Cheltenham Festival Wednesday
1.30pm
Son Of Camas
He got bogged down in what was very testing ground when third in the Tolworth last time, and I think he is a lot better than he showed there. He had earlier impressed me when beating King Roland at Newbury, and I can definitely see this longer trip suiting him. Quite clearly, this is a very hot Ballymore and he may well have to improve 10lb or so just to get into the places. It is possible though, given his lightly-raced profile, and his best days are ahead of him. And he has had a wind op, too, so fingers crossed that brings about some improvement.
2.10pm
Pym
This looks a strong RSA but I don’t think Pym is a forlorn hope by any stretch of the imagination. He certainly has to bounce back from a poor run at Ascot last time but he hated what were pretty atrocious conditions that day, so I would forgive him that, and you would expect the ground to be a lot better here. If he came back to the form that saw him beat Imperial Aura convincingly here in December, then he is on the coat-tails of the likes of Champ, Minella Indo and Copperhead ability-wise, and I think he has possibly been dismissed in the market a touch too quickly. The better the ground, the better his chance.
2.50pm
Burrows Edge
We brought him back from chasing to contest the Lanzarote at Kempton last time, and that proved to be the correct call as he went and won by 9 lengths there. Obviously, he benefitted from the last-flight departures of a couple of his rivals there, but I reckon he would have gone very close anyway such was the manner in which he was finishing his race off. He has gone up 6lb and this is a much deeper race, but I think there is more to come from him and the first-time cheek pieces could help him, too.
3.30pm
Altior NON RUNNER
We could have obviously done without his late sprint problem, but the vets have obviously done all they can in the last 72 hours and we will just have to see where we are with him on Wednesday. Touch wood, he will be fine, but it is a headache we would all like to have avoided. It is particularly frustrating considering how well he has come back from his hard race behind Cyrname at Ascot earlier in the season. It took a while but I was thrilled by his win in the Game Spirit last time, where his trademark finishing kick was there for all to see. Hopefully, he will be A1 if taking his chance because he will need to be at the top of his game with the younger up-and-comers Defi Du Seuil and Chacun Pour Soi in opposition. You have to greatly respect those two considering what they have done this season, but everyone knows what a legend Altior has been. And we think he still is.
4.10pm
Might Bite
This is obviously a massive task for him, facing Tiger Roll and Easysland. But there was obviously a lot more promise in his third in the Denman Chase last time, and he seemed to like it when having a spin around these fences last week. We will be delighted if he finishes third, to be honest, but hopefully he just enjoys himself and runs well. He would like much better ground than he is going to get here though; the ground on the Cross Country course is very testing.
4.50pm
Palladium
He was a fair, lightly-raced stayer on the Flat but this looks to be more his game on the evidence of his three starts to date. Only a short-head defeat on his hurdling debut has stopped him coming into this race unbeaten and I thought he was very impressive when beating a fair sort at Sandown last time. Plenty of cut is clearly no problem for him and, although the handicapper raised him 13lb for that win, hopefully a mark of 137 still allows him to be competitive in what is obviously a very open Boodles. This has been the plan for him for a while.
