It was a terrific Tuesday for the Irish raiders at Cheltenham.
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Cross-country chase abandoned
Some heavy rain left Cheltenham’s Cross Country course in a ‘bog,’ with the race now abandoned after Wednesday morning’s inspection.
With only 2-4mm of rain forecast, a damaging 9mm fell on Tuesday morning, and with further ‘unsettled’ weather predicted, inspectors and organisers made the decision to abandon the race.
A ‘contingency plan’ had been drawn up for the race to take place on Gold Cup day (Friday), but that is not a runner anymore with ‘insufficient improvement’ expected in terms of the ground.
As a result, we will not get to see the clash of Delta Work and Minella Indo over the National fences.
The cancellation has altered the start-time of Wednesday’s races, with the schedule to run as follows as a result:
Race 1: 13.45 Race 2: 14.30 Race 3: 15.15 Race 4: 16.00 Race 5: NA Race 6: 16.50 Race 7: 17.30.
“Following 11mm of rainfall throughout yesterday,” read a statement from Cheltenham’s official account, “there has been no improvement in the conditions on the Cross-Country course and with areas of the track unraceable, the Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase has sadly been abandoned.”
“The forecast for the remainder of the week continues to look unsettled, with further showers likely on both Thursday and Friday.
“There will therefore be insufficient improvement to the Cross-Country course by Friday 15th March, and the decision has been taken not to reschedule the Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase at The Festival.”
One-man-show
Willie Mullins’ stranglehold over the National Hunt game has perhaps never been as pronounced.
The Carlow based trainer heads to Prestbury Park this week with a breath-taking 70-strong team of horses.
With a record-breaking 94 winners to his name as things stand, he is expected to surpass the century mark by the time this Friday rolls around.
In truth, he could be into the 100s by Thursday morning. In the first day alone, the Closutton maestro saddled three winners with State Man, Lossiemouth and the mercurial Gaelic Warrior all recording Grade One victories.
Mullins is well on his way to yet another champion trainer crown, with a distinct possibility of a clean sweep of all of the championship races.
From here to Friday, he trains the favourite for two of the three championship races, with Gordon Elliott’s Teahupoo’s short odds in the world hurdle the only exception.
The Prestbury Cup
Perhaps as a consequence of Mullins’ continued success, Ireland’s dominance over England continues at the Olympics of horse-racing. In fact, over the last eight years, England have only won the Prestbury Cup once.
With Mullins supported by the likes of Henry de Bromhead and Gordon Elliott, the Irish are expected to have another successful week at the Cotswolds.
The ground
John ‘Shark’ Hanlon’s Gold Cup hopes are pinned on the shoulders of his horse Hewick. They lie in the hands of Wexford jockey Jordan Gainford but they all lie helplessly in the lap of the weather gods. Shark, the Kilkenny trainer, has said in the build-up to the festival that, should the weather go against him on Cheltenham week, ‘the people’s horse,’ will not race.
Hewick, just like Joseph O’Brien’s Banbridge (favourite for Thursday’s Ryanair chase) is a hard ground horse and will not race if the weather is wet, and the ground softe
