Smith is doubling up in bid to end 10-year drought

SUE SMITH will be doublehanded as she bids to record her first Cheltenham Festival success since Mister McGoldrick triumphed a decade ago.

Her stable is represented by both Vintage Clouds and Wakanda in the Ultima Handicap Chase over three miles.

The only Yorkshire-trained runners on day one of the National Hunt Festival, it is testament to Smith’s prowess with staying steeplechasers that she has two genuine contenders for a competitive race that continues to increase in stature.

And, while the Trevor Hemmings-owned Vintage Clouds was still in contention when tripping up at the penultimate fence in last year’s contest that was won by Tom Scudamore’s dual winner Un Temps Pour Tout, Smith believes the grey heads to Cheltenham in better form.

Victorious at Aintree on his seasonal debut, Vintage Clouds was a gutsy fourth in Chepstow’s Welsh National after being badly hampered before finishing second in Wetherby’s Towton Novices Chase.

“He’s improved mentally quite a lot,” she told “He’s grown up. His jumping is a bit slicker.

“He’s so consistent that he deserves to get his head in front in a nice race. He’s going there in good form.”

Stable jockey Danny Cook rides Vintage Clouds who is likely to relish the rain-softened ground. Smith is also hopeful that conditions will suit the aforementioned Wakanda, owned by Margaret Scholey and her late husband Ray, and who has not raced since winning a five-way finish to Doncaster’s Sky Bet Trophy that was run on tacky ground.

Sean Quinlan, part of the Bingley trainer’s team, takes the ride and Smith said: “He’s a tough little horse who did his job nicely around Doncaster. He’s high enough in the weights – I hope it’s not too much of a bog.” NICKY HENDERSON is already the Champion Hurdle’s winningmost trainer in history – and there’s every likelihood that the reigning title-holder Buveur D’Air will add to the tally in today’s traditional day one feature at Cheltenham.

Buveur D’Air’s slightly unexpected triumph 12 months ago was Henderson’s sixth in the prestigious race, finally moving him one ahead of legendary Great Habton trainer Peter Easterby on the all-time list.

And, ominously, the current champion trainer – who already has an unsurpassed 58 Festival wins to his name – believes Buveur D’Air, the current number one and odds-on favourite, is in even better form than 12 months ago. Lightly-raced, the JP McManus-owned runner was barely extended when winning Newcastle’s Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle last December before adding Kempton’s equally prestigious Christmas Hurdle to a burgeoning CV.

A saunter at Sandown is likely to have put the horse spot on for today’s test in which Barry Geraghty, retained by McManus, replaces last year’s winning jockey Noel Fehily in the saddle.

“Buveur D’Air’s greatest asset is his jumping – he is so quick it is frightening. He measures them