Cheltenham Festival Brown Advisory Chase tips: Stay Away Fay ready to take on hot favourite

(Due to the abandonment of the Cross-Country Chase, this race time has been moved from 14:10 to 14:30)

14:30 - Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase (3 miles ½ furlong) 

With a disappointing small field going to post it’s hard to see this being anything but a two-horse race between Fact To File and Stay Away Fay.

The former has been strongly talked up to allow the Willie Mullins-Paul Townend pairing to notch up another festival Grade 1, and he certainly made a comfortable transition from hurdling to chasing when asked to tackle larger obstacles this term.

Fact To File was foot perfect when landing successive wins at Leopardstown in December and February - the latter was an actual two-horse race, and he already had the race in the bag when Gaelic Warrior (who franked the form by landing the Arkle here on day one) unseated his rider at the last.

Planet Sport Bet: Bet £20+ cash on any runner in the race and if Fact To File wins by more than 10 lengths, get a £5 Free Bet!

If Fact To File copes with his first effort over three miles, then he should prevail, but while that doubt remains, we’re going to side with last year’s Albert Bartlett winner Stay Away Fay, whose jockey Harry Cobden states in his Planet Sport Bet blog represents his biggest chance of Festival success this year.

Paul Nicholls’ seven-year-old has also taken readily to fences, winning at both novice and Grade 2 level at Exeter and Sandown respectively, before finishing a decent third in open company in January’s Cotswold Chase, which was over a slightly longer trip.

He’ll be sporting first-time cheekpieces to keep him focused in the open spaces offered by such a small field, and he can be expected to give another bold run to give the odds-on favourite plenty to think about over the three-mile slog.

Suggested bet: Stay Away Fay in the 14:10 at Cheltenham

With just half a dozen runners, it will be tough for the other four rivals to split the market leaders, but there’s whisper among Tipstrr’s each-way specialists that Sandor Clegane could give a much better account of himself than his outsider price might suggest.

He was only just over a length behind Stay Away Fay in last year’s Albert Bartlett, has been far from disgraced in three efforts over fences this term, and was last seen finishing runner-up behind the highly-rated Embassy Gardens at Naas in January.

Paul Nolan’s seven-year-old will need some help from the top two if he is to feature, but if either of them falter, he could well be close enough to pick up the each-way pieces.

Each-way punt: Sandor Clegane in the 14:10 at Cheltenham

• Tip advised by Interesting Method on Tipstrr

Brown Advisory key stats

Top 3 trainers (last 20 years)

• Willie Mullins - 32 runners, 4 winners and 7 places
• Nicky Henderson - 19 runners, 4 winners and 5 places
• Paul Nicholls - 17 runners, 3 winners and 2 places

Top 3 jockeys (last 20 years)

• Paul Townend - 9 rides, 1 winner and 4 places
• Sam Twiston-Davies - 5 rides, 1 winner and 1 place
• Harry Cobden - 4 rides, 1 winner and 1 place

Past 5 winners of the Brown Advisory

• 2019 Topofthegame 4/1 
• 2020 Champ 4/1
• 2021 Monkfish 1/4F 
• 2022 L'Homme Presse 9/4F 
• 2023 The Real Whacker 8/1 

Britain v Ireland

• Britain - 11 winners, 22 places from 134 runners
• Ireland - 9 winners, 17 places from 81 runners

READ MORE: Cheltenham Festival ITV racing tips: Best bets for Day Two on Wednesday March 13