Jamie Codd. Patrick Mullins. Derek O’Connor. Just some of the gifted principals involved in what’s always a great spectacle.
Festival Hunters’ Chase 2023 Tips
It’s the Gold Cup for the amateurs. Same compelling test, demanding the very best from both horse and rider. Top trainers rub shoulders with less well-known hunter chase, point-to-point specialists.
Don’t be fooled by these riders – the very best are every bit as talented as many of their professional counterparts.
3m 2f-and-change. A challenge indeed. We’re paying four places, and there’s a warm order betting-wise in the shape of Vaucelet. As I write he’s around the 5/2 mark which is plenty short enough, but he’s won 3 from 4 in the point-to-point arena, and 6 from 10 under rules.
Those 6 were all over fences, so jumping is certainly this fella’s game, and he’s only 8. A son of Derby winner Authorized no less, there could well be a good deal more to come.
Famous Clermont is another win-machine, and is assisted up top by the excellent Will Biddick. Won at Haydock last time but was pulled up here last April in a PTP. Hasn’t looked back since then, and has an undeniable chance.
Billaway for team Mullins beat Vaucelet in the Punchestown Festival version of this last April, just. Also thrillingly won this race last term, and came second the previous year. He absolutely loves the Cotswolds, evidently. Around a 15/2 chance for more glory on Friday afternoon. Brilliant each-way prospect.
Chris’s Dream represents the powerful De Bromhead yard and is certainly in form in this sphere. Two or three years ago this 11-yr-old was mixing it in very exalted company, and obviously retains both enthusiasm and ability.
Jamie Codd rides The Storyteller for Gordon Elliott, and Derek O’Connor is aboard It’s On The Line for Emmet Mullins. Both are huge prices, and boast two of the very best jocks in this realm.
I think the young gun might be ready (Vaucelet), but Patrick Mullins and Billaway won’t be easy to master. Can’t wait.
Selections – Vaucelet to win, It’s On The Line each-way, Billaway each-way.
Share Article
