Altior is poised to join the jump game’s hall of fame
On Tuesday week, racing followers will begin to unscramble the annual conundrum that is the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival.
Twenty-eight championship races, spread over four exhilarating days. By any standards, Cheltenham now compares to any other international sporting event.
More than 60,000 pack into a tiny wedge of Gloucestershire, at Cleve Hill, on each of the four fixtures.
Although racing is now the second-biggest revenue earner (behind football) for bookmakers, the grace and beauty of Cheltenham is much, much more.
There is something uniquely majestic about a thoroughbred racehorse tackling a supreme test of racing and jumping, in front of a wall of sound
Cue magnificent Altior – perhaps the one combatant on show, who may enter the hallowed place, in which Arkle, Kauto Star, Sea Pigeon and Desert Orchid reside.
Nicky Henderson’s big bay heads for Wednesday’s Queen Mother Champion Chase. A two-mile high-speed illustration of athleticism and the highlight of the week.
He won’t interest the punters They’ll be selecting next best, betting without the odds- on Altior. But this son of 2002 Derby winner High Chapparal, is a superstar.
Not prolific as a bumper horse, he was last beaten anywhere in that sphere when sixth – eight lengths behind Bellshill – at Punchestown in April, 2015.
Since then, he is a perfect 12 out of 12 over hurdles and fences, including the Supreme Novices and Arkle Chase, at the last two festivals.
His prep race in the Betfair Chase at Newbury, four weeks ago, came against only two rivals, but he looked in perfect nick, after a wind operation and 10 months off.
There will be many proud citizens of Lanark, if one of their own, Barbary Castle- trainer Alan King, can cap a superb season with a Triumph Hurdle victory with Redician.
The son of a Lanarkshire butcher, King was the only unsurprised witness to his electric acceleration, when winning Kempton’s Adonis Hurdle last Saturday.
His jumping warmed up as the two-mile contest unfolded, and this unbeaten juvenile after three victories could be the meeting’s top performer in the four- year and novice divisions.
And, finally to the girls, and the ebullient, infectious Bryony Frost, who has ridden Paul Nicholls’ Black Corton in seven out of his last-eight victories.
The rise and rise of the 22-year-old daughter of 1989 Grand National hero, Jimmy, will be at dizzy heights if she can steer the seven-year-old home in Wednesday’s opener, the RSA Chase.