THERE are only three weeks to go until the Cheltenham Festival and it’s time we turned our attention to one of the week’s handicaps.
The National Hunt Chase wasn’t previously a handicap, of course, and is one of the Festival races whose conditions have been altered for this year’s meeting.
Once it was a playground for Grade One-level horses campaigned away from the deeper waters of the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, with only amateurs allowed to ride – now it’s a 0-145 handicap with professionals able to take part.
These alterations to the race have not been universally popular, but to me, it’s made the contest more competitive for punters, and I think I’ve found a bet.
Gavin Cromwell’s Now Is The Hour is the current favourite and had been a real plunge horse for this since his eye-catching fourth at Navan in January.
However, I see him as a real talking horse who’s not shown a great deal of form this season, and he’s certainly not value at around 3/1.
I’m much more taken by the next horse in the market, HAITI COULEURS, and although it’s been five years since Rebecca Curtis’ last winner at the Cheltenham Festival, I can see that changing this year.
The eight-year-old has been nicely progressive this season for the Pembrokeshire trainer, winning twice over fences, including over a staying three-mile-one-and-a-half-furlong trip at Cheltenham in December.
He was last seen when a creditable third in a typically open Newbury Saturday handicap hurdle, in so doing likely preserving his chase handicap mark for the Festival, and at 5/1 with bet365, he rates as a bet for Cheltenham with course form under his belt.
POINTERS ANTE-POST
Haiti Couleurs 5/1 National Hunt Chase, Cheltenham Festival