Cheltenham Ante-Post Preview 2021 - Ryanair Chase

 


It’s been a while since my last post on here but with Cheltenham creeping closer I thought I’d return with a couple of posts before the festival. I’ll aim to post a preview for each day of the festival the night before racing but for now I’ll have a long range look at a few interesting runners.


Ryanair Chase

In terms of build up and anticipation it’s probably fair to say the Ryanair Chase is pretty low down the pecking order when compared with the exciting novice division and the Champion Chase, but I think there’s some value to be had in this market. I should start this preview with some shameless after timing - I am sitting on a docket of 10/1 on Allaho which I placed prior to the Dublin Racing Festival, so this will be a fresh look at the race from current prices at the time of writing.

Min’s disappointing run at Leopardstown blew what was already a competitive looking renewal wide open. That was an uncharacteristic bad round of jumping and the fact that it led to him being pulled up would have to put you off taking a chance on him this far out. He has drifted in the market accordingly and stablemate Allaho has been the main one to shorten as a result. Willie Mullins bingo is a difficult game to play but he also has the potential to drop Melon back in trip for this too, his Cheltenham form figures read 23222 so it would be hard to put you off an each-way play if he does show up, but that is far from certain.



Away from the Mullins battalion I thought SAINT CALVADOS looked very interesting at a double figure price. Connections have been experimenting with longer trips earlier this season in the hope that he would be a Gold Cup contender, but his entry at Ascot in the Betfair Chase this weekend suggests they may have lowered their sights. He was a big eye-catcher in the King George on Boxing Day, he was fairly keen throughout suggesting he wanted to get on with things but jumped brilliantly bar a small blunder 5 out and was the only horse bar the winner who was still on the bridle turning for home. The fact he clearly wanted to go a quicker pace early on and then weakened in the closing stages suggest this drop back to the intermediate trip may be just what he needs. 

It looked as though they were trying to ride him to get the trip before he unseated Gavin Sheehan at Sandown last time out and I’m pretty hopeful that this drop back will be ideal. Harry Whittington’s gelding was only beaten a neck in this last year and it is feasible to think he can still improve as he is only 8 years old. Imperial Aura is also worthy of mention, he won at the festival last year and was impressive on his first two starts of this campaign, but he has a bit to find on speed figures with the selection and is a shorter price at the time of writing.

It would be a big surprise to me if all three of Willie Mullins’ runners were to turn up here as that would leave his Gold Cup squad looking fairly light, so an each-way play NRNB on SAINT CALVADOS  at 10/1 looks a good bet, especially as a big run this weekend at Ascot could see that price shorten significantly.


SAINT CALVADOS 10/1 - 1 Point Each-Way (Coral NRNB)


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