The Festival is in full swing and the whole team have still got a lot to look forward to, or so we hope! Read on for my thoughts on our Day 2 runners in the Coral Cup and the Champion Chase.
Cheltenham, Wednesday
We run Might I in the Coral Cup (14:50). He hasn’t been seen out since running over fences before Christmas. We deliberately haven’t run him in that time, with a view to targeting him in the Coral Cup, reverting back to hurdles and going there fresh. He always goes well fresh, and he ran a good race to finish fourth in the Martin Pipe under top-weight last year. We’re actually a few pounds below that this time. These Cheltenham handicaps are, of course, seriously competitive and you need plenty of luck in running but given a clear run, you’d like to think that he can be very competitive as he switches back to the smaller obstacles. Trip and ground should be ideal, so we’re hopeful of a good show! He’s certainly on good terms with himself at home and I would like to see him in the shake-up.
Then, in the Champion Chase, we have Boothill (15:30). He hasn’t had the ideal preparation for Cheltenham, in terms of having fallen on his last two starts, but – fundamentally – he is a very good jumper. It’s not really a case of him having made mistakes left, right and centre; he’s only made two, but two costly ones. Otherwise, he really does jump well. We’ve done lots of schooling at home and that’s all gone well, so we’re happy from that point of view. He does have a bit to find with the main principles, strictly on ratings, but the way that the race looks to set to run (Edwardstone was very positively ridden in the Game Spirit, and they’ll do that again, while Jonbon is ridden forward as well), there should be a really strong pace, which will suit us, and we’ll be biding our time to try and come home and pick up as much prize money as possible.
He is a 50/1 shot at the moment, which – while I can understand why he’s that long, having fallen the last twice, which will temper confidence – I still think it is a misrepresentation of his abilities. He’s a very good horse and chased home Jonbon in the Henry VIII last year. Ideally, he would like the ground to dry out to good-to-soft, that would be perfect, but whether or not we’ll get that, I don’t know. Either way, I think he is capable of surprising a few and outrunning those odds.
Best of luck,
Harry
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