By Richard Smith
Future Champions Day may grab most of the column inches on Friday as the elite juveniles head to Newmarket to compete in array of Group races, but National Hunt fans will be waiting with bated breath for the start of Cheltenham’s Showcase meeting, as the Gloucestershire venue opens its gates for the first time this season.
Racegoers may spot a number of changes at Prestbury Park with the racecourse undergoing a number of renovations, but one thing is for sure, the action on the track will still be as superb as ever and that cacophonous roar that will echo around Cleeve Hill as the runners are released for the first race will still send shivers down your spine.
The Showcase meeting may not ooze the quality of a festival card or that of the Open or International meetings, but over the two days there’s sure to be some eye-catching performances and scouring through the entries there will be some horses utilising this fixture as a springboard to bigger and better things later on in the season.
Friday’s opening race will see last year’s Rewards4Racing Novices’ Chase winner Present View try his luck over hurdles as he aims to use the outing as a warm-up for the Paddy Power Gold Cup next month, whilst Court Minstrel, Un Ace and Thomas Crapper are a classy triumvirate declared for the squareintheair.com Novices’ Chase.
John Ferguson’s Commissioned was a fine fourth in the Grade One 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle at Aintree‘s Grand National meeting and he will be a red-hot favourite to land his maiden hurdle on Friday, whilst there will be some competitive handicaps for punters to decipher in what will be a cracking curtain-raiser of Cheltenham’s new season.
Saturday has a mixed bag for punters to enjoy and the feature event is the Showcase Trophy Handicap Chase, which was won 12 months ago by subsequent Cross Country winner Balthazar King, and this year’s renewal is sure to be a competitive event with a number of the runners returning to Cheltenham throughout the season to compete in similar races.
It may be the toughest betting heat on the card but the Showcase Trophy may not have a winner that can rise to the top of their division, however, one race could well produce a star performer who is fighting it out for a Championship race come March at the festival.
Gordon Elliott’s Tiger Roll was a fine winner of the JCB Triumph Hurdle seven months ago and that top notch Irish raider is set to line up in the Masterson Holdings Hurdle at 3:10pm, where he could clash with Triumph fourth Calipto from Paul Nicholls stable and both those emerging stars have the potential to be top class performers this season.
That aforementioned hurdle may possess a star of the future, but Saturday’s card, like Friday’s, is sure to provide an abundance of thrilling finishes up the energy-sapping hill, with jumping aficionados just overjoyed to see the return of what is destined to be another sensational National Hunt season.
