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The Guardian
13-03-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Cheltenham festival day four tips: Galopin Des Champs to make Gold Cup history
Four of the six odds-on favourites over the first two days of this year's festival were beaten, leaving many punters in a deep hole ahead of the last day of the meeting on Friday. It will be the most significant shock of all, however, if Galopin Des Champs (4.00) does not deliver for the backers in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and join the very select list of horses to have won the race three times. Having beaten double-figure fields in the last two runnings, Willie Mullins's chaser faces eight opponents this time around, and while the unexpected addition of Inothewayurthinkin, the favourite for next month's Grand National, to the lineup adds some intrigue, he was seven lengths behind Galopin Des Champs at Leopardstown. Unlike Banbridge, the King George VI Chase winner at Kempton in December, Inothewayurthinkin should improve for this return to further than three miles, but the same is undoubtedly true of the favourite and Galopin Des Champs' place in the pantheon appears to be there for the taking. Cheltenham 1.20 James Owen's East India Dock has already posted two outstanding performances for a juvenile at this track when successful at both the November and December meetings. Both wins were recorded in notably fast times and a repeat of either performance would probably be enough here, although further progress from this hugely promising four-year-old would be no great surprise either. Cheltenham 2.00 A fast pace looks certain even with a relatively small field of 16 for the County Hurdle, and that should play to the strengths of Willie Mullins's Kargese as the trainer looks for a sixth win in this race in the last 11 years. Cheltenham 2.40 Dinoblue looked a little unlucky to come up three-quarters of a length short of the re-opposing Limerick Lace in this race 12 months ago, when she was more patiently ridden than usual attempting the trip for the first time. A reversion to more aggressive tactics could see her turn around the form. Cheltenham 1.20 East India Dock (nap) 2.00 Kargese (nb) 2.40 Dinoblue 3.20 Wendigo 4.00 Galopin Des Champs 4.40 Angels Dawn 5.20 Kopeck De Mee Fakenham 1.35 Zafaan 2.14 Taxus Baccata 2.54 Jackpot Cash 3.34 Little Soiree 4.15 Bluegrass 4.55 Go Go Geronimo Doncaster 1.42 Our Lil 2.22 Reallyntruthfully 3.02 Burrows Hall 3.40 Diamond Dealer 4.25 Baby Chou 5.00 Jaffa Cake Southwell 4.20 Captain Parma 4.50 Fulford Cross 5.30 Romantic Opera 6.00 King Of York 6.30 Legal Reform 7.00 Feel The Need 7.30 Fivethousandtoone 8.00 Sax Appeal 8.30 Commander Of Life Wolverhampton 5.10 Hoodie Hoo 5.45 Atlantic Sunset 6.20 Tempus 6.50 Stroxx 7.20 Rogue Tornado 7.50 Mr Trick 8.20 Tuco Salamanca Cheltenham 3.20 The most unpredictable Grade One at the meeting, with just one winner at a single-figure price in the last 11 years, but it looks like the right spot for Jamie Snowden's Wendigo, the runner-up behind Wednesday's Turners Novice Hurdle winner, The New Lion, in the Challow at Newbury in December. Cheltenham 4.40 Angels Dawn has a decent record here, having won the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir in 2023, and was still travelling well when she fell five out in the same race last season. This looks an easier assignment and she gets a useful 7lb mares' allowance from her 23 rivals. Cheltenham 5.20 It must have been a thankless task for the handicapper to rate Kopeck De Mee, who was bought by JP McManus after a Listed win in France in May 2024, and he could well take this race apart on his handicap debut.
The Guardian
12-03-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Cheltenham festival 2025: snow falls before racing on day two
Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Hello, and welcome to day two of the festival. And, as Cheltenham themselves point out, what a difference a day makes. When my son got in touch with me worried about whether the racing was going to be on I reminded him that I was there in 1987 when the delayed Gold Cup, won by The Thinker, took place after a sustained snowstorm in the middle of racing. The Sporting Life, where I worked in the 1990s, was still being sold back then and it was a pleasant surprise to see a printed edition of the paper, which closed in 1997, being handed out yesterday by Mike Tindall at Paddington station. Share Greg Wood Good morning from Cheltenham, where the – somewhat surprising – weather news is that the racecourse received a light covering of snow earlier today. Low-ish temperatures had been predicted after a (relatively) mild day on Tuesday, but actual white stuff dropping out of the sky was not in many punters' plans, and brought back memories of the festival in 2013 when frost covers were needed to save the meeting and the daytime thermometer hovered around zero all week. There is no danger to today's card, however, as the snow turned into sleet at around 8.30am, and temperatures are forecast to rise to around 7C by the time the field set off for the opener, the Turners Novice Hurdle, at 1.20pm. There is a slight sense of déjà vu about the first two contests on the card, as both are novice events with a Willie Mullins-trained favourite. Mullins did not have things all his own way on Tuesday, however, as Majborough failed to live up to expectations in the Arkle Trophy, and Final Demand (Turners) in particular faces some very credible opposition in The New Lion – seen as a further Champion Hurdle contender by Dan Skelton, his trainer – and Gordon Elliott's The Yellow Clay. Ballyburn, in the Broadway Novice Chase, is the first of two likely odds-on shots on the day, although Jonbon, the market leader for the featured Queen Mother Champion Chase at 4.00pm, is a little uneasy in the betting this morning and is now 10-11 in places, with Marine Nationale, the second-favourite, edging closer at around 5-1. Elsewhere on the card (all the tips for which are here), it is all about big fields and favourites rather closer to double-figure odds, with the Coral Cup Handicap in particular dangling a very enticing carrot for punters as they look to repair some of the damage from a series of unexpected results on Tuesday's card. And it all wraps up with the Bumper, in which more than half the field is currently unbeaten and it is anyone's guess in which order the five-strong Willie Mullins contingent will pass the post, never mind the rest of the field. As ever, you can follow all the buildup and the action from the first flagfall to the last here on the blog, and there's no need to reach for the winter woollies. Share
