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Nicholls’ Monkey

• Twist magic – Champion Chase
• Big Buck’s – World Hurdle
• Kauto star – Gold Cup

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Nicholls / Enda

• Twist magic – Champion Chase
• Garde champetre – Cross Country
• Big Buck’s – World Hurdle
• Kauto star – Gold Cup

£10 returns £600


Headline Favourites

• Go native – Champion Hurdle
• Masterminded – Champion Chase
• Tranquil sea – Ryanair Chase
• Big Buck’s – World Hurdle
• Kauto Star – Gold Cup

£20 returns £1500

Dream Factory

• Go native – Champion Hurdle
• Twist magic – Champion Chase
• Tranquil Sea – Ryanair Chase
• Big Buck’s – World Hurdle
• Denman – Gold Cup

£10 returns £9000

General Specials and Concessions

It’s that time of year again where we are treated to the very best of jumps racing courtesy of the Cheltenham Festival at Prestbury Park. As you’d expect, Stan James put together a number of special bets, enhanced prices and generally more ways to win with Stanjames.com so be sure to have a look through before you get on!

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• Daily specials plus enhanced accumulators
• ¼ the odds All festival Races
• Best Odds Guaranteed
• Happy Hour every day from 11am – 12pm
• First 5 places in fields with 24 Runners +
• Races will remain open for longer to get bets on after the off
• Odds on Favourites – to win by distance, betting without, against the field
• Heavyweights, Lightweights, threesomes and match bets all races
• Daily Jockey / Trainer Challenges
• Daily and Total favourites and distances betting ‘in running’
• Top Festival Jockey and Trainer
• Jockey / Trainer Enhanced odds multiples
• Enhanced Win Only markets
• Topical match bets
• To finish last in Gold Cup
• Festival totals betting
• And much, much more…

The eight-year-old was due to defend an unbeaten record over fences, having registered successes at Gowran and Navan, and had been as short as 10-1 for the Festival after impressing in a gallop at Leopardstown last month.

However, champion trainer Willie Mullins has confirmed his charge will not be heading to Prestbury Park. The County Carlow handler said: “He’s lame and he’s not going to Cheltenham.”

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Tony McCoy expressed satisfaction with comeback kid Binocular, who came through a Wednesday schooling session with flying colours. The 14-times champion jockey put the JP McManus-owned six-year-old through his paces over 13 flights of hurdles at Nicky Henderson’s Upper Lambourn base.

Tony McCoy liked what he saw

Although Binocular impressed McCoy, his participation in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle is unlikely to be revealed until he works on Friday.

“His jumping was as good as it has been all season,” the rider told the Daily Telegraph. He schooled very well, and I was very happy with him, but we won’t know whether he runs until he works.”

Henderson last month ruled Binocular out of the Champion Hurdle – he was third in the race in 2009 – due to a muscle problem, which has since showed signs of improvement.

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Dunguib wins Champion Bumper 2009

Last season’s Weatherbys Bumper winner, trained by Philip Fenton, is seen by many as a banker and is odds-on in the ante-post betting to get the Irish off to a flier in the opening race of the four-day feast. Fenton said:

“Dunguib is grand and all has gone very smoothly, no problems thankfully. He’ll possibly jump a few flights on Thursday morning, before he heads off. We’ve taken him out of the Champion Hurdle and he goes for the Supreme. I’ve been very happy with him since Leopardstown, he’s jumped several hurdles since and he’s jumped them well.”

Paddy Power will donate £1000 to Spinal Research for every length Dunguib wins by, and Fenton added:

“If he wins half a length that will do for us, but hopefully he can do better than that for Spinal Research.”

Home contenders Get Me Out Of Here and Menorah are on target to clash with Dunguib next Tuesday. Main market rival to the Irish hotpot is totesport Trophy hero Get Me Out Of Here, owned by J P McManus and trained at Jackdaws Castle by Jonjo O’Neill.

“He came out of his last race well. His cut has healed up and he’s in good form,” said McManus’ racing manager Frank Berry of Tony McCoy’s mount. He got a bit of a gash at Newbury but he’s fine again now and Jonjo is very pleased with him. He goes there in good shape.”

Another leading fancy is Menorah, despite suffering a shock defeat at Ascot on his latest start.

“It wasn’t ideal and obviously we were thinking that he should go and win,” trainer Philip Hobbs told At The Races. But it was a little bit like when he was beaten at Doncaster in that it was a very muddling race. We were left in front and then got taken on so it was just a mess really. The horse is in good form so we’ll press on.”

