Key events
Our friends at Oddschecker have weighed in with some market movers ahad of the day’s racing:
Turners’ Novices Hurdle The Yellow Clay: 13/2 > 4/1
Brown Advisory Chase Quai De Bourbon 25/1 > 16/1
Coral Cup Impose Toi: 9/1 > 6/1; Samui: 40/1 > 25/1
Cross Country Chase The Goffer: 16/1 > 10/1
Champion Chase Energumene: 15/2 > 6/1
Grand Annual JPR One: 10/1 > 8/1; Primoz: 20/1 > 9/1
Champion Bumper Copacabana: 11/4 > 4/1
The snow has spoilt one very popular aspect of Wednesday’s racing, the trip to the centre of the track to watch the action in the Cross Country Chase.
Greg Wood
Preview: 1.20 Turners Novice Hurdle, Grade One, 2m 5f
Day two at Cheltenham 2025 kicks off in much the same way as day one: a warm favourite from the Willie Mullins yard and a big chance for the punters to get one step in front of the layers ahead of two even shorter-priced favourites in the afternoon’s two remaining Grade Ones.
Final Demand, unlike Kopek Des Bordes in Tuesday’s Supreme Novice Hurdle, is not expected to go off at odds-on and is currently trading at around 13-8, but he has a similar profile, having surged to the top of the betting after a thumping success at the Dublin Racing Festival. He won over two-and-three-quarter miles there and there was some speculation that he might step up to three for the Albert Bartlett on Friday, but he showed so much speed as he zipped clear in the straight at Leopardstown that dropping back a furlong will surely not cause him any issues. He is odds-against for a reason, though, and faces at least two very credible rivals in The New Lion and The Yellow Clay, who are both within 5lb of the favourite on Timeform ratings and also arrive with unbeaten records over hurdles to defend. The New Lion was a hugely stylish winner of the Grade One Challow Hurdle in December, while The Yellow Clay also has a Grade One already in the bag, having taken the Lawlor’s Of Naas Hurdle in early January. A slight doubt over The Yellow Clay is his ability to act on good-to-soft ground, although that has not deterred punters from wading in this morning and he is down to around 4-1 (from 7-1). Other live possibilities worth considering include Sixmilebridge and Potters Charm, first and second in the Classic Novice Hurdle here in January, but personally I’ll be sticking with Final Demand to back up his huge run at Leopardstown last month.
SELECTION: FINAL DEMAND.
KEY FORM:
Golden Cygnet Novice Hurdle, Leopardstown, 1 Feb 25 (Final Demand)
https://youtu.be/wEbiYgD5Q3g?si=dquoSUvheNVwlhon
Lawlor’s Of Naas Novice Hurdle, Naas, 5 Jan 25 (The Yellow Clay, Supersundae).
https://youtu.be/G9yNKkWXBRo?si=biUiwxG_EjUrCMvZ
Challow Novice Hurdle, Newbury 28 Dec 24 (The New Lion).
https://youtu.be/g3mHu1w8SL8?si=KOXttYcYc5hkXYyp
Classic Novice Hurdle, Cheltenham 25 Jan 25 (Sixmilebridge, Potters Charm)
Here’s the rundown of today’s action and we’ll be putting Greg Wood’s in-depth previews for all the races up here soon
1.20 The Turners Novices’ Hurdle Race (Grade 1)
2.00 The Brown Advisory Novices’ Steeple Chase
2.40 The Coral Cup Hurdle (A Handicap Hurdle Race) (Premier Handicap)
3.20 The Glenfarclas Cross Country Steeple Chase
4.00 The BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Steeple Chase (Grade 1)
4.40 The Debenhams Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Steeple Chase Challenge Cup (Premier Handicap)
5.20 The Weatherbys Champion Bumper (A Standard Open NH Flat Race) (Grade 1)
Did you know today was ‘Style Wednesday’? No neither did I. Anyway I have my blue John Smedley long-sleeved polo shirt on and a pair of vintage Levi’s so I hope that passes muster. I discovered that name for today in the details about the all-important going underfoot from the track which many were saying was bordering on good (ie faster ground than the general description) yesterday. The snow will have softened it up a bit and Jon Pullin, Cheltenham’s clerk of the course, said just now: “We had a covering of snow this morning but it turned to sleet as forecast and that should soon disappear. The going for today remains Good to Soft on the [main] Old Course and is Good to Soft, Good in places and Soft on the top loop on the Cross Country Course.”
Hello, and welcome to day two of the festival. And, as Cheltenham themselves point out, what a difference a day makes. When my son got in touch with me worried about whether the racing was going to be on I reminded him that I was there in 1987 when the delayed Gold Cup, won by The Thinker, took place after a sustained snowstorm in the middle of racing. The Sporting Life, where I worked in the 1990s, was still being sold back then and it was a pleasant surprise to see a printed edition of the paper, which closed in 1997, being handed out yesterday by Mike Tindall at Paddington station.
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Cheltenham, where the – somewhat surprising – weather news is that the racecourse received a light covering of snow earlier today. Low-ish temperatures had been predicted after a (relatively) mild day on Tuesday, but actual white stuff dropping out of the sky was not in many punters’ plans, and brought back memories of the festival in 2013 when frost covers were needed to save the meeting and the daytime thermometer hovered around zero all week.
There is no danger to today’s card, however, as the snow turned into sleet at around 8.30am, and temperatures are forecast to rise to around 7C by the time the field set off for the opener, the Turners Novice Hurdle, at 1.20pm.
There is a slight sense of déjà vu about the first two contests on the card, as both are novice events with a Willie Mullins-trained favourite. Mullins did not have things all his own way on Tuesday, however, as Majborough failed to live up to expectations in the Arkle Trophy, and Final Demand (Turners) in particular faces some very credible opposition in The New Lion – seen as a further Champion Hurdle contender by Dan Skelton, his trainer – and Gordon Elliott’s The Yellow Clay.
Ballyburn, in the Broadway Novice Chase, is the first of two likely odds-on shots on the day, although Jonbon, the market leader for the featured Queen Mother Champion Chase at 4.00pm, is a little uneasy in the betting this morning and is now 10-11 in places, with Marine Nationale, the second-favourite, edging closer at around 5-1.
Elsewhere on the card (all the tips for which are here), it is all about big fields and favourites rather closer to double-figure odds, with the Coral Cup Handicap in particular dangling a very enticing carrot for punters as they look to repair some of the damage from a series of unexpected results on Tuesday’s card. And it all wraps up with the Bumper, in which more than half the field is currently unbeaten and it is anyone’s guess in which order the five-strong Willie Mullins contingent will pass the post, never mind the rest of the field.
As ever, you can follow all the buildup and the action from the first flagfall to the last here on the blog, and there’s no need to reach for the winter woollies.
