Thursday, November 09, 2006

Cheltenham Open meeting

Tomorrow sees the start of the three day Cheltenham Open meeting, the highlight being the Paddy Power Gold Cup run over two and a half miles on Saturday.

In recent years the Pipe stable has done particularly well at this meeting; all eyes will be on son David as he tries to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious father. The media have played their part by running stories on several of their fancied runners.

David rates Standin Obligation the stable's best chance at the meeting; he runs in tomorrow's 4.10 race and I think the hint's worth taking.

On offical ratings two Irish horses, Cuan Na Grai, the likely favourite, and Kalderon have the 1.55 race between them. Cuan Na Grai won the Galway hurdle in impressive style over the summer. His trainer has opted for this race rather than the competitive looking Greatwood hurdle on Sunday. The negative is the stable hasn't sent out a winner for over three weeks. It's not certain Kalderon will appreciate the ground but he looks the value pick to overturn the favourite.

1 comment:

GeeDee said...

Standin Obligation won at 4/6.

Both Irish horses, Cuan Na Grai and Kalderon, priced at 7/4 and 2/1 respectively, finishsed well beaten in sixth and seventh poistions, some thirty lengths behind Moon Over Miami who won at odds of 16/1.