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Cheltenham 2021 - Review

The week belongs to Henry De Bromhead, Rachael Blackmore and Jack Kennedy. Minella Indo won the Gold Cup having lost the RSA on the line this time last year. Everyone loves a comeback story and this is one because following that defeat there was a fall at Leopardstown at Christmas and a very ordinary run in February. I thought he was very overrated and even though he fit the age range  (the last 3 winners of the race were 7 or 8 years old), I over looked him for Al Boum Photo. Funnily enough it had the feel of when Al Boum Photo won in 2019 because there wasn't a lot of talk about him. I still expected him to be beaten even when he flew the last but A Plus Tard couldn't run him down. He proved me and the doubters wrong today by adding the top prize in National Hunt racing to that narrow second last year and the Albert Bartlett two years ago. What a Cheltenham record! Fantastic for Jack Kennedy as well. He's had some week too - Black Tears beating the hot favourite Concertis
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Brave Pat's Oscar so unlucky at Ayr

The action moved across the water to Ayr in Scotland, a course where Gordon Elliott made his name. Pat's Oscar was one of five runners on the day with Davy Russell on three of them including the Gordon Elliott Racing Club horse. Having run well at over 3 miles recently it was a bit of a surprise to see her go back down to 2m 3f although the soft going was more to her liking and the word from the yard was that she was at least fancied for a place.

Paper Roses led them round on the lap and a half of the track. Pat's Oscar was switched off in third as Davy sat motionless on top like a perfectly balanced stack of green and black nesting tables. The racing got going as they came off the back straight and down the side of the course. Pat's Oscar jumped impressively all the way round and was making serious headway from 3 out along with Peter's Cousin, Gold Runner and Camile. She went in front going over the second last and kept going to extend the lead to a length and a half approaching the final jump. Conor O'Farrell, coming up the middle on Camile, looked the big danger though it just needed one good leap from our mare to see if she could keep it going to the line but she hit the top of the hurdle and went crashing down on her knees badly hampering Camile who recovered brilliantly to win by a couple of lengths from Gold Runner.

I saw Davy was up and looking ok and then I was just waiting for the horse to run jockey-less past the finish line. When it didn't happen I feared the worst but there was a brief shot of her up on her feet on screen that lifted my heart and then Alex confirmed after that Davy and Pat's Oscar were both ok. Davy was supposed to have been stood down for the rest of the day but he must've felt a lot better shortly after because he rode another winner for Gordon an hour and a half later for his second of the day and Gordon's third. The way Camile finished, it's doubtful whether Davy would have had another winner on Pat's Oscar but it was another great effort and a place was definitely a good shout. Hopefully she'll be ok tomorrow and get her head in front in race soon.






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