Cheltenham Festival update: Spotlight on L’Homme Presse following Lingfield win

What’s the latest development?

L’Homme Presse overcame some distinct rustiness to make a successful return to action in the Fleur De Lys Chase at Lingfield, thrusting his name into the melting pot for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, a race he was forced to miss having picked up an injury after unseating Charlie Deutsch in the King George last year.

Trainer Venetia Williams - along with emotionally-charged owner Andy Williams - had shown extreme patience to pick and choose a suitable target for the nine-year-old’s comeback, stressing all along that it was only a minor issue that had kept the horse away from the spotlight, and he was well suited to both the conditions of Sunday's race - getting 4lb from chief form/market rival Protektorat - and the soft ground on a left-handed track.

Having jumped markedly out to the left at points at Kempton last Christmas, getting back on an anti-clockwise circuit appeared paramount, although Deutsch's heart must have been in his mouth for a second when L’Homme Presse had a long look at the first obstacle, put in a short stride (to the left) and more than just brushed through the top of it.

It hadn’t been a great day for the jockey up to this point, Djelo having been wiped out at that first fence in the Lightning and Frero Banbou forced to pull-up after a shuddering mistake in the two-mile handicap. Thankfully, L’Homme Presse quickly got the landing-gear out and promptly cleared the second fence with daylight to spare.

He went to his left at the third and - to a lesser extent - the fourth fence too, but the favourite’s jumping improved considerably after Harry Skelton on Protektorat injected more pace into the race out in front, which clearly bodes well when it comes to the Gold Cup as there’s rarely any hiding place there.

What do the markets say?

20/1 generally for the Gold Cup at the start of the week, plenty of bookmakers had already started to take evasive action with L’Homme Presse before the Lingfield race but as the dust settled on Sunday he was still a double-figure price for Cheltenham with the majority of layers.

BetMGM and 888Sport are shortest at 8/1, with 12/1 on offer with Coral and Ladbrokes, while at the head of the Gold Cup market the impressive Savills Chase winner and reigning champ Galopin Des Champs is even-money with Sky Bet (NRNB), Paddy Power and Betfair.

Protektorat was nibbled in the Gold Cup betting with a few firms following his respectable run in defeat, though he can still be backed at 66/1 for the big one and 33/1 for the Ryanair Chase. He is also 50s for the Grand National at Aintree.

What’s the current conclusion?

As far as prep runs go, L’Homme Presse’s Sunday outing could hardly have gone much better, the horse getting the job done fairly stylishly in the end, without having to dig so deep as to think he could recoil physically after the first run for 391 days. There were a few suggestions in the immediate aftermath that the Ascot Chase could come under consideration before Cheltenham, but I see no reason to take that (right-handed) route and he'll surely end up going for Gold from here.

Making any sort of case against Galopin Des Champs is difficult on the back of that one's emphatic Leopardstown win over Christmas, but it’s also hard to imagine he can do much more in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup – still his intended next race by all accounts – to enhance his claims further, and it wouldn’t be the biggest shock in the world were he to put in a relatively flat effort there, even in victory.

Fastorslow (100/30 in places) doesn’t look likely to get much shorter between now and the Cheltenham Festival either as he also has the DRF on his agenda, while Shishkin needs to pass a Denman Chase trial at Newbury and will always have the ‘will he even jump off?!’ question hanging over him on his return to Prestbury Park.

Gerri Colombe is the other horse shorter in the betting (with certain firms) and perhaps a horse like 2022 Turners winner L’Homme Presse might just have too many gears for him, unless the ground is extremely testing which would possibly swing the balance slightly.

L’Homme Presse is versatile ground-wise and basically has an awful lot going for him including the very light pre-Festival campaign which isn’t to everyone’s liking when planned in advance but hasn’t done the likes of Al Boum Photo and A Plus Tard too badly in recent seasons.

He won’t be making up the numbers come Cheltenham Friday, that much is clear, and to me the revised 10/1 – or 9/1 NRNB with Sky Bet - looks perfectly reasonable, if a little too big as things stand.

High on the shortlist for top novice hurdle honours

How good could High Class Hero become if he brushes up his jumping?

Like so many Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle contenders, Willie Mullins' charge was undoubtedly bought out of the point-to-point scene with fences in mind but, having won a bumper and now brought up his fourth straight success over hurdles, he’s obviously pretty useful in the here and now too.

Bookmakers weren’t blown away by his latest odds-on win in the four-runner W.T. O’Grady Memorial Irish EBF Novice Hurdle at Thurles, clipping him to 7/1 from 10s for the three-miler at Cheltenham, but Monkfish was still available at 12/1 for the Albert Bartlett after winning the very same race en route, and High Class Hero is already well on his way to justifying the name anyway.

Mullins was keen to stress he should sharpen up for the run, after being afforded a break having been on the go through June, July and August last summer, so further improvement on the bare form looks highly likely and I do like just how experienced this seven-year-old is ahead of his next assignment, which can be quite a gruelling experience for anything light on match-practice.

Skipping the Dublin Racing Festival definitely looks a wise move as he’d have faced some very classy and relatively speedy rivals over two and three-quarter miles in that Grade 1, and he avoids having a hard race too. There won’t be many going into this year's Albert Bartlett with such a solid profile as the son of Sulamani (sire of Honeysuckle and Grand National winner Rule The World among others) and he rates decent value at this stage as well.

Grand plan coming together?

War Lord was fourth to Edwardstone in the 2022 Arkle Trophy at 40/1 and Eldorado Allen filled the runner-up spot behind Shishkin at 33/1 the year before, so we know the Tizzards don’t mind rolling the dice in that particular Festival race, but would JPR One be better served by a crack at the Grand Annual?

Everyone wants the leading horses going for the major races, in a perfect world, but minor Arkle honours look the best likely outcome for the Lightning Novices’ Chase winner if Marine Nationale turns up in the same mood as he was when running away with the Sky Bet Supreme on day one of the Festival last spring.

The race does appear quite open in behind that one, though, so it was no surprise to hear Joe Tizzard suggesting they’ll probably have a go, but I can’t imagine he’ll be hit too hard by the assessor for beating Matata by half a length at Lingfield as they were both getting weight from the other pair in behind.

A revised mark just shy of 150 might tempt connections into a rethink but you certainly can’t fault them for dreaming big with this horse, who does jump really well when on song.

Dan Skelton won’t need his arm twisting to have a look at the Grand Annual with the well-held third Pembroke if he’s high enough to make the cut, while the same applies to the Jane Williams-trained Saint Segal, runner-up to First Flow in the next race on the card and entitled to have confidence restored again heading into the spring after his crashing fall when seemingly booked for victory at Ascot in November.

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