Cheltenham Open Meeting 2012 - Rest of Day 1

Many debate when the jumps season really starts but Cheltenham’s Open Meeting is the sign the season has started for many and today’s card is as good a set of horses as we’ve seen all season. There are RSA clues to be found in not only the Steel Plate And Sections Novice Chase (1.15), and the Sharp Novices’ Hurdle (1.50), both of which are done in full just below this post (or on the main page if you’ve clicked here).

Handicap lovers have plenty to take their fill, starting with the Paddypower.com Handicap Chase (1.50) where Wetak is of interest, having had a pipe opener over hurdles at Ascot and holding plenty of decent form back home. With plenty of horses having good chances at their best – Free World was going well when falling 4 out in the Grand Annual and gets ground to suit – Kid Cassidy is easily talented enough to defy his mark if he consents to race normally, and Astracad’s not impossibly weighted off 145, adding Silver Roque into the mix to make a fiercely competitive handicap.

The feeling is that Kid Cassidy (above) is the most talented of them all and if he can keep in touch (he was detached by a wide margin all the way and still had 13 lengths to make from the last), he can reverse the form with Silver Roque on 2lbs better terms with that first run of the season under his belt, and with Nicky Henderson having won the last three renewals, he gets a slight vote.

The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham (3.00) is a niche of the jumps game, and a true sign that we’re back with the National Hunt scene. The last two winners of the Festival’s cross country equivalent meet here in Balthazar King and Sizing Australia, with Uncle Junior entitled to respect based on a 14lbs turnaround for a 15 length beating at the Festival, but they may all have a tough time giving 7lbs to Velka Pardubicka winner Orphee Des Blins (far left), who had Uncle Junior 45 lenghts behind when running out an emphatic 16 length winner. The form might be hard to weight up but the test that the Pardubicka offers is one of, if not the, stiffest in world racing, and that win tells us all we need to know about him. In short, he’s more than talented enough to make a serious go of this getting 7lbs from the top three in the market.

Of those three, Balthazar King would actually be preferred considering that his handicap win here in Ocotber when beating Galaxy Rock and Hold On Julio is far better than anything this field can offer, but he’s just 3/1 and that’s just about too short a price for a dutch, although straight win punters who don’t trust the Czech form are pointed straight in his direction.

Advice

1 pt win Kid Cassidy, 1.50 Cheltenham (4/1 general)

1 pt win Orphee Des Blins (7/1 general)