Cheltenham festival day three: Bob Olinger wins Stayers’ Hurdle and more – live
Key events
Barry Connell, a seven-pound claimer, beating Derek O’Connor is quite a story. DOC is the amateur king. Every race has had it story to tell. Only Fact To File in the Ryanair going anything like to script. What a strange trip this Cheltenham festival has been.
Cheltenham 5.20 result
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1. Daily Present (Mr Barry Thomas Stone) 12-1
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2. Johnnywho (Mr Derek O’Connor) 9-2 Fav
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3. Sa Majeste (Mr P W Mullins) 8-1
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4. Weveallbeencaught (Mr Toby McCain-Mitchell) 28-1
23 ran
Daily Present wins the 5.20 Fulke Walkwyn Kim Muir Chase
Four from home, Sa Majeste seeks to make all. Johnny Who is going well. Gina Andrews on Man of the People. JohnyWho has plenty of horse left. But Daily Present jumps the last better and has more space. Paul Nolan is the trainer, and he chins Johnny Who and Derek O’Connor.
5.20 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Chase
Sa Majeste, taken on by Git Maker for leadership as they strip past the Best Mate and into the sunlight. Walking On Air almost went, the fairytale looks unlikely. Mint Boy has gone at the 15th. Derek O’Connor on Johnny Who is trapping round.
5.20 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Chase
Up the hill, they follow Sa Majeste, Midnight Our Fred involved. Walking On Air back in midfield as they descend the hill. Nine fences cleared as they make their way past the emptied stands. Grozni has been a key player so far.
5.20 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Chase
Guess what? False start. The tape back out. They walked from a long way out. So, a standing start. Oh, there’s a delay. Sine Domine is shown to the vet and off…Sa Majeste and Midnight Our Fred are up there. The dusk is descending, as they go into the country. Sine Domine is at the back. Walking On Air has lost his early prominence.
In this last race, Alan O’Sullivan, brother of Michael, as remembered by Jonjo Jnr, will ride Walking On Air. After Marine Nationale and Jazzy Matty, and what Jonjo Jnr has said, the emotion will be on the horses’ side. This is an amateur jockeys’ race.
Greg Wood
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.
5:20 market movers via Oddspedia
5.20 Kim Muir Challenge Cup
Odds via Oddschecker
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Walking On Air 11/2
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Johnnywho 6/1
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Midnight Our Fred 7/1
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Sa Majeste 8/1
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Mint Boy 9/1
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Yeah Man 12/1
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Git Maker 12/1
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Nine Graces 16/1
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Wiseguy 20/1
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Westerninthepark 20/1
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BAR 22/1 – 23 Runners
Key Race Trends
Greg Wood
5.20 FULKE WALWYN KIM MUIR CHALLENGE CUP HANDICAP CHASE, 3M 2F preview
Following the slightly controversial decision to open up the National Hunt Chase to professional riders, this is now one of just two races at the meeting for amateurs, which leaves the services of the very best of them at even more of a premium (if, indeed, that is possible when they are not actually getting paid). Derek O’Connor has been among the very best of the amateurs for years and he is going for his third win in this race since 2019 aboard Johnnywho, while Patrick Mullins is aboard another runner in the JP McManus colours, Sa Majeste. Noel McParlan, another big name on the Irish pointing circuit, will also fancy his chances on Midnight Our Fred, although it may also be worth bearing in mind that there have been two 40-1 winners in this race in the last eight years.
SELECTION: JOHNNYWHO.
Cheltenham 4.40 result
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1 Jagwar (Jonjo O’Neill Jr.) 3-1 Fav
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2 Thecompanysergeant (C Stone-Walsh) 4-1
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3 Masaccio (Tom Cannon) 11-1
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4 Mars Harper (Tiernan Power Roche) 100-1
20 ran
Non Runner: 19
A big win for Jagwar, who had to dig his way out of trouble. “He’s always had ability,” says Jonjo Jnr. “It’s a job I really enjoy. I had my first festival winner and it’s felt like a lifetime. Since Mikey die I changed my perspectobe…this is just sport at the end of the day. The English and Irish jockeys have been under a cloud. Mikey touched so many people in 24 years. I said a couple of prayers to Michael this morning and he’s come up trumps..”
