Cheltenham Festival

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ROGER CHARLTON'S unbeaten Keys is on the easy list and will miss the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham on March 16.
Owned by Barry Hurley, who formerly sponsored the Queen Mother Champion Chase through his company Seasons Holidays, Keys was revealed to have given a few coughs by his trainer and a scope revealed a bacterial infection

"He'll have to miss the festival, but it may be possible to run at Aintree. Failing that, he will be prepared for a maiden on the Flat," said the trainer.
"It's a pity because everyone was looking forward to Cheltenham, where he won a Listed bumper at the New Year meeting."
Keys, a three-parts brother to Charlton's Group-winning mare Clowance, was a general 12-1 chance for the Champion Bumper.
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JONJO O'NEILL will wait until the eve of the race before deciding whether Get Me Out Of Here will take his chance in the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle on March 18.Last season's Supreme Novices' Hurdle second has three options at  [/color]Cheltenham but O'Neill said On Thursday that the County Hurdle, for which he is as short as 12-1 with Victor Chandler, was the favoured target although it was "debatable" whether he would head to Cheltenham at all.

The seven-year-old finished in midfield in the rearranged Totesport Trophy at Newbury last month, and O'Neill said: "We have discovered now that he has a wind problem and we'll cauterise his soft palette. Whether it is in time or not we will have to wait until next week and see.
"We are still planning to go and if everything goes right we will go but obviously the horse comes first," the trainer told Racing UK.

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HENNESSY winner Diamond Harry, one of the leading contenders for the Totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup, was ruled out of the festival after a visit to trainer Nick Williams' vet revealed he had injured a suspensory ligament.

As short as 7-1 with Coral for the Gold Cup, but a 10-1 chance with the sponsors, Diamond Harry, along with King George winner Long Run, was regarded by many as one of the few up-and-coming chasers capable of shaking up the established order of Imperial Commander, Kauto Star and Denman, whom he memorably beat in the Hennessy in November.

He has not raced since then though, with Williams keen to keep him fresh for Cheltenham.

However, the trainer issued a downbeat bulletin on his stable star last week, saying he was not showing the same sparkle he had before the Hennessy.

"I hadn't been happy with him and said last week that he'd lost his sparkle and it could easily be that something was ailing him," Williams told the Racing Post on Friday evening.

"He was lame so I took him to the vets and he's done a suspensory ligament on his near-fore.

"We had four hours at the vets today and that's how we found out. He'll be out for about three to four months."

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TRAINER Ferdy Murphy on Saturday nominated Divers, a 12-1 chance with William Hill for the Centenary Novices' Handicap Chase, as his best chance of a Cheltenham Festival winner this month.

The seven-year-old has won two of his four starts over fences this season and this week delighted Murphy, who has saddled the likes of Naiad Du Misselot, Joes Edge and L'Antartique to score at the festival in recent years.
"I'm very pleased with him at the moment," Murphy told The Morning Line. "He did a schooling session in the week and it was very good."

Murphy can also count on festival regular Kalahari King (Ryanair) and Galant Nuit (Kim Muir) among his leading Cheltenham contenders.

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CONTINUED drying conditions at Cheltenham throughout Tuesday prompted clerk of the course Simon Claisse to change the official going description to good to soft, good in places.

Significant rain is still expected to fall this week, but the amount forecast has been reduced from between 12-15mm to between 7.5-11mm.

Claisse said: "We are now good to soft, good in places on the Old, New and Cross Country courses. We've been told to expect less rain than was originallyforecast between now and next Monday."

He added: "I'm very happy with conditions at the moment, and thankfully there is no sign of further frost, according to our forecast."

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Somersby will definitely run in the sportingbet.com Queen Mother Champion Chase next Wednesday, rather than the Ryanair Chase a day later.

Henrietta Knight's seven-year-old will take his chance over two miles at the Cheltenham Festival as his owner, Camilla Radford, is to have chemotherapy on the day of the Ryanair.

Knight told the Guardian: "The fact is that Mrs Radford is ill at the moment and is having chemotherapy on Thursday next week, so he will run on Wednesday so that she can come and see him. He goes to the race whatever the weather, whether it is raining or snowing or whatever it is."

The handler went on: "It may not be perfect, but it's not influenced by anything other than family misfortunes. I had thought the treatment could be changed if necessary but it has to be booked two or three weeks ahead in London. It's all done very scientifically and it can't be changed.

"If they water the course and then it rains on top, that would certainly suit him as he likes the ground soft."


Owner David Sewell could have as many as three runners at next week's Cheltenham Festival.

The retired Cheltenham-based businessman has an increasingly large string at Alan King's stable, and could be represented at his local track by Oh Crick, Sir Harry Ormesher and Jetnova.

Sewell's team are in exemplary form, with Midnight Appeal's victory at Wincanton on Thursday having supplemented weekend triumphs for Montbazon and Araldur.

"Oh Crick's going for the Grand Annual," said the owner.

"Sir Harry Ormesher will either run in the Coral Cup or the Pertemps Final, and there's just a chance Jetnova will run in something as well - maybe the Martin Pipe race."


Time For Rupert is among a quality 16-strong field of young stayers from England and Ireland left in the RSA Chase at Cheltenham on Wednesday.

Paul Webber's seven-year-old has been ante-post favourite for the extended three-mile contest thanks to winning both his starts over fences at Cheltenham. Although last year's World Hurdle runner-up was forced to miss an intended engagement back there in January, he is said to be back in good form.

There is an abundance of talented opposition waiting to take him on, however, including several Irish challengers. Among those are Gordon Elliott's Jessies Dream, Jessica Harrington's Bostons Angel, the Willie Mullins duo of Quel Esprit and Mikael D'Haguenet and Dessie Hughes' Magnanimity.

Britain's champion trainer Paul Nicholls has left in Aiteen Thirtythree and The Minack, while Ian Williams' Wayward Prince and Wymott from Donald McCain's Cholmondeley yard are others to have stood their ground.

Colm Murphy has warned that Quito De La Roque would be unlikely to run if he felt conditions were too fast.

"If it's very quick I imagine he won`t run, but he`s good and he is well. He's come out of his race the last day at Navan in great shape and I couldn't be happier with him," the County Wexford trainer told At The Races.

"He's improved with every run so he seems to be one that`s on the up. I`d be hopeful if he ran. The further he goes the better. He has a great attitude for a race. He relaxes and he's everything you want in a racehorse. All he can do is improve and we`re looking forward to him."

Ante-post favourite Oscars Well features among 26 remaining entries in the Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham on Wednesday.

Jessica Harrington's six-year-old leapt to the head of the market for the two-mile-five-furlong contest with a brilliant performance in Leopardstown's Deloitte Novice Hurdle, his second Grade One triumph in succession.

The horse that chased home that day, Zaidpour, could reoppose for Willie Mullins, although Tuesday's Supreme Novices' Hurdle appears to be his preferred target. The Irish champion trainer's number one hope for this race is So Young, unbeaten in two starts over hurdles, while he could also call on Ballyhaunis and Gagewell Flyer.

Dual course winner Bobs Worth is a major player for Nicky Henderson, who also has Minella Class engaged, while Paul Nicholls has a strong hand with Al Ferof, Rock On Ruby and Indian Daudaie in the field.

Other notable possibles include First Lieutenant, Tornado Bob and Court In Motion.

courtesy of at the races