Colombe hard to oppose at Cheltenham
Gerri Colombe can maintain his unblemished record in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham tomorrow.
The Gordon Elliotttrained seven-year-old has cruised through from the point-to-point field to bumpers, hurdles and the novice chase division, all without suffering a loss in eight starts.
Over fences he is already a dual Grade One winner, taking the Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick by four and a quarter lengths before landing the Scilly Isles at Sandown in February. At Cheltenham he will step up to three miles, a trip over which he won a point-to-point, and he is likely to encounter the soft ground that he has shown he can cope with before.
The pointers provided by his pedigree are also positive, with Saddler Maker producing a host of soft-ground loving stayers such as Bristol De Mai, Discorama and Alpha Des Obeaux.
Barry Connell’s Good Land can strike in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle. The sevenyear-old has had a near-flawless season, the only defeat being a first-fence unseat on his debut run over hurdles at Fairyhouse in December.
After that he was a winner of a Leopardstown maiden and then a Grade One victor in the Nathaniel Lacy at the same track in February. His first Leopardstown victory saw him beat subsequent runaway Thurles novice winner Embassy Gardens, and he is another proven to have handled soft ground and a longer trip with both ease and professionalism.
Edwardstone is fancied to return to winning ways in the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase for Alan King after losing out to Editeur Gu Gite on his last start and unseating the time before.
Last season’s Arkle hero, he was an easy Tingle Creek winner when starting his campaign but departed early in the Desert Orchid Chase at Christmas and was then just defeated in the Clarence House the following month.
That latter loss was by just a head, however, and now Editeur Du Gite’s front-running ways are slightly more familiar, it is likely that Edwardstone will be ridden to suit and he can claim another Festival
success.
Galvin looks like being another Elliott-trained winner of the Glenfarclas Chase over the cross-country course. Not far off Gold Cup standard at his best, he has stablemate Delta Work to beat.
Paul Nolan has not always been blessed with the rub of the green at this meeting, so with that in mind HMS Seahorse