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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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Cheltenham 2021 - Wednesday 17th March Lá Fhéile Pádraig shona daoibh go léir

 Big day for the favourites yesterday with Appreciate it, Shishkin and Honeysuckle all winning impressively. Concertista couldn't complete the short price favourite quadruple when she was beat in the Mares Hurdle by Black Tears trained by Gordon Elliott all year and prepared by Cullentra Stables Caretaker Denise Foster. ITV were probably dreading this moment but good it's happened early and they could get it out of the road. There was a lot of complaints from racing twitter about ITV's decision to show a short film about last years festival and whether it should have gone ahead. Given what we've been through in the last year, of course it shouldn't have but the government didn't believe coronavirus would be the worldwide pandemic it has become. The message seemed to be the government encouraged Cheltenham 2020 to take place, it cost lives as every huge event did around the world in the weeks leading up to full lockdown including Chinese New Year in China, Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the Liverpool v Atletico Madrid Champions League match at Anfield, to name a few. If governments don't instruct event organisers that they can't proceed with an event then it's going to go ahead. ITV is a national broadcaster and it has a duty to discuss the big issues and there's been nothing bigger than Covid 19 which has effected every aspect of life as we know it. It was a balanced piece by Gabriel Clarke, a brilliant filmmaker who has directed short pieces like this about Tiger Roll and also features like Finding Jack Charlton which was absolutely fantastic.

Yesterday wasn't great for me especially when I ignored the only horse in my Sporting Life tracker, 28/1 Vintage Clouds. The pattern for the winners looks like this:

Month

Distance

Position

Weight

Age

Appreciate it

Appreciate it

Appreciate it

Appreciate it (6)


Shishkin

Shishkin

Shishkin

Shishkin

Shishkin (5)

Vintage Clouds


Vintage Clouds

Vintage Clouds (3)


Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle (5)



Black Tears

Black Tears

Black Tears (3)


Jeff Kidder

Jeff Kidder


Jeff Kidder (3)


Galvin


Galvin

Galvin (3)


Position, Weight, Age, Distance and Month was the least significant pointer having been the most all year.
With that in mind I've gone with these today:

1.20 Bob Olinger
1.55 Monkfish
2.30 Birchdale
3.05 Chacun Pou Soi
3.40 Easysland
4.15 Us And Them
4.50 Kilcruit



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