Barry Geraghty’s William Hill blog: Kopek Des Bordes looks the real deal

William Hill ambassador Barry Geraghty picks the horses he is most looking forward to this season, taking a long-range ante-post look at the Cheltenham Festival.

Your season is judged by your success at Cheltenham, and these would be my five to look out for at next year’s Festival.

FACT TO FILE

He was set to run in the Ryanair last season, only to be pulled out when the ground was deemed too fast for him. I’ve a feeling that connections might consider taking a chance in the Gold Cup this season, now with age on his side. He probably doesn’t race as enthusiastically as he did in the past.

He’s got strong form lines with Gaelic Warrior, who sets the standard in this division. He beat his stablemate at the Dublin Racing Festival and there was only a neck between them in the John Durkan earlier last season. Fact To File is a high-class horse and 16/1 about him for the Gold Cup could prove to be a big price.

KOPEK DES BORDES

He was a horse that we didn’t get to see much of last year. He returned with a very impressive round of jumping when winning at Navan and then we didn’t see him again until four months later in the Arkle. He led on the run to the last at Cheltenham, and I think if Paul [Townend] was given another chance and rode him a little bit more patiently, he’d have won. He fell two out at Punchestown, but he just looked like a horse that wasn’t at his best on the day there.

He’s a horse that I was mad about last season, and I think that, come March, if he’s lining up with Il Etait Temps, Paul will have a difficult decision to make. Or maybe he won’t, because I think this lad is the real deal. He’s 4/1 for the Champion Chase.

NARCISO HAS

The Champion Hurdle division looks wide open. We probably won’t see Narciso Has until the new year. Willie [Mullins] generally doesn’t run his smart juveniles until they have turned five, as he has done with Lossiemouth and Kargese in recent years. Narciso Has obviously had an issue last season and missed Cheltenham, but I think he could be a horse that steps up into the Champion Hurdle division this time around.

Last season’s Supreme time was three seconds faster than the Champion Hurdle, which I think reflects the openness of the division. Narciso Has was an exciting juvenile and he could be a real Champion Hurdle contender at 16/1.

SOBER GLORY

He was a very unlucky horse in the Supreme, I felt. He showed really good pace there and possibly would have benefited from a more patient ride. A bad mistake at the last hurdle proved costly too. Enough went wrong for him on the day in the Supreme and I felt he was an unlucky loser. That was a hard race, so you can forget the fact he disappointed at Aintree on his next start.

I believe he’s going chasing, and he’ll obviously be taking on Supreme winner Old Park Star in the two-mile novice division, but I just think he’s a horse with more to offer. He’s currently 7/1 for the Arkle, which looks fair considering Old Park Star is less than half that price.

CHARISMATIC KID

He was really impressive in two bumpers last season, winning well at Navan and then following up in good style in Fairyhouse at Easter. Both of those looked like really smart performances and he could make up into a nice middle-distance novice hurdler.

He’s 25/1 for the Turners at the Festival, while he’s also currently 25/1 for the Supreme and 33/1 for the Albert Bartlett.