to come at Cheltenham
‘This is a handicap winner in waiting’ – the week’s essential additions to your tracker
Have we seen the next Golden Ace? Newbury’s bumper could prove to be strong form in the months ahead
Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers can get a fantastic mix of news, tips, comment and insight sent straight to their inbox every day, from Chris Cook’s award-winning morning newsletter The Front Runner every weekday at 7.30am to different weekly emails from the likes of Tom Segal, Paul Kealy and Lee Mottershead every evening at 6pm every evening as part of The Ultimate Daily. Head here now
