Gaelic Warrior put up the best performance by a novice chaser this season when storming to an eight-and-a-half-length success in the Arkle on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, earning a provisional Timeform rating of 167+.
Gaelic Warrior has now reached Timeform's threshold for a top-class chaser - 165 - and is considered a good winner of the Arkle, without reaching the exceptional level posted by El Fabiolo (175p) last season.
Fact To File went into the Cheltenham Festival as Timeform's highest-rated novice chaser in Britain or Ireland on 160p and he will get the chance to enhance his own rating in the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase on Wednesday.
Timeform chase handicapper Phil Turner said: "Gaelic Warrior rounded off last season with a wide-margin win in the Grade 1 three-mile novice hurdle at the Punchestown Festival, so the fact he could repeat the feat over fully a mile shorter here in the Arkle is a clear illustration that we’re dealing with a horse out of the ordinary.
“It’s arguably too soon to be suggesting that the hood has completely eradicated any right-handed tendencies, but his jumping certainly proved a major asset as he kept far straighter than last time and it was a sparkling performance.
“Gaelic Warrior's flop at last month’s Dublin Racing Festival remains just about his only misstep since joining current connections and, of course, there is a possibility that he simply bumped into an even better horse that day – which is a sobering thought for those taking on Fact To File in Wednesday's Brown Advisory!”
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