Grands Crus' Chase Debut

***Enfant de Lune non-runner
3.30pm Cheltenham***

It was another good day for the yard yesterday with Arab League scooting up in the novices' hurdle.  With over £5,500 in prize money to the winner, it was certainly a prize worth having and he put in a good performance under his penalty to make every yard of the running.  The favourite Outrageous Request did take a nasty fall at halfway which obviously made his task a little easier...hopefully the handicapper will take this into account when reassessing him.

Arab League scores his second win of the season when scooting up at Taunton

It was another good day for the yard yesterday with Arab League scooting up in the novices' hurdle.  With over £5,500 in prize money to the winner, it was certainly a prize worth having and he put in a good performance under his penalty to make every yard of the running.  The favourite Outrageous Request did take a nasty fall at halfway which obviously made his task a little easier...hopefully the handicapper will take this into account when reassessing him.

I thought that Bumblebee also ran with credit on his debut for the yard and he shaped as though a step-up in trip may help in the future.  Tigger once again ran okay without getting his head in front - it seemed that everything that could go wrong did go wrong yesterday on his chasing debut.  He was badly impeded twice as horses fell in front of him so to be beaten 12 lengths was probably not a bad effort.

It is the start of the three day Open Meeting at Cheltenham this afternoon and what a first day it is too!  The 4.05pm race is a heavy weight clash between our top-class staying hurdler Grands Crus (pictured right) and Cue Card in the novices' chase.  Grands Crus was rated 167 over hurdles and is clearly one of the best hurdlers to switch codes in recent years - Cue Card is no mug either with a rating of 151...it's great to have these superstars meeting so early in the season - I can't wait!

To be honest, I am not a great fan of the cross country races at Cheltenham although it's good to see so many of the old timers trying to win it.  Garde Champetre (despite his advancing years) looks sure to be involved in the finish again under Nina Carberry - he certainly won't need a sat nav to get around this complex course...he has been around it so often, he could probably do it with his eyes shut!

*****

There is some interesting International football matches on tonight with Belgium and France looking worthy favourites at 4/5 and 8/13 respectively - a little double could be on the cards.  Meanwhile England take on Spain and they could be interesting at prices as big as 7/2 - we have homefield advantage and our young team could rise to the occasion.