Three big talking points…
1. All about that treble: If I told you at the start of the week that an Irish jockey would be going for a Championship Race treble in the Sun Bets Stayers’ Hurdle (3.30pm), you’d probably have assumed it would be Ruby Walsh.
But while Walsh is (somehow) still waiting for his first winner at this year’s festival, Noel Fehily has been dominating the big races this week after winning both the Champion Hurdle on Buveur D’Air and Champion Chase on Special Tiara.
And on Day Three he rides the favourite Unowhatimeanharry (11/8) in the Stayers’ Hurdle over two miles and seven furlongs and it’s really easy to see that price being even shorter come the off tomorrow.
The biggest threat is likely to come from another JP McManus trained horse, Jezki (6/1) but don’t sleep on Ballyoptic (14/1) with four wins in his eight goes over the smaller jumps and has a victory in the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle – won by Thistlecrack in 2015 and who went on to win this with aplomb last year.
2. Un De Sceaux far, Sceaux bad: At the time of writing, Willie Mullins has had 25 runners at the 2017 Cheltenham festival and exactly zero winners.
As signs of an impending apocalypse go, that’s a big one.
The form of the yard — Douvan’s long unbeaten run coming to an end as exhibit A — is poor to say the least, but Un De Sceaux (9/4) is unbeaten this season and looked in top notch when he accounted for Uxizandre (10/3) in the re-arranged Clarence House Chase at this track in January.
Empire Of Dirt (10/3) and Sub Lieutenant (8/1) carry the silks of Michael O’Leary and he will hope one of them can win the race named after his airline (2.50pm) for the first time.
3. Marching up to the top of the Yorkhill: Of course, the Mullins/Walsh combination may already have a winner by the time the Ryanair Chase comes around as they saddle the favourite Yorkhill (evens) in the JLT Novices’ Chase at 1.30pm.
A good winner of the Neptune last year (beating Yanworth), he should have the perfect mix of speed and stamina for both course and distance.
If he does continue his habit of jumping left, Top Notch (9/2) may well be the horse to take advantage.
NAP of the day…
Oh the pressure! After winning with our 5/1 NAP on Tuesday (Apples Jade) and 4/1 with Cause of Causes Wednesday, this is just about the only thing we’ve done well during this year’s festival. On Day Three we’re going to stick with the aforementioned Top Notch at 9/2.
An each-way fancy…
You’ll struggle to find a more game horse this week than Village Vic (16/1) and he has been in the top three in his last three races, within two lengths each time. With Champion Jockey Richard Johnson on board, you could do worse than this with your each-way flutter.
Accumulator…
€10 on Top Notch, Un De Sceaux and Unowhatimeanharry will return €457.19.
