EACH DAY OF the Cheltenham Festival, Heed Your Hunch will be bringing you tips for the first, the last and the feature race at Prestbury Park thanks to Betway.
Thursday is criminally known as ‘St Patrick’s Thursday’ by the PR goons at the track.
The theme of confused identities runs through the day. Thursday starts with the JLT, a race for horses too slow to win the Arkle and without sufficient stamina to win the RSA.
In time, Lostintranslation (3/1) will get further than two and a half miles. Defi du Seuil mugged him at Sandown last time out, but Robbie Power will be back in the saddle on Thursday, and if quotes from the preview circuit are to be believed (they usually aren’t, mind) Puppy is so keen to ride this horse he has urged his retained trainer Jessica Harrington not to run anything against him.
Lostintranslation has won at the venue and can repeat the feat in the JLT.
The Stayers Hurdle is the feature on Day Three. Paisley Park (4/1) has had his doubters but is a worthy favourite. The story of his 66-year-old blind owner Andrew Gemmell would warm the coldest of stone hearts, should he lead the Emma Lavelle-trained seven-year-old back to the winners’ enclosure this week.
This is no sentimental selection though — he ticks every trends box, and the race isn’t the strongest. He won the most recognised trial in the Cleeve Hurdle. His nearest rival is eleven. If he was from a fancier stable, he would undoubtedly be a shorter price.
The Kim Muir closes Day Three and there tends to be about a dozen handicap “good things” doing the rounds beforehand. Harry Fry’s Just a Sting (16/1) finished second to Adrien du Pont at Christmas. Adrien du Pont is now rated 151, Just a Sting lines up here off a mark of 137.
Chasing has always been his game, as the trainer noted in the pre-season stable tour. It’s only his fourth start over larger obstacles so he should progress beyond what already looks a lenient handicap mark.
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