One Day To Go!

With Cheltenham only 24 hours away now I am sure you will forgive me for a somewhat abridged version of this week’s blog…hopefully I will have plenty to reflect upon next week! We have already made the declarations for day one of the Festival and I can report that the Pond House team will have two representatives for the opening of jump racing’s greatest fixture.

Un Temps Pour Tout (pictured above) and Vieux Lion Rouge will be our runners on Tuesday with our French Champion Hurdle winner contesting the three mile Ultima Handicap Chase and Vieux Lion Rouge participating in the NH Chase for amateur riders over four miles.

Un Temps has not managed to get his head in front so far over the larger obstacles although he has shown a good level of form in finishing runner-up at Cheltenham and Newbury before finishing fourth over a possibly inadequate 2m5f back at the Prestbury Park track last time. He looks to be on a feasible handicap mark of 148 which is 15lbs lower than his hurdle rating so we have to be hopeful of a good run, although as we know there is no such thing as an easy race at the Cheltenham Festival and the drying ground would not be in his favour. Tom Scudamore will be in the saddle.

Vieux Lion Rouge is our runner in the marathon four miler and he will be partnered by Irishman Roger Quinlan who was in good form at the weekend with a couple of point-to-point winners. He has already won three times over fences and finished a solid third on his latest start at Cheltenham so he has precious course experience on his side. He has always looked likely to stay this sort of distance, although until you pitch them into a race of this nature you can never be totally sure. I am sure he will give Roger a good ride.

The remainder of the Cheltenham jigsaw will fall into place over the coming days although I can confirm that Doctor Harper will run in the Kim Muir Chase on Thursday, Dynaste will try to recapture his Ryanair title on the same day, Unanimité will take in the Pertemps Final while Starchitect will run in the County Hurdle on Friday and Champers On Ice will participate in the Albert Bartlett (also on the last day). For all the latest on the remainder of the Pond House runners, don’t forget to check Chester’s daily blog.

Sadly there are a couple who will not be making the line-up for the Festival; Moon Racer who won the Champion Bumper last season in spectacular fashion and Broadway Buffalo who was runner-up in last year’s National Hunt Chase. We just ran out of time with Moon Racer following a setback earlier in the campaign and I hope to have him ready for the Aintree Festival in three weeks’ time or Punchestown at the end of April. He is quite simply too good to take any chances with and there will be plenty more exciting times ahead with him.

The other absentee, Broadway Buffalo is unfortunately out for the remainder of the season and will therefore miss the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National which had been his main target for some considerable time. He ran an excellent race when runner-up in the Grand National Trial at Haydock on his previous start in February and I thought he would go well in the main event itself.

We head into the Festival in good form following the successes of the grey pair Bladoun and Gevrey Chambertin last week, while the likes of Baraka de Thaix and Pilgrims Bay performed well in defeat. We have another couple of runners with sound prospects at Taunton this afternoon and that only adds to the sense of optimism around the yard heading into Cheltenham. The waiting is nearly over!