Jagwar wins the 4.40 pm Plate Chase
Personal Ambition and Seddon up front. Conflated is up there, too. With Seddon to the third last. Thecompanysargaent on the outside. Conflated leads Jagwar over the last. Thecompanysargaent and Jagwar, to the line. It’s Jagwar, the gamble is landed for the McManus colour under Jonjo O’Neill Jnr.
4.40 pm Plate Chase
Jagwar sits off the front. Shakemupharry, who his owner, Harry Redknapp, says he has not bet on, is in midfield. Personal Ambition leads with fully 10 more to hump. Down the side they go. Conflated, the old boy, is enjoying himself. Il Riddoto doesn’t look to fancy it.
4.40 pm Plate Chase
Jagwar backed off the boards as they go off, the McManus camp clearly fancy their horse. Plenty of plots for this one. A Cheltenham handicap is always difficult to land. They start with the stands behind them. We await the attendance figures. They attempt to start in a line, steadily so, and the start is stopped….zzzz. Mick Fitz has found a shoe – a horseshoe, it should be said. They go from a standing starr. Jordans among the first to go.
Greg Wood
4.40 TRUSTATRADER PLATE HANDICAP CHASE, 2M 4F 127YD
A tricky conclusion to the card with two big fields of handicap chasers kicks off with the Plate, over the trip which features in a series of similar races at meetings here from October through to January. Il Ridoto, the winner of the Paddy Power Gold Cup in November, is one familiar name in the field, along with Gemirande, who took the December Gold Cup a month later, while both Jagwar and Masaccio, first and third in a race here on Trials day at the end of January – are towards the head of the betting. I fancy that Masaccio, who enjoys a 6lb pull in the weights, might just able to turn the form around but this is never a race where you can be too certain about anything.
SELECTION: MASACCIO
4:40 market movers via Oddspedia
4.40 TrustATrader Plate odds
Odds via Oddschecker
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Jagwar 7/2
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Thecompanysergeant 9/2
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Masaccio 8/1
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Jordans 8/1
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Ginny’s Destiny 10/1
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Personal Ambition 12/1
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An Peann Dearg 16/1
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Path Doroux 22/1
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Fugitif 22/1
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Conflated 25/1
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BAR 25/1 – 20 Runners
Key Race Trends
Crambo and Home By The Lee are both OK, as it stands. Jonny Burke, on the former, took a heavy one. Jack Kennedy was limping as he got off Teahupoo. The Gordon Elliott team keeps rattling the crossbar. Rachael Blackmore meanwhile takes a ginger celebration in the parade ring; she’s had her fair share of knocks, too.
Henry de Bromhead, the winning trainer: “Rachael was brilliant on him. Home By The Lee was unlucky, we got on the right side. She’s an incredible lady. He’s unbeaten round here, he’s incredible, such a dude.”
Such a cool ride by Rachael Blackmore, the queen of Cheltenham. “He was brilliant, he has so much speed. Everyone had the same plan. It either works riding like that or he doesn’t. He’s unbeaten run here. He’s had luck on his side and he’s a very good horse.
Cheltenham 4.00 result
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1 Bob Olinger (Rachael Blackmore) 8-1
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2 Teahupoo (J W Kennedy) 7-4 Fav
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3 The Wallpark (M P Walsh) 7-1
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13 ran
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Also: 28-1 Rocky’s Diamond 4th
4.00 Stayers’ Hurdle
At the last, Teahupoo, Bob Olinger launches a challenge and goes clear for Rachael Blackmore and Henry de Bromhead, to make it a three-times winner at the Festival.
4.00 Stayers’ Hurdle
That fall has displaced the rail. Emergency repairs being made. Rocky’s Diamond and Gal Road are at the front. Teahupoo on the premises. Bob Olinger is creeping up at the last.
