Looking ahead to the Cheltenham Festival

Tomorrow’s Bet Eider Handicap Chase at Newcastle is just the sort of marathon contest in which I usually like to have a bet but, with so many of the 13 runners out of form and the going likely to be very soft, I am happy to give it a miss this time around.

Instead, I am going to turn my attention to the Cheltenham Festival, which is less than three weeks away. Unusually for me, as I tend to like the value odds often offered by horses from the smaller yards, I am going to put up two horses from the two most successful stables in Britain that have gone slightly under the radar.

The entries for the Festival handicaps were revealed this week and I am sweet on a horse from the Nicky Henderson yard. The veteran Lambourn trainer has a strong team to send to Cheltenham this year with the sublime Constitution Hill in the Unibet Champion Hurdle and enigmatic Shishkin in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup most likely to give Henderson a big-race victory.

However, it is an improving handicapper that I am keen to get onside as the Festival approaches. DODIETHEGREAT is named after the legendary Scottish rugby union forward Doddie Weir, who died from Motor Neurone Disease, aged 52, in November 2022. Racehorse owner Kenny Alexander, who was good friends with the rugby star and who owns Doddiethegreat, generously donates the horse’s winnings to the charitable foundation set up in Weir’s name.

So there are plenty of reasons, both emotional and financial, for wanting the horse to win the Coral Cup on Wednesday March 13, but I can also think of several reasons why he should win it too.

To start with, Doddiethegreat ran an excellent race in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury earlier this month when a staying on fourth to Iberico Lord.