The Sharp Novices’ Hurdle may be the headline act, but there is plenty more to get stuck into on the opening day of the Showcase meeting at Cheltenham. Declarations are in for Friday’s seven-race card, and Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins have sent over a handful of interesting raiders to take on a strong home team led by Dan Skelton. The going is good after watering, with rain in the forecast.
Here are the runners that caught our eye in the six supporting races, away from Planters Punch’s bid in the Sharp.
JPR One and defending champion Calico clash at 3.35pm
The richest race on the card is the £100,000 handicap chase over two miles, worth even more to the winner than the Sharp, and nine have stood their ground. JPR One is topweight on 12st and a mark of 158, which looks a fair ask for a horse who won the Scottish Champion Chase at Musselburgh in January and came so close to a top level triumph in the Grade 1 Celebration Chase at Sandown on his final start last season. Brendan Powell rides for Joe Tizzard.
Dan Skelton’s Calico won this race 12 months ago and is a course-and-distance winner, but the ten-year-old has been below his best in four runs since February and now races off 148. Henry de Bromhead‘s novice Sky Lord gets in on the minimum weight, while Paul Nicholls’ Sans Bruit has Harry Cobden aboard.
Elliott and Mullins raid the 1.50pm novices’ chase
Only five go to post for the two-mile novices’ chase, but it is a cracking little race. Gordon Elliott‘s Bowensonfire is the highest-rated in the field on 143 and has Jack Kennedy up, although he is still looking for his first win over fences after finishing third in a Grade 3 at Gowran Park. Willie Mullins runs Jarrive De Mee, who was fourth in a Grade 1 novice hurdle at Punchestown in 2025.
The home side are no pushovers, though. Ben Haslam’s Passing Diamond has made all to win his last three chases, and Skelton’s four-year-old Ice Jet jumped boldly to make all at Uttoxeter last time and carries just 11st.
Mr Hollywood swerves the Sharp for 4.10pm novices’ hurdle
Mullins has opted to drop Mr Hollywood out of the Sharp and go up in trip in the two-and-a-half-mile novices’ hurdle, with Patrick Mullins taking the ride. Elliott and Kennedy team up again with Cosmos d’Ainay, a winner at Cork and Perth this summer, and Joseph O’Brien’s Kingstonian makes it an Irish treble. The Flat handicapper was a beaten favourite on his hurdling debut at Killarney, but he has J J Slevin in the saddle.
Al Gasparo returns in the 1.15pm opener
The opening handicap hurdle features an intriguing topweight in Al Gasparo, a 20/1 winner of a Listed handicap hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas in 2024. He has not run under Rules for 476 days and now lines up for Kayley Woollacott. Course winner East India Express represents Nicky Henderson.
In the 2.25pm conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle, Skelton’s Loriko heads the weights after four wins from his last six starts. Over three miles and a furlong in the 4.45pm amateur riders’ chase, Irish point-to-point legend Derek O’Connor partners the in-form Fairlawn Skipper, who has won two of his last three starts.
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