Jump racing returns to Cheltenham this week with the Showcase Meeting and we’ve scoured the ante-post markets to pinpoint the horses who look good value at this early stage to claim glory at Prestbury Park on Saturday
(3.10 Cheltenham, Saturday or Old Roan Chase, Aintree, Sunday)
We know this horse holds a couple of entries but we want to be with him no matter where he turns up this weekend and his price for both races is big enough to tempt us to back him for both races.
Brian Ellison has his string in fantastic form with four of his last seven runners winning at the time of asking and he can gain further success with the game Forest Bihan as jump racing returns to Cheltenham this week.
Now, the one worry with this speedy eight-year-old is his jumping as he tends to clatter a few of the obstacles in his path on his way round. That was evident at Kelso last time, where he belted a few fences on his way to finish a decent third a few weeks ago.
However, he is extremely classy when he gets it right and has decent form at this track, notably when finishing fourth off top weight in the Grand Annual at the Cheltenham Festival this year.
He’s now 4lb lower than he was for that run and he has some decent back class, finishing fifth behind Altior in the Arkle in 2017.
All looks set for a big run, with the cobwebs hopefully having been blown away by that comeback run at Kelso.
ROBIN THE RAVEN (3.45 Cheltenham)
We’re hoping that this horse could be a huge improver for the Kim Bailey yard this season. Robin The Raven’s career has been punctuated by layoffs and setbacks and a novice chase campaign last year was aborted after a heavy fall at Worcester.
He then returned from a year off to blitz the field, which included decent yardstick Barney Dwan, when winning a decent handicap hurdle at Warwick by seven lengths in April before disappointing when favourite at Cartmel a month later.
It’s always worth forgiving a horse one bad run, especially at a sharp idiosyncratic track such as Cartmel and he could go well on his first start for six months.
MINDSMADEUP (2.00 Cheltenham)
The meetings at Cheltenham are always boosted by the presence of Irish trainers and horses and it could be worth chancing Mindsmadeup to make a successful raid. A chase on the up, he made a winning debut for Matthew Smith when winning a handicap chase at Downpatrick by 17 lengths before his jumping let him down when second at Limerick in July.
Given a break, he has since run twice over hurdles, winning one, and could be primed to run a big race if making the trip over the Irish Sea.
Due to race off a low weight, he is highly thought of and has been heavily backed on all of his four starts since joining Smith.
That suggests connections know they have a horse improving rapidly and after the Listowel win in September, Smith said: “We’ll look for a nice chase somewhere now, that’s the long-term plan. He’s going the right way and we’ll give him a couple of hurdles runs in between.”
That plan has been stuck to and this could be the chase.
BEST BETS
FOREST BIHAN (3.10 Cheltenham, Saturday or Old Roan Chase, Sunday)
ROBIN THE RAVEN (3.45 Cheltenham)
MINDSMADEUP (2.00 Cheltenham)