Cheltenham tips 2023, day 2: Best bets for each race on Wednesday’s card, including the Queen Mother Chase
Winning the Queen Mother Chase once isn’t really enough to nail down a reputation as a two-mile jumping great. It needs to be done twice.
Moscow Flyer, Master Minded, Sprinter Sacre and Altior have all doubled up in the 21st century and these are the champions that will live longest in the memory.
Energumene has a fine chance of joining the club at Cheltenham on Wednesday afternoon after his wide-margin 2022 triumph, but he was basically gifted the race when hot favourite Shishkin was pulled up soon after halfway.
Shishkin was later diagnosed with a rare bone condition and anyway, is on a different pathway now, leading to Thursday’s Ryanair Chase, after stepping up in distance.
Even so, Energumene has plenty to prove if he is to join the greats after blotting his otherwise almost perfect copybook when third behind Editeur Du Gite and Edwardstone at Cheltenham in January.
It’s a cloudy picture. The suspicion was that the riders of Edwardstone and Energumene gave the much-improved front-runner Editeur Du Gite too little respect.
Edwardstone closed the gap before Editeur Du Gite rallied and won by a head, but Energumene had his late effort ruined by a blunder at the final fence.
Trainer Willie Mullins isn’t prone to making excuses (he doesn’t need to), but he suspected that his normally safe jumper was distracted by the white trim on the fences at Cheltenham, changed from orange since his Festival success last year, and believes the experience will stand him in good stead.
Editeur Du Gite won’t be underestimated again and it will probably be a different result. Edwardstone is arguably the best British two-miler since Shishkin switched trips and no pushover, but we should take Mullins at his word when he says that we will see a different Energumene this time.
Cheltenham tips 2023, day 2
- 1.30pm: Impaire Et Passe (Next Best) 2-1
- 2.10pm: Thyme Hill (Best Bet) 9-1
- 2.50pm: Run For Oscar 9-1
- 3.30pm: Energumene 7-4
- 4.10pm: Delta Work 11-8
- 4.50pm: Epson Du Houx (Each-Way) 20-1
- 5.30pm: A Dream To Share 4-1
It looks like being another great day for the Irish.
Mullins’ Impaire Et Passe has been shouted from every rooftop in County Carlow as a Ballymore Hurdle banker since dotting up at Punchestown, while Gordon Elliott’s upmarket Irish stayers – Galvin and last year’s winner Delta Work– appear to have a stranglehold on the Cross Country Chase.
Galvin was mixing it with, and even beating, some of the very best only last season, but Delta Work has the street smarts around this quirky circuit to see off his classy stablemate.
Charles Byrnes’ Newmarket Cesarewitch winner Run For Oscar has been shaping like he’s ready for a good crack at the Coral Hurdle, while A Dream To Share has the form to win the Festival Bumper.
It would certainly be a dream to share for his 85-year-old trainer John Kiely and teenager John Gleeson, granted a week off school exam studies for his first ever Cheltenham ride.
Respite for the Brits might come in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase. The unbeaten Gerri Colombe is a solid favourite for Ireland, but has nothing in hand of The Real Whacker, while top class staying hurdler Thyme Hill could well beat them both now that he has got the hang of jumping fences.
