Willie Mullins again holds the key to the bumper

Cheltenham Festival: Champion Bumper analysis and best bet

By Kris Hilliam

Horse Racing

Wed March 12, 2025 · 1w ago

Timeform's Kris Hilliam helps unravel the Champions Bumper, where Bambino Fever is of particular interest for Willie Mullins.

Bambino the best bet

Click here for Champion Bumper (5.20 Wednesday) racecard & form

With Windbeneathmywings out of the race, it looks set to be another Champion Bumper dominated by the Irish with Willie Mullins, unsurprisingly, seeming to hold all the aces. He is responsible for four of the top six on Timeform adjusted ratings with the mare BAMBINO FEVER topping the list.

Mares don’t have an altogether strong record in the race in recent years with only two (Queen’s Brook for Gordon Elliott and Elle Est Belle for Dan Skelton) finishing placed since Relegate won the race in 2018.

However, positives can be found so far as Bambino Fever’s chances are concerned in that she won the Leopardstown race Relegate landed prior to victory at Cheltenham and, like that one was, is trained by the master of this race (amongst many others) in Mullins.

With her mares' allowance, the top-rated runner will need to find around 6 lb of improvement to win an average renewal and her performance at Leopardstown suggested there’s every chance of her finding at least that level of progression with the stiffer finish on similar ground sure to suit her well.

In a race in which many of her main rivals have thus far shown only style rather than any great substance of form, she holds strong claims of reversing the recent record of mares in the race, especially with her Leopardstown form given a timely boost over the weekend by Switch From Diesel.

The only other runner who can rival the mare for substance of form is the Gordon Elliott-trained Kalypso’chance, who is unbeaten in three starts (including a British point-to-point success), the third of them coming in a Listed race just before Christmas. He’s seemingly been saved for this since, is the highest-rated gelding in the race, and looks by far the most likely winner outside of the Mullins party.

Beyond that pair, the other trio who make most appeal are all horses who have raced (and won) only once in bumpers. Gameofinches was, in my opinion, the most impressive of the trio to the eye and boasts good-looking form in Irish points – an easy winner on his second start having fallen when holding every chance in a strong-looking event on debut (three of the first four have already reached at least a fairly useful level of form under Rules, the useful chaser Jeannot Lapin amongst them).

Copacabana quickened clear in the style of a smart prospect at Navan but it was his physique that impressed the most and it could be that his best is to come once jumping over the next couple of seasons while Aqua Force routed a field of mares at Gowran and has subsequently been purchased by JP McManus and moved to Mullins. Like Bambino Fever she also gets a mares' allowance of 7 lb in the race.

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