Gaelic Warrior
Gaelic Warrior Gaelic Warrior (Paul Townend) wins the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup at Cheltenham Racecourse 13.03.26 Photo © Francesca Altoft focusonracing.com “How did he get beat in the Fred Winter off a mark of 129?” Everyone else seems to want to insert that line into their assessment of this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner so […]
Cheltenham 2026 – The Novice Chases
Cheltenham 2026 – The Novice Chases There were 28 races at Cheltenham last week and that left me with a lot of racing to choose from for this week’s column. I watched it all back over the weekend and began to make copious amounts of notes, the vast majority of which will probably prove to […]
Ryanair Chase
Ryanair Chase A first winner of the week for Henry De Bromhead and it is a deserved Grade 1 success for Heart Wood, who was 2nd in this race to Fact to File 12-months ago. He’s had a different campaign this year and having won the New Year’s Day Chase at Tramore, he was kept […]
BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase
BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase Il Était Temps I have put the name of the winning horse at the top of this piece, but in reality I should probably have put the name of the jockey first. This was a riding masterclass from Paul Townend, who read the race and in particular the early pace […]
Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy
Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy Lossiemouth Will she? Won’t She? Should she? Yes. The debate that has raged on for the last 3 seasons is finally over and the question has been answered. Lossiemouth is a Champion Hurdler. This was a 4th victory at the Cheltenham festival for Willie Mullins mare, who must surely now […]
Cheltenham Festival Data Clues 2026
Cheltenham Festival Data Clues 2026 The initial plan was for this to be a “horses to follow” piece and I will be adding some tips from the data on this blog in the next week, but the more I worked on the research and looked through the data, the more angles I found that I […]
Constitution Hill
Constitution Hill Constitution Hill and Oisin Murphy. Southwell 20-2-26 pic Tony Knapton focusonracing.com It seems that the entire racing fraternity has an opinion on Constitution Hill and what he should do next. I won’t be adding to that here and this will be a much shorter and scientific view of the race as a result. […]
Jonbon
Jonbon Betfair Ascot Chase (G1) When Jonbon crossed the line 2s and 9 lengths behind Il Etait Temps in the Betfair Tingle Creek at Sandown in December, he was finished. That run followed on from a very laboured effort in the Schloer Chase at Cheltenham a month earlier and despite plugging on to finish 2nd […]
William Hill Game Spirit Chase (G2)
William Hill Game Spirit Chase (G2) “Lulamba” In the build up to Saturday’s card at Newbury there was a lot of speculation around Nicky Henderson’s team and whether they would run some of their stars on the deep ground at Newbury. Jango Baie wasn’t declared for the Denman Chase but the decision to keep Lulamba […]
Don Lockwood Sidney Banks Memorial Novices’ Hurdle
Don Lockwood Sidney Banks Memorial Novices’ Hurdle “Act of Innocence” When Act of Innocence was beaten by Minella Yoga at Newbury in December, there was a slight sense that the bubble had burst. He was conceding a lot of weight to Paul Nicholls 4-year-old and the post-race comments from Nicholls, a former trainer of Act […]