Cheltenham Festival 2011 Review - Long Run wins epic Gold Cup race

THE centenary year of the Cheltenham Festival certainly didn’t disappoint and it produced one of the greatest Gold Cups ever.  The 7-2 favourite Long Run took the honours, after a belting finish, which saw the young horse see off determined challengers from the old guard, in the form of Denman and Kauto Star.

FORM: Favourite Long Run lived upto expectations in the Gold Cup

     Long Run has improved massively in recent months, and showed his potential by winning the King George VI at Kempton in January.  Nevertheless, despite his favourite tag, he had lost on each of his three previous meetings at Cheltenham.  For much of the race, Kauto Star made the running.  The Paul Nicholls trained horse had won this event in 2007 and 2009 and was determined to make up for his bad fall last year.  Ruby Walsh put in a mega effort as ever, but he was caught by his stablemate and long-time rival Denman.  Sam Thomas guided Denman into the lead, but in the end, the youth of Long Run was too strong, as he overtook the pair on the outside of the penultimate fence and stormed clear to win from Denman and Kauto Star.

     Long Run becomes the youngest horse to win the steeplechase classic since Mill House in 1963 and it is also a brilliant success for amateur jockey Sam Wahey-Cohen.  It also gives trainer Nicky Henderson his first Cheltenham Gold Cup success, his 39^th festival winner.  Last year’s winner and second favourite with the punters Imperial Commander dropped out of contention in the latter stages and jockey Paddy Brennan pulled him up towards the end.  Later, it was revealed that he had suffered a burst blood vessel.

DOMINANT: Big Buck's and Ruby Walsh won their third World Hurdle

     Despite defeat in the prestigious race, Ruby Walsh once again emerged as top jockey at the festival with five wins.  Three of those came on the first day of the meeting, including the Champion Hurdle on 11-4F Hurricane Fly.  Two days later, he also triumphed on another favourite as Big Buck's won his third Ladbrokes World Hurdle.  This is made all the more staggering by the fact that only three weeks ago, Walsh was still fighting to recover in time for the festival after a horrific broken leg at the start of the year.  The only surprising winner was Sizing Europe, who saw off Big Zeb and MasterMinded to win Wednesday’s main event; the Queen Mother Champion Chase.  Even then, Jason Maguire’s horse was a 10-1 shot.  This completed a nightmare week for the bookmakers.  After their resounding success last year, they were trounced this year by the punters and admittingly, it is nice to see the smirk wiped off their faces this time around. 

     It was an incredible four days, and a fitting way to mark a cracking centenary.  There will be many more great Cheltenham Festivals for years to come, but they will do well to match the quality and excitement of 2011.  On the evidence of this, a torch has been past in steeplechase racing and Long Run now has the potential to dominate the key jump meetings for many years to come.  This was the day when Denman and Kauto Star moved aside to allow the new breed of generation to take control of horse racing.  

Cheltenham Festival Preview 2011

THE 2011 Cheltenham Festival starts tomorrow and it is set to be the most open meeting for many years.  Kicking off the week’s prestigious events will be the Supreme Novices Hurdle at 1.30pm tomorrow.  Of course, the main event is the Gold Cup itself on Friday afternoon, and after last year’s surprises – who knows what will happen.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup – Friday: 3.20pm

Imperial Commander was the shock winner of last year’s Gold Cup, but he isn’t the favourite this year.  Yet again, that honour falls to Kauto Star.  Trained by Paul Nicholls, he won in 2007 and 2009, but fell last year whilst in the midfield.  Ruby Walsh will once again take the reins, and Kauto’s form isn’t great coming here.  He was surprisingly beaten in the King George VI at Kempton in January, so he will be looking for a return to form here.  2008 winner Denman and Imperial Commander are likely to be in the race and other leading runners will be Ireland’s best hope Kempes, ridden by Tony McCoy and Long Run, who was the King George VI winner.  Can Kauto Star win the Gold Cup for a third time and cement his place as one of the greatest steeplechase horses of all time, or is another shock in store for the favourite?  My tip is for Kauto to defy his bad form and make it a third win.

