Matt Brocklebank, Nic Doggett and John Ingles answer the key questions following the publication of the six-day entries for day one of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival.
What’s your take on Constitution Hill v Brighterdaysahead in the Unibet Champion Hurdle?
Matt Brocklebank: Probably time to hop off the fence and I’m struggling to see anything but another win for Constitution Hill. The Brighterdaysahead decision came as a very welcome surprise as she – and stablemate King Of Kingsfield – add so much more spice to the race and the mare will clearly have her backers after the freakishly good Christmas win at Leopardstown. But the gut and the head both say the Nicky Henderson horse will rule again and anything around 4/5 or bigger would make him a proper bet in my view.
Nic Doggett: There’s only a few pounds between them on weight-adjusted Timeform ratings, but I can’t really see Brighterdaysahead (and stablemate King Of Kingsfield) being able to repeat such devastating tactics as they have in Ireland; Constitution Hill is not State Man. A great decision for racing, especially if Lossiemouth sticks to the ‘two-year plan’ and joins in too, but I think a good round of jumping means a career-best win for Constitution Hill in a race for the ages that the Champion Hurdle sorely needs.
John Ingles: A fascinating clash given the two unknowns: is Constitution Hill every bit as good as he once was and is Brighterdaysahead really as good as she looked last time? If the answer to the first question is ‘no’ and the second one ‘yes’, it will be some race. A hurdler as outstanding as Constitution Hill deserves at least one more Champion Hurdle on his cv though, so I’ll be hoping he can see off his latest challenger, just like he’s done to all the others so far.
How big a role can the supplemented Joyeuse play in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle?
Matt Brocklebank: She’s another big player for Nicky but the jump from winning a handicap off a mark of 123 to Grade 1 level is about as big as it gets this time of year and if she wins again here, then I’ll probably lose. The horse I’d be drawn to is July Flower, the French recruit put away by new trainer Henry De Bromhead after winning a Grade 3 in late-December. That form looks smart in hindsight and there probably won’t be a better jumper of hurdles in the race – no matter who turns up on the day.
Nic Doggett: I’m a big Jade De Grugy fan so hopefully very little, but I think race tactics could play a big part regardless of who Joyeuse faces. She is usually ridden prominently – which meant she was suited by a slowly-run mares’ handicap at the track in December and she got first run on her rivals when off a feather-weight in the Betfair Hurdle – and I wouldn’t like her to get too much of a head-start on her main rivals on good ground if I was taking her on in the Mares’ Hurdle. I would, though.
John Ingles: Her Newbury win showed she’s clearly a good deal better than the BHA mark of 123 she won from there and there’s clearly more to come, but that still leaves her with loads more improvement to find to trouble the likes of Lossiemouth who sets a very high standard and would have had place claims in the Champion Hurdle.
Nine are left in the Arkle, do you think you will be for or against Majborough or will you be sitting it out?
Matt Brocklebank: I fully intend on sitting this one out. Having strong opinions on the Grade 1s is fine but it’s not for everyone and I can let this lad win at skinny odds, with the neat-jumping L’eau Du Sud an obvious danger in opposition. I see Gordon Elliott has left in Touch Me Not – second to Majborough and L’eau Du Sud on separate occasions earlier this season – but I’m very much hoping he runs on day two in the Grand Annual instead, by which point his form will surely have an even rosier look to it.
Nic Doggett: For. L’Eau Du Sud made harder work of beating Touch Me Not at Sandown than Majborough did at Leopardstown two months later and I’m expecting Majborough to break the supposed ‘five-year-old hoodoo’. Fair Along (2007), Kruguyrova (2008) and Fakir d’Oudairies (2020) were all good enough to finish second in the race at that age, and comparing them to Majborough is like comparing apples to oranges; Majborough can follow in the footsteps of similar types Well Chief and Voy Por Ustedes by winning.
John Ingles: Five-year-olds don’t get the weight allowance any more like they did when Voy Por Ustedes was the last of that age to win the Arkle in 2006, but Majborough has the form to win this anyway and always looked as if he’d make a better chaser. Anyone who backed him when Sir Gino was still in the reckoning finds themselves in a good position now, but he doesn’t really appeal at current odds.
Same question regarding another Willie Mullins-trained hotpot Kopek Des Bordes in the Michael O’Sullivan Supreme Novices’ Hurdle?
Matt Brocklebank: There are some fascinating novices in this year’s opener and Kopek Des Bordes is obviously the standout, but I’m intrigued by Workahead (small De Bromhead Cheltenham obsession here, you’ve rumbled me!). It’s a big ask to go from his maiden into the white-hot heat of a Supreme but his jumping was quite impressive en route to beating William Munny by seven lengths and who knows how much further improvement he could be sitting on.
Nic Doggett: I think there are more question marks, and I think he will drift on the day as his temperament/jumping are highlighted, but that also goes for Salvator Mundi to some degree. Romeo Coolio looks the more straightforward but his form doesn’t wow me and I’ll be backing Irancy each-way. It didn’t take much digging to see the merit in last season’s third behind Firefox and Ballyburn and I loved the way he jumped when winning at Punchestown in November. This week’s positive update from Willie Mullins (‘He’s Grade 1 material’) was welcome and we know that owner JP McManus loves to win this race.
John Ingles: All bar two of those left in the race have a Timeform ‘p’ – large or small – on their ratings, so he’s by no means the only one with scope to do better. Kopek des Bordes is clearly the form pick judged on what he did at the Dublin Racing Festival, but none of his rivals that day had achieved as much as last year’s Champion Bumper runner-up Romeo Coolio who is a bit more battle-hardened and potentially less of a push-over; he was, after all, a runaway Grade 1 winner himself at Leopardstown at Christmas.
Give us one handicapper on the radar from the five-day entries for Tuesday please?
Matt Brocklebank: Gavin Cromwell’s Robbies Rock is a bit of a wild price for the Fred Winter. A good-ground Flat winner and rated in the high-70s in that sphere, he actually beat older, established handicap hurdlers as a three-year-old at Cork before Christmas, and I think you can almost strike a line through his last run as he was a bit keen and the race didn’t pan out in his favour.
Nic Doggett: A BHA mark of 131 for Gericault Roque looks too tempting to pass up in the National Hunt Chase now it’s a handicap. His strike-rate (2/12) might be a little off-putting, but he’s been in the top three on nine other occasions including when chasing home Corach Rambler from a 7lb higher mark in the 2022 Ultima. Clearly, he’s not been easy to train since, but his eye-catching return when third at Wetherby (sent off at 20/1 after 26 months off the track) should have put him spot on. Any rain would suit, mind you.
John Ingles: It’s been a very long time since Tipping Tim, but maybe Nigel Twiston-Davies can win the Ultima again with another seven-year-old, Broadway Boy. You’d clearly have to forgive his last run here on New Year’s Day when his jumping fell apart but maybe he hadn’t recovered from his fine second in the Coral Gold Cup a month or so beforehand. Cheltenham has proven to suit his run style really well in the past and, freshened up for this, he could be hard to pass if getting into a good rhythm at the head of the likely big field.
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