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Binocular still in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham

Solwhit had been challenging for favouritism before scoping badly on Monday and he faces a race against time to be fit for the big race. Two notable absentees are Dunguib and Quevega but both have alternative Cheltenham Festival targets with the former heading to the Spinal Research Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and Quevega defending her crown in the David Nicholson Mares Hurdle.

Nicky Henderson, trainer of Binocular, has declared last year’s winner Punjabi and Zaynar. Celestial Halo, second in the race last season, is set to represent Paul Nicholls.

A strong Irish team is headed by Go Native and also includes Donnas Palm, Ebadiyan, Jumbo Rio, Kargali, Muirhead, Raise Your Heart, Royal And Regal, and Won In The Dark. Khyber Kim, Medermit and Starluck complete the declarations.

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TATANIANO AND LONG RUN TAKEN OUT OF ARKLE CHASE

Tataniano and Long Run do not feature among the 17 six-day acceptors for the Irish Independent Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham on Tuesday. The former, trained by Paul Nicholls, bypasses Tuesday’s two-mile novice championship to instead run in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase on Friday.

“He’s absolutely fine, but we just didn’t think he was good enough for the Arkle and he’s going to go for the Grand Annual instead,” said owner Andy Stewart. It was obviously disappointing when he was beaten by a horse of Emma Lavelle’s (Suntini) at Newbury last time and while he could be placed in an Arkle, he probably wouldn’t be good enough to win it. Novices have a reasonably good record in the Grand Annual and he should have a good chance of winning that, so hopefully it works out. We obviously lined Poquelin up for the Grand Annual last year but that didn’t work out, so hopefully Tataniano can do the business. I may still have a runner in the Arkle as I own Nomecheki, so we’ll see.”

Paul Nicholls is now set to rely on Woolcombe Folly while Long Run waits for the RSA Chase.

Market leaders Captain Cee Bee and Sizing Europe speadhead a strong Irish challenge which also includes the Willie Mullins-trained trio of Quiscover Fontaine, Shakervilz and Sports Line.

The home team is headed by Somersby and Riverside Theatre, the latter set to be joined in the field by stablemate Mad Max.

Kangaroo Court, Leo’s Lucky Star, Nomecheki, Shoreacres and I’m Delilah are the other British-trained acceptors while Foster’s Cross, Nicanor and Osana complete the Irish team.

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Rebecca Morgan, commercial and operations manager at Cheltenham, said: “In total, we will have sold over 6,000 scarves, the equivalent of almost 10% of the likely Gold Cup day crowd of 67,000, celebrating the colours of Kauto Star and Denman.

“The split on overall sales at the moment is 60% in favour of Kauto Star products and 40% for Denman products, although it fluctuates week by week. The last time we did anything of this sort was during the Best Mate era, but the response to Denman and Kauto Star has been massive compared to then.

“We are delighted that racing fans want to show their support loud and proud, and are grateful to Paul Nicholls and the owners for their support and enthusiasm about what we are doing to promote the rivalry between the two horses.”

Kauto Star Gold Cup Favourite

The now-retired Pipe, twice a winner of the Champion, is in agreement with that line of thinking – and rates the seven-year-old Dunguib as the ‘banker’ of the showcase meeting. He told the Daily Mail:

“I would have done the same thing. The Irish think Dunguib is the banker and if I had to take five horses there he’d be my first choice. A fast-run race will be ideal for him.”

Pipe is also in the corner of Kauto Star landing a third totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup. He added:

“The ground looks to be favouring him more than Denman and he’s simply the best. Master Minded won well last time after the injury and should win another Champion Chase.”

Pipe also gave a good word to two contenders trained by his son, David. He said:

“Notus De La Tour is near top weight in the Fred Winter and he’s only had one run for the stable. But he’s a nice young horse who will want good ground. Ashkazar has been a little disappointing but the conditions (in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle) should suit him and I’m expecting him to go a lot better.”

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Martin Pipe in days gone by winning at Cheltenham;

Twist Magic Champion Chase

Paul Nicholls‘ eight-year-old is enjoying arguably his best ever campaign having won the Tingle Creek at Sandown and Ascot’s Victor Chandler Chase.

With regular pilot Ruby Walsh unsurprisingly opting to ride stablemate Master Minded, Thornton will get the leg up on Wednesday week and part-owner Barry Fulton was thrilled after watching the combination in action on Tuesday morning.