HAPPYDUDE’S GOLD CUP TIP: Kauto Star

The Champion Hurdle – Tomorrow

McCoy might be the leading jump jockey of all-time, but the BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner in 2010 will not have a show ride in tomorrow’s feature race.  Binocular, who won the Champion Hurdle last year had to pull out yesterday from this year’s running list, after trainer Nicky Henderson was told that medication given for an allergy would not clear up in time for the horse to pass a standardised drugs test.  It means the field for this race is thrown wide open, with Welsh Champion Hurdle winner Oscar Whisky and Hurricane Fly among the leading contenders.  However, my tip is Peddlers Cross, who is trained by Donald McCain and arrives in Cheltenham with an unbeaten record.  I think that formidable form will be good enough to turn the tables.

HAPPYDUDE’S CHAMPION HURDLE TIP: Peddlers Cross

Queen Mother’s Champion Chase – Wednesday

 Wednesday’s big race is the Queen Mother’s Champion Chase and it is set to be a blockbuster, with one of the most eagerly awaited battles of the four-day event.  MasterMinded is the king of this race, following dominant wins in 2008 and 2009.  However, he was usurped last year by Big Zeb.  Ruby Walsh is back on MasterMinded, and although he is lacking fitness, his stunning Cheltenham record is enough for to convince me that MasterMinded will return to glory in this race this year.

HAPPYDUDE’S CHAMPION CHASE TIP: MasterMinded

Ladbrokes World Hurdle – Thursday

Walsh will also ride the favourite in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle on Thursday, as he strides to succeed on Big Bucks for the third successive year.  However, he has a much more talented field to deal with this year and I reckon this could be the surprise of the week.  I’m backing Fiveforthree to end Big Bucks ten race winning streak.  Plus, there is always an upset at Cheltenham every year in one of the feature races.

HAPPYDUDE’S WORLD HURDLE TIP: Fiveforthree

The festival reaches its centenary this year and I predict the racing to be as close as ever, the pints of Guinness to flow and the Irish to rule the roost on St. Patrick’s Day.  This is set to be a cracking Cheltenham Festival in 2011 and it starts at 12.20pm tomorrow, LIVE ON CHANNEL 4.

Cheltenham Festival 2010 Review - Never Underestimate The Underdog

It was billed as the decider, the build-up as intense as a grudge match between two gladiators, quite possibly the biggest rivalry ever in Horse Racing history.  However, who said it was a two-horse race, yesterday saw proof that the underdog shall never be underestimated.

Stablemates Denman and Kauto Star were up against one another again, but they were outgunned, outshone and beaten fair and square by the 7-1 outsider, Imperial Commander, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in clinical fashion.  Imperial Commander won by six lengths from Denman, giving jockey Paddy Brennan his finest hour in the sport.  4-1 shot Denman, with jockey legend Tony McCoy onboard, was always on top until the closing stages, when he seemed to run out of steam.  However, he held on for 2^nd, with last year’s shock Grand National winner Mon Mome, an unexpected 3^rd as a 50-1 shot.

Kauto Star was the overwhelming favourite at the bookmakers, in the betting ring and with many expert pundits.  With Ruby Walsh guiding him and Paul Nicholls training him, he was expecting to deliver a third Gold Cup in four years.  However, the increasing rain and the consequenting soft ground went against him.  After a bad mistake on the 8^th fence, Kauto Star never seemed like he was able to recover, even with Walsh steering him.  Four fences from home, the inevitable happened and he fell for good.  It looked a nasty fall, one of those that could easily twist a horse’s neck, but fortunately, both horse and jockey were unhurt and Ruby was able to remount, steer him back to base and urge to come back and do battle next year.

For Imperial Commander’s trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, it was an amazing day, capped off by his son, Sam, who won the Christie’s Foxhunter’s chase a mere thirty minutes later on Baby Run, the 9-2jf.  Everyone loves an upset, and this was a local win, with Imperial Commander based just twelve miles down the road from Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire.  Twiston-Davies has trained two Grand National winners before, but this is his first Cheltenham success.  Imperial Commander had shown brief glimpses of form, having only been marginally beaten by Kauto Star in November at Kempton, but he was a disappointing 5^th in Boxing Day’s King George VI.  So, this was a major surprise. 

