Lucinda Russell’s William Hill blog: Cheltenham Festival Day 3 and 4 preview

William Hill ambassador Lucinda Russell previews her runners on days three and four of the Cheltenham Festival, with Derryhassen Paddy and Ahoy Senor running on Gold Cup Day.

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It was obviously amazing to have Myretown win the Ultima on the first day of the Festival. We weren’t even sure about running him until the day of declarations and so it was just sensational to see him go and win. He was awesome from the front and we were just delighted to see him win such a big race as he’s a horse we’ve always thought the world of. We’ll be expecting a big hike in the weights now, but we’ve had a fantastic day in the sun with him already.

Thursday, Cheltenham

We only have the one runner on the third day of the Festival in the shape of Idem in the Pertemps (2.40pm). He is a big price but he’s a nice, relatively lightly-raced horse who’s not fulfilled his potential yet. He ran in a qualifier for this race in October behind The Wallpark and he’s obviously now a leading contender for the Stayers’ Hurdle himself. He got qualified for the Final on his last start and we think he might be able to outrun his odds in what seems to be an open enough renewal.

Friday, Cheltenham

It’s fantastic to be part of Gold Cup Day with two runners, starting with Derryhassen Paddy in the Albert Bartlett (3.20pm). We’ve never hidden how much we like this horse and we’re excited to let him take his chance in Grade One company. He’s unbeaten on three starts for us and we have certainly not got to the bottom of him yet. We had intended to run him at Haydock but the ground went the wrong way for us – instead we’ve readied him for this with some strong racecourse gallops. There’s an open look to this year’s renewal, and having won it with Brindisi Breeze, we’d like to think we know what it would take. Whatever happens, he is a huge horse for the future, but hopefully Friday can be his day too.

Many people will look at Ahoy Senor’s form and think he has no business running in the Gold Cup (4pm). However, we still believe in this horse and are really looking forward to sending him here. On the balance of his form, he hasn’t showed his best at Cheltenham before, but we think it’s worth giving him another go as he is still a very good horse. He obviously comes into the race off being pulled up twice, but we think that we have him in a good place after some pleasing racecourse gallops. Every runner will have to go some to defeat Galopin Des Champs, but we are hoping our guy can outrun his odds and hit the frame.