It was a poor day for favourites on Thursday with only one winning. In the Marsh Novices Envoi Allen surprisingly fell at the 4th with Chantry House going on to win. In the Ryanair Chase Allaho was the only favourite to come out on top well beating Fakir D'Oudairies by 12 lengths and in the Stayers Hurdle Paisley Park was 3rd the 12/1 chance Flooring Porter won.
The final day of the festival on Friday sees 3 more grade one's,at 1.20 8 begin the JCB Triumph Hurdle. This is a fascinating contest with half the field putting unbeaten records on the line. Tritonic has made the perfect start over hurdles winning his debut at Ascot and building on that in the Adonis at Kempton last time and he is the one to beat here. Zanahiyr has won his first three starts over hurdles including the Knight Frank Juvenile at Leopardstown over Christmas and he definitely has strong claims. Quilixios is the other one with a big chance here his last win was in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown in February by 5 1/2 lengths he has more to come and will challenge. The 2.30 sees 17 start the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle. This is a difficult race to call but Adrimel just gets the nod after he remained unbeaten over hurdles when taking the Leamington Novices Hurdle at Warwick in January and he should progress further here. Stattler won a maiden hurdle at Leopardstown in December before returning there in early February to be a fine third in a grade one race won by Gaillard Du Mesnil and he definitely has a good chance here as does Torygraph who is looking for a hat-trick after wins at Fairyhouse and Thurles strong finishes in both show he shouldn't be overlooked. The final big race of the festival is at 3.05 when 12 line-up for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Al Boum Photo is looking to win this race for the third time in a row after a success by a neck a year ago,he returned to action with a brilliant 19 length win in the New Year's Day Chase at Tramore and is the one to beat. A Plus Tard looked very good when winning the Savills Chase at Leopardstown in December and having good festival form ( A winner in 2019 and third in the Ryanair in 2020) means he deserves respect. Royale Pagaille is an exciting horse who made it 3 out of 3 for the season with an impressive win in the Peter Marsh at Haydock at the end of January and he definitely has a good chance as do Champ,Minella Indo and Native River in a good looking race. With Cheltenham over we return to Irish racing at the weekend with my preview of Saturday's meeting at Thurles going up on Friday night.
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