4.00 Stayers’ Hurdle
Rocky’s Diamond is there with Gal Road. An error from Teahupoo? A wobble, at least. Lucky Place is in third as they approach the stands…Crambo has gone. Home By The Lee is impeded and sets off as a loose horse into the countryside.
4.00 Stayers’ Hurdle
They start in front of the furthest stands, the sounds of champagne corks popping off. Gal Road takes it up at the first. Crambo is well placed, too, for the O’Brien stable – Fergal, not Joseph . Bob Ollinger sits off at the back. Teahupoo is covered up in midfield.
Ken Pitterson, ITV paddock expert, calls out for Lucky Place as looking the best in his coat. Teahupoo goes off 7/4 fav. Gemma Collins was just on ITV, a real tour de force it was, too.
JP McManus spoke to the BBC about Fact To File: “I’m delighted with him. I had a lot of faith in him. It was tempting to go for the Gold Cup and hopefully, we’ll go for that another time. The quick pace suited him and it was a very uncomplicated ride. It was exciting. Anything is possible. It was a close call for this year. The fast pace suited him and he wouldn’t have minded the ground a softer either.”
Here we go in the division that has never quite caught the imagination since the days of Big Buck’s followed Inglis Drever and the great Baracouda.
More detail on that Frankie Dettori story.
If Fact To File aims for the Gold Cup next year, what about this year?
Unlike Mullins’s Al Boum Photo, who came up short as a 9-4 shot when attempting a third straight win in 2021, it is very hard to see Galopin Des Champs being beaten.
4.00 market movers via Oddspedia
4.00 Stayers’ Hurdle odds
Odds via Oddschecker
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Teahupoo 2/1
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The Wallpark 5/1
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Protektorat 11/2 -
Home By The Lee 7/1
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Bob Olinger 10/1
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Catch Him Derry 14/1
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Mystical Power16/1
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Nemean Lion 22/1
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Rocky’s Diamond 28/1
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Gowel Road 28/1
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BAR 33/1 – 13 Runners
Key Race Trends
Greg Wood
4.00 PADDY POWER STAYERS’ HURDLE, GRADE ONE, 2M 7F 213YD preview
Gordon Elliott has not been having a week to remember thus far, but he has a very strong hand in the staying hurdlers’ Grade one with both the favourite and last year’s winner, Teahupoo, and the up-and-coming second-favourite, The Wallpark, who has attracted plenty of money today. Teahupoo has had the same light prep that he enjoyed last year before getting off the mark in this race at the second attempt, while The Wallpark has been kept fresh since finishing a running-on fourth in the Long Walk at Ascot in December. The main opposition to the Elliott team seems likely to come from Home By The Lee, third behind Teahupoo last year and a Grade One winner at Leopardstown last time out, and also Nicky Henderson’s Lucky Place, rumoured to have been tearing up the gallops since landing the Grade Two Relkeel Hurdle here on New Year’s Day. The mercurial Mystical Power – by Galileo out of the Champion Hurdle winner, Annie Power – also rates a mention, as he has been woefully out of form this season but would have a fair chance if he could recapture his Grade One-winning form at Aintree and Punchestown last spring.
SELECTION: TEAHUPOO
KEY FORM:
Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, Cheltenham, 14 Mar 24 (Teahupoo, Home By The Lee)
Long Walk Hurdle, Ascot, 21 Dec 24 (The Wallpark).
Savills Hurdle, Leopardstown, 28 Dec 24 (Home By The Lee)
Relkeel Hurdle, Cheltenham, 1 Jan 25 (Lucky Place).
“He’ll probably be a Gold Cup horse next year, JP [McManus, owner] said he didn’t want him to have a hard race this year,” says trainer Willie Mullins, who has pulled in six winners already.
Cheltenham 3.20 result
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1. Fact To File (M P Walsh) 6-4 Fav
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2. Heart Wood (D J O’Keeffe) 18-1
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3, Envoi Allen (Rachael Blackmore) 12-1
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9 ran
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Also: 5-1 Protektorat 4th
“That was brilliant,” says Mark Walsh. “We’ve run into Galopin de Champs twice. No point trying it a third time. I love it. It’s a dream to ride horses like this.”
