Johnson frustrated as attention Festival warm-ups begin

RICHARD Johnson’s broken arm is likely to keep him out of action until Cheltenham.

It’s ironic that it should have occurred in a race where four of the scheduled 15 fences were omitted and he had just three opponents, for it was one of them who did the damage rather than the horse he was riding.

Brian Hughes is hot favourite to take his first jockeys’ championship, now leading 114-111, but a similar accident could befall him at any time. Bookmakers reckon the chance of that happening is 20/1, for those are the odds on Sam TwistonDavies (in third place with 86) coming with a late run. He is riding as well as ever, as shown by two barnstorming finishes at Haydock at the weekend. He got up in the last strides on Stolen Silver and Ballyandy after both horses looked set for minor honours at best.

In the latter race, the Champion Hurdle Trial, Pentland Hills was defeated for the second time this season. As happened after the first, he has been forgiven so that he is still around 7/1 for the Champion Hurdle. The winner at Haydock, Cornerstone Lad, was three quarters of a length behind, conceding three pounds. He comes out as the best horse in the race on the book, but his Cheltenham odds are as high as 50/1.

Several horses are having their Festival warm-ups at Cheltenham this Saturday. The Cotswold Chase sees the return of Santini, who should improve on his narrow Sandown win in November. Bristol De Mai is having a light campaign in the hope of dispelling the notion that he is an autumn horse. He has only won once later in the season than this and his record at Cheltenham is 0-4, although one of those races was a creditable third in last year’s Gold Cup. The Ladbroke Trophy winner De Rasher Counter shouldn’t be good enough, but it’s easy to see him running into a place.

Paisley Park is odds on for the Cleeve Hurdle, with If The Cap Fits a logical second favourite. The enigmatic L’Ami Serge threw away the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot by being left in front too soon. He needs to be held up until the last minute, if not later. He is likely to win another big race one day, but is not one to take a short price about. 8/1 for this weekend’s contest is fair. He is definitely one for placepot punters, having finished in the first three in 26 of his 31 races.

The popular Lady Buttons will be a banker for many in the mares’ hurdle at Doncaster, a course where she’s won four of her five starts.