Cheltenham racing tip: All paths lead to Chantry House on hurdling reboot
Cheltenham racecourse
With most of the 15 scheduled starters in with a chance of making the frame, we should be in for an exciting stayers’ hurdle handicap over a testing three miles.
14:55 Paddy Power Games Handicap Hurdle (3 miles)
The bookies have French raider Placenet installed as the early market leader who seems to be running off a generous mark after putting some decent results together across the Channel, and new trainer David Pipe must have seen something he likes to enter him over an untried distance.
The handicappers have been less lenient with the O’Neill yard’s Judicial Law who ran well to finish runner-up of 20 over this course and distance three weeks ago, and whose figures of 113312 this year suggest he will be a major threat to the favourite here.
The same could be said for equal-top-rated Buddy One, whose jockey Jack Gilligan receives a seven-pound allowance, leaving Nicky Henderson’s Chantry House as top weight on his return to hurdling after three campaigns over fences.
Planet Sport Bet: Bet £20+ cash on any runner in the race and if Chantry House finishes in the first 4 places, get a £5 Free Bet!
He is one of several proven chasers lining up here, with the likes of Shan Blue, Real Steel and Minella Trump all capable of outracing their double-digit prices if they revert easily to different demands of top-class hurdling.
Chantry House is also a high-class chaser who won six of his seven finished outings over larger obstacles (third in the other), but hasn’t been seen since falling at Wetherby on Boxing Day to complete an unwelcome hat-trick of unfinished races.
Henderson now reverts him back to hurdles, over which he launched his successful career, converting a debut bumper success into hurdling victories here and at Newbury before finishing a creditable third behind Shishkin in the 2020 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Nico de Boinville became his regular rider when he switched to chasing, and is back on board on his return to hurdles, so the partnership will certainly be an interesting prospect in this company.
Suggested bet: Chantry House each-way in the 14:55 at Cheltenham
- Tip advised by ProfitablePicks on Tipstrr
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