Cheltenham Festival

Cheltenham Festival Lucky 15 Tips For Day 3

6 months ago

| BY Steve Mullington

Lucky Lyreen (Pertemps Final)

LUCKY LYREEN is a really interesting starter in this Pertemps Final.

Gordon Elliott appears to have brought the seven-year-old slowly to the boil to be spot on for the Festival, and his sixth of 25 behind Grand National-bound Perceval Legallois over three miles at the Dublin Racing Festival is a really good piece of form.

He won’t be short on stamina and off 11st 0lb, he’s a very solid looking 16/1 shot for the each-way value seekers out there.

Home By The Lee (Stayers Hurdle)

HOME BY THE LEE has tried and failed to win the Stayers’ Hurdle three times now, but he has run admirably on each occasion and looks an altogether more rounded and mature horse this season.

He began his current campaign with a three-and-a-half length defeat of Bob Olinger at Navan before doing the same thing again in the Grade 2 Savills Hurdle over the Christmas period. That run has to rank as his best yet and he comes into his Stayers’ attempt number four, at the very top of his game.

There isn’t much rain forecast around the Gloucestershire area this week, which will be music to the ears of trainer Joseph O’Brien. With the favourite Teahupoo ideally needing it slower to be seen at his best, this is the opening they have been praying for.

Ginny’s Destiny (Plate Handicap Chase)

One horse who really enjoys his trips to Cheltenham is the Paul Nicholls-trained GINNY’S DESTINY, who contests the 2m4½f TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase.

The course and distance scorer ran one of the races of his career last March in the Turners Novices’ Chase, just succumbing in the end to Grey Dawning in the dying strides of an exhilarating contest. He then rounded off his campaign by picking up another silver medal at Aintree.

If the nine-year-old can bounce back from a poor showing at Cheltenham in January, he holds a solid each-way chance.

Git Maker (Kim Muir)

Jamie Snowden is having a particularly good season and his GIT MAKER can reap the rewards in the major amateur handicap of the week – the 3m2f Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Chase.

Git Maker was flagged up by our William Hill news team as a horse to follow at the start of the season, and after some encouragement in his latest run in the Grand National Trial at Haydock, there’s no reason to desert him now.

The nine-year-old was desperately unlucky in last year’s Kim Muir behind Inothewayurthinkin. He surged ahead alongside the winner and led with just three fences to go but ultimately couldn’t match the JP McManus runner, settling for second place. He then confirmed his great jumping ability and stamina in the subsequent Scottish Grand National, finishing third.

With his talent in long-distance chases, he’s an obvious each-way play.