Naps king gives his views on the ones to follow at Festival

Paul Jacobs names his Festival fancies

Isometimes think that it’s easy to get carried away with the euphoria of the Cheltenham Festival, after all a 4/1 winner at Sedgefield pays out just as much in real terms as a 4/1 winning slip at Prestbury Park.

However, I acknowledge as a racing fan that it would be rude not to have an interest every day on the greatest horse racing festival in the world and the personal prestige announcing you backed the winner of the Coral Hurdle cannot be scoffed at!

For this ‘Festival’ edition I thought I would point towards the horses which have been waiting for spring ground all season and also have some kind of form at the track.

Of course this could all be scuppered by a bad weather week, but hopefully a good to soft surface will grace the track in the third week of the third month.

It was interesting to hear trainer Pat Fahy nominate the Ultima Solutions Handicap Chase for his MORNING ASSEMBLY as his Grand National warm-up.

This spring-heeled second season chaser has always looked a class act both over hurdles and fences and his staying on third to O’Faolains Boy in the 2014 RSA Chase was a hugely eye-catching effort.

Subsequently off the track for 18 months, the nine-year-old has returned with two cracking performances this season, the second of which was over a distance way short of his best.

Back up to an extended three miles at a track we know suits, and with arguably still more improvement in him, I expect a huge run on day one before Aintree comes calling.

I have always been a huge fan of GODS OWN and while victory in the Champion Chase is highly unlikely, he remains a player in the ‘without Un De Sceaux’ market at double figure odds.

The prerequisite is that he has genuinely good ground to race on as he did when staying on from some way back to finish second to the same horse in the 2014 Arkle.He strikes me as being way too big in this w/o market.

We have already touched on the Ryanair Chase in previous articles, but I was startled by how little publicity BALLYNAGOUR was given after the Denman Chase at Newbury.

He shaped like the best horse in the race from some way out and it was only the searching gallop set by the winner on deep ground that ultimately found him out.

He desperately needs to step back in trip and tackle a quicker surface and if the weather gods are kind and with NR-NB in our domain he is a huge each-way price to make his mark on the Thursday.

Finally, good ground will surely see the forgotten horse CUE CARD go close in Friday’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.

A good surface was always reckoned to be the key to the King George winner and now that his wind has been sorted and he resides in the Tizzard kingdom of new found health, he is in my book the real favourite for this Blue Riband event.

As long as we don’t get a repeat of the adverse weather towards the end of the week that we experienced last year this absolute star can further enhance his already incredible Festival record.