“He just had a school round on his own under ‘Choc’ (Thornton) and everything went very well,” said Fulton. I have to say he is looking very well at the moment which is great as he has been a little dull in his coat in previous years. I am beginning to feel the nerves a little but it’s very exciting and we’re really looking forward to Cheltenham. He’s just seemed a different horse so far this year and I’m not too concerned about the ‘Cheltenham factor’ to be honest. I think he would have gone very close to winning an Arkle if he hadn’t fallen but it is all about jumping and I suppose he’s got to prove he gets up that hill. I really can’t complain about this season as he has already won two Grade Ones and who knows, maybe he’ll make it a third next week.”

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Fulton acknowledges Twist Magic has plenty on his plate up against dual champion chaser Master Minded but is looking forward to the big clash.

“I had a quick word with Master Minded this morning but he wasn’t saying much,” quipped Fulton. We all know he’s the one to beat and I believe he’s in good form, so we’ll just have to see what happens on the day. We’ll have a fantastic day out no matter what.”

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“We are into a watering regime. We started yesterday and we are only putting on between six and eight millimetres on both the old and new courses,” clerk of the course Simon Claisse told At The Races on Tuesday. The old course is being used Tuesday and Wednesday and the new course Thursday and Friday. The wind has been quite strong of late so we are just having to take the watering fairly slowly to make sure it lands in the right place. At the moment the ground is good, good to soft in places. Whether or not the watering will swing it back to good to soft, good in places we will take a view on in the next couple of days. The watering will hold it where we want it to be for the next three or four days but the anxiety we have at the moment is looking ahead towards next week, the forecast is showing precious little rain. We could have started watering yesterday and put on a quantity of water that would have taken us right through next week. We decided just to be cautious about that. We will then take a view on Thursday/Friday as to whether we feel we will be able to start the meeting on ground on the easy side of good. The cold water we are putting on does not help grass growth. We would love to be in a situation whereby we could end up starting the meeting on perfect jumping ground without having to intervene at all. The water that is going on is only two or three degrees. At the moment it is probably lowering the soil temperature. It might even check grass growth (rather) than encourage it.”

Dunguib wins Champion Bumper 2009

The most fascinating conundrum of this year’s Cheltenham Festival is going to be answered very quickly next week. After the first race we will know whether Dunguib has lifted Ireland’s spirits and can still lay claim to being the next Istabraq.

The passionate Irish punters will have smashed into any even money the English bookmakers will have offered on the Spinal Research Supreme Novices Hurdle favourite, so someone will be licking very deep wounds.

If the evidence of the formbook is anything to go by, you would say it is the bookmakers who will take the first kicking of the meeting. The bare facts suggest that Dunguib is a bigger certainty than Gordon Brown on a bender at Bank of England’s printing press. But the formbook is wrong, as far as the outcome of this race is concerned, and this is how you figure out why.

Get your partner to stand, sideways on, in a pair of Christian Louboutin high-heeled shoes. [Please note no bigoted politically incorrect reference to wife or girlfriend here.] Then note where the balls of their toes are in relation to their ankles. Directly above them, you will find. Just as Dunguib’s ankles are vertically above his hooves.

To discover why this physical conformation is not conducive to being a top hurdler [the angle between the two should be 45 degrees], I now want you to loose school your partner around your sitting room.

Appropriate home-made obstacles for this purpose can be made using your best champagne glasses. If you do not have sufficient numbers of them to avoid a run out, intersperse them with sherry glasses. For other hurdles you could use any Ming china that you can lay your hands on, or small children. The elongated scenes of Venice, which Canaletto painted, are also ideal.

Once your ‘hurdles’ are ready, line your partner up facing in the right direction, and give them a fairly forceful whack on the bottom.

What happens next will very accurately resemble, for those of you who kept your eyes open, Dunguib trying to jump eight flights of hurdles with 19 other horses getting in his way. The financial consequences, for both you and the Irish punters, will be dire.

Dunguib is such a short price for this race because he would win it without breaking into a sweat if it was a Flat race. And although he has won the hurdle races which he has contested in Ireland this season, they have been a different proposition to the one he now faces.

At Leopardstown, last time out, he was able to scramble over the hurdles in his shambolic way, and then have time to regain his composure because it was a small field and they went a sensible pace. He will get no such breathing space at Prestbury Park. The pace of the race will be fast and furious.

Another issue for Dunguib is that he’s ridden from the back of the field. Which does not present too many problems when there are only 10 other runners in the race, but can turn into a nightmare at the back of a big field. Especially if you are not jumping fluently.

This is mission impossible for Dunguib. If you don’t believe me, ask 19 neighbours to come around after closing time, dust your partner down and set the hurdles up again.

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