Cheltenham Festival: Leading trainers
By John Ingles, Saturday 04 March 2023
Posted in: Cheltenham Festival Tips
John Ingles profiles five leading trainers and highlights their key runners at the Cheltenham Festival.
Willie Mullins marches on towards a century of winners at the Cheltenham Festival. That milestone looks much closer now after a record ten winners last year which takes his career total to 88. Mullins was the Festival’s leading trainer for the eighth time in the last ten years, and for the ninth time all told, and while he was 1/3 to be leading trainer last year, even shorter odds this year (2/13) suggest his 2023 Festival team is potentially stronger still. While injury has ruled Allaho out of his bid to win the Ryanair Chase for the third time, Energumene will be defending his Queen Mother Champion Chase title, Galopin des Champs – the one that got away last year when he fell at the last in the Turners Novices’ Chase – attempts to give his trainer a third Gold Cup victory, and State Man and Vauban, both Festival winners last year, are the closest rivals behind Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle betting.
In all, Mullins has the ante-post favourite in no fewer than 11 races but strength in depth means he has more than one leading contender in several contests. For example, he has the first three in the betting for the Triumph Hurdle, headed by Lossiemouth, while Mullins is responsible for the first five or six in the Champion Bumper betting led by impressive Navan winner It’s For Me. Novice chasers El Fabiolo and Gaillard du Mesnil are short prices for the Sporting Life Arkle and National Hunt Chase respectively, while Facile Vega heads a strong novice hurdle squad.
Gordon Elliott is the only trainer to have interrupted Mullins’ domination of the Festival in the last decade or so, doing so in both 2017 and 2018, and in the latter season notching eight winners which equalled what was then Mullins’ record total. Elliott had a frustrating Festival last year, saddling no fewer than eight seconds, to go with the wins of Commander of Fleet in the Coral Cup and a memorable Cross-Country Chase in which Delta Work denied stablemate Tiger Roll a record-equalling sixth Festival victory. Delta Work is a short price to win the Cross-Country again in which former Gold Cup hope Galvin gives the stable another leading contender, while Savills Chase winner Conflated has options in the Gold Cup and Ryanair Chase.
Otherwise, Elliott has very solid favourites in two of the novice chases, with the unbeaten Gerri Colombe in the Brown Advisory and Mighty Potter, himself unbeaten over fences, in the Turners. Elliott is sure to have plenty of representation in the Festival’s handicaps, while his best chance of a winner in one of the championship contests rests with Teahupoo, an improved hurdler since being stepped up in trip this season which puts him very much in the Stayers’ Hurdle picture.
Until Willie Mullins overtook him, Nicky Henderson was previously the Festival’s all-time leading trainer and two more wins in 2022 took his career total to 72. While Henderson was leading trainer at the Festival most recently in 2012 (for the ninth time, either outright or jointly) when sending out seven winners, he went close again in 2019 when four was enough to match Mullins’ total that year but lost out by virtue of fewer placed horses. While Henderson can’t boast the same sort of firepower as Mullins, he is in the position of having some of the Festival’s shortest-priced favourites this year.
With Henderson already having a record eight Champion Hurdles to his name, it will be the shock of the Festival if the unbeaten Constitution Hill, an outstanding winner of the Supreme 12 months ago, fails to make that nine. Shishkin, a former Supreme and Sporting Life Arkle winner himself, suffered a surprise defeat in the Queen Mother Champion Chase last year, but his recent runaway win in the Ascot Chase shows he’s firing on all cylinders again and ready to step up in trip this year for the Ryanair Chase. Jonbon’s only defeat to date came in last year’s Supreme, but is a leading fancy to become his trainer’s eighth winner of the Arkle, albeit facing El Fabiolo who ran him close over hurdles at Aintree last season. Luccia puts her unbeaten record on the line in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, while with former Champion Hurdle winner Epatante set to contest the Mares’ Hurdle, the winner of that contest last year, Marie’s Rock, is likely to tackle the Stayers’ Hurdle.
Henry de Bromhead was only 7/1 to be leading trainer at the Cheltenham Festival last year after only losing out narrowly to Willie Mullins in 2021. But he’s at much longer odds this year, a reflection of the fact that the horses responsible for some outstanding Festival results for the yard in the last couple of years have something to prove this time. Honeysuckle, winner of the last two Champion Hurdles, has her sights lowered to the Mares’ Hurdle, a race she won in 2020, having suffered the first defeats of her career in the current campaign. Last year’s Gold Cup one-two A Plus Tard and Minella Indo, who had finished the other way round in 2021, will do well to dominate again. A Plus Tard was pulled up in the Betfair Chase on his only appearance since his runaway win at Cheltenham 12 months ago but remains the stable’s main hope, although Minella Indo was successful for the first time since his own Gold Cup victory when winning at Tramore on New Year’s Day.
Bob Olinger, successful at the last two Cheltenham Festivals, will be missing this time but another former Festival winner and member of de Bromhead’s old guard Envoi Allen is a contender for the Ryanair Chase. Others prominent in the betting in their respective races include Journey With Me in the Turners Novices’ Chase, the unbeaten Magical Zoe in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle and Magic Daze in the Mares’ Chase, while Monty’s Star and Hiddenvalley Lake, first and second at Clonmel last time, reoppose in the Albert Bartlett.
It’s fair to say that the 2022 Cheltenham Festival contributed little to Paul Nicholls’ latest championship-winning season, with the best placing over the four days coming from Bell Ex One’s third in the Boodles. Nicholls has been leading trainer at the Festival on six occasions, but the most recent among his total of 46 winners at the meeting came when Politologue won the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2020.
However, Nicholls has some live chances capable of ending his barren spell, notably with Hermes Allen, successful at Cheltenham earlier in the season and taking his record to three out of three over hurdles in the Challow Novices’ and favourite to give his trainer a first win in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle. Tahmuras has also won all three of his hurdles and he too has a Grade 1 win to his name already, in the Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle, which makes him the leading British-trained hope in the Supreme Novices’.
Nicholls was leading trainer at the Festival most recently in 2009, also the year when Kauto Star won his second Gold Cup, and the trainer has his best chance since of winning the race for a fifth time with Bravemansgame who took his form to a new level when recording a sixth win from seven starts over fences in the King George VI Chase last time. Stage Star didn’t give his running at last year’s Festival but an impressive win in the Timeform Novices’ Handicap over course and distance on Trials Day gives him a chance to atone in the Turners Novices’ Chase.
