Cheltenham Festival clues already | Three things we learned from the Cheltenham October Meeting
Early season Cheltenham meetings give us our first taste of the proper national hunt season, and this year’s Showcase meeting didn’t disappoint.
From potential Grade 1 horses to handicap winners in waiting, here are three things we learned from the Cheltenham October Meeting.
Worcester produces good horses
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I Like To Move It and Broadway Boy have two things in common. Their trainer and the course they made a relevant debut at.
Before the late I Like To Move It won a Grade 2 novice hurdle, Greatwood Hurdle, and Grade 2 Kingwell Hurdle, he started his career over hurdles at Worcester in October 2021, while Broadway Boy began last season’s novice chasing campaign with a facile success at the left-handed track.
This link is slightly tongue-in-cheek, but Nigel Twiston-Davies is certainly not afraid of sending a nice one to Worcester.
There could be another smart one to add to that list going forward as Potters Charm, a five-year-old who won on hurdles debut at the riverside track, continued his unbeaten streak in the Alastair Down Press Room Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham on Friday.
His jumping could do with some fine-tuning, but the £105,000 purchase clearly has a big engine and he deserves his crack at Graded company soon.
Furthermore, the post-race comments from assistant trainer Willy Twiston-Davies would make you believe this horse is the second coming, as he said: “We haven’t had one like this for a while.
“I’ve always told the boys that this horse has been the apple of my eye for a while.
“Everything he does at home pleases Dad and me quite a lot. He’ll only do as much as he’s asked of at home, and that’s the sign of a very good horse.”
The Grade 1 Challow Novices’ Hurdle or Grade 2 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham November meeting are his next likely targets, though he also has to be on the radar for the Grade 1 novice hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival.
Superb targeting
Much like his former boss, Harry Derham is a mighty target trainer.
In the relatively small amount of time that he’s been training under his own name, he’s shown plenty of ability at lining one up for a good race.
This was demonstrated with Givemefive in the Masterson Holdings Hurdle on Saturday, who won with an impressive turn of foot.
Paul Nicholls’ former assistant trainer gave the four-year-old a prep run on the Flat at Haydock, making sure he was race-fit for the Masterson Holdings Hurdle, and he told us all that this had been the plan. This game is easy sometimes, isn’t it?
So, regarding the future, are there any Derham masterplans that we should be aware of?
Well, Imagine, formerly trained by Gordon Elliott, is being lined up for the Paddy Power Gold Cup at next month’s November meeting, and he has been backed in from 20/1 to 8/1.
“He’s making me nervous already,” said Derham when asked about the race. “I’m exceedingly excited for the race.
“He’s a bloody good horse, so it’ll be nice to get him there.”
As for Givemefive, he might be aimed at the Betfair Hurdle as a long-term target. Derham had lined up Brentford Hope for the contest last year before he was a late non-runner, so he might be looking for redemption this season.
One to watch
Plenty of cases for eye-catching losers can be made for many horses that ran at Cheltenham over the weekend, but I’m going to throw up a left-field shout.
Le Milos travelled beautifully into the 3m1f handicap chase at 2:20 on Saturday before getting in tight to the third-last fence and fading away.
This nine-year-old improved drastically after arriving at Dan Skelton’s yard in 2022 with his best performance to date occurring at Newbury in the Coral Gold Cup.
He won off 146 that day and Skelton started to dream about the Grand National subsequently, but he didn’t enjoy his experience at Aintree later that season.
He’s been a bit in and out since, but due to his slight inconsistency, he’s dropped to a mark of 147 and the handicapper will likely drop him again for Saturday’s effort.
He won the 2022 Coral Gold Cup like a nice horse, and with a prep run under his belt, could he head back to the Berkshire track later this season for a crack at returning to a familiar winners’ enclosure?
Equally, if he continues to drop in the handicap to somewhere near 140, he’ll pop up in a nice handicap again.