For the punters, Cheltenham 2010 turned into a sorry show.  Kauto Star’s fall cost the punters a reported £25million pounds.  Only four favourites won this week, with Big Buck’s the only expected winner of the major races, in Thursday’s Ladbrokes World Hurdle.  The bookmakers will be laughing to the bank, and though they must earn a living, some will get the feeling of giving them a decent slap!  The bookies are anticipated to have made £60million this week.  This was a case of the punters never winning.

Despite being bought down in the Gold Cup and seeing Masterminded soundly beaten in the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday, Ruby Walsh broke the jockey record at Cheltenham, with three wins at the meeting, though not as prolific as the dominance he showed last year.  Barry Geraghty, the only other jockey to win three races at the festival, but lost the jockeys trophy, as Walsh claimed more 2^nd places.  It is the fifth time that Ruby has come out on top at the festival, as top jockey.

I claimed it was a two-horse race in my preview earlier in the week and got that horrifically wrong, this is great prove of never underestimating the underdog, as it will come back to bite you.  Congratulations to the Twiston-Davies team and Imperial Commander for a stunning triumph, the remaining question is, has Cheltenham seen the last of the legend that is Kauto Star.  I don’t think so…

Cheltenham Festival 2010 - Kauto Star vs Denman, ROUND 3!

Tomorrow marks the start of one of, if not the most prestigious events on the Horse Racing calendar.  The four-day Cheltenham festival is always a popular feature on the sporting calendar, means the bookmakers will be flat-out over the next week, and will bound to cause some unlikely winners and historic stories.

All attention will focus on the battle for supremacy in the main event on Friday afternoon, as stablemates Kauto Star and Denman will do battle for the honours in the ToteSport Cheltenham Gold Cup.  For trainer Paul Nicholls, he can’t lose, but who will come out on top this year.  Kauto Star is probably one of the best jump horses of all time, up there with the likes of Desert Orchid and Red Rum.  He has won four King George VI consecutively and has won the Gold Cup twice, dismantling the competition in 2007 and 2009.  In-between, Denman, ridden by Sam Thomas (who won’t be competing this year, due to a cracked vertebra) stormed to victory in 2008, at his first attempt.  So its seconds out, round three.

What would be nice to see will be a closely-fought battle for honours in Friday’s big race.  On the two occasions they’ve met at Cheltenham, the victory margin has been a convincing one, which has disappointing many racing experts, after all the intense build-up.  Kauto Star comes into the spectacular event as the overwhelming favourite.  He hasn’t been beaten for nearly two years, whilst Denman unseated his jockey on his last outing, and has been plagued by injury since his 2008 success.  Make sure to watch, this should be a classic battle, quite possibly the last match-up between these two stunning horses.

Friday’s showdown will also pit the two best jump jockeys of all time against one another.  Friends they may be, but the competitive instinct is there as it is between Federer and Nadal, Button and Hamilton, Manchester United and Arsenal.  Ruby Walsh comes face-to-face with Tony McCoy on more than one occasion this week, but on Friday, they will be on the two favourites.  For Nicholls to snap up McCoy on Denman is a real coup.  AP has been a frustrated figure at the Festival in the last couple of years, rarely featuring.  However, they say form is temporary, class is permanent and having never won the Grand National, he is determined to come good in the other big jump meeting of the season.  By galvanising Qaspal to victory in the Imperial Cup on Saturday at Sandown, suggests he is in great nick. 

On the other hand, Walsh had an unforgettable Cheltenham in 2009.  Not only was on Kauto Star in 2009, he won seven other races, that included the Queen Mother Champion Chase on another outstanding chaser, MasterMinded.  Like Kauto Star, MasterMinded has great success at Cheltenham, having won the Champion Chase for the past two years.  The combination of him and Ruby will be hard to beat again in 2010.  With other strong rides in the Champion Hurdle and the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, Ruby Walsh could be set to add to his impressive Cheltenham record.  Currently, he has 24 wins at the Festival and with two more success in the next four days, will surpass Pat Taafe’s record to become the most successful jockey ever at the Festival.  Expect that record to be in his hands by the end of the week.  Follow all of this week's key races on Channel 4 from tomorrow.

Cheltenham has always been a winner on the Horse Racing calendar and will pit one of the most eagerly-awaited match-ups of the sporting year together.  So, get ready Kauto Star and Denman, it’s time for seconds out, round three.  And if I was a betting man, I would put my money on Kauto retaining his cup.