The last Qualifier for the Cheltenham Festival's Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle was run at Naas on Sunday – so who has caught the eye this season?
One of the Festival's big betting races, the final field for the ‘Pertemps’ is these days made up of 24 horses (max, plus two reserves) who have finished in the first four in at least one of the series Qualifiers earlier in the campaign.
With Warwick's traditionally strong January Qualifier abandoned on account of the freezing weather, we've now had a total of 16 races in the series, although not every horse who hit the frame has met all the qualification criteria, given that novices now need to have run a minimum of five times to compete in open-age handicaps at Cheltenham in March.
That also includes a few of the 50 currently entered up for the Final at the time of writing, while we don't yet know the precise BHA handicap ratings - particularly when it comes to the Irish runners - which are published in full this week.
New for this year, all qualification race winners are protected from elimination at the 48-hour declaration stage, providing the horse is set to carry 10st 2lb or above. Interestingly, not since Presenting Percy in 2017 has the winner of the Final struck gold more than once in the same season en route to the Festival, while you're going back another three years and to Fingal Bay (2014) for the last winner of a Qualifier to get the job done in the Final itself.
He and Ballyfitz (2008) are remarkably the only winners this century to score after picking up a Pertemps Qualifier in the same season, while last year's 25/1 winner Monmiral - fourth in the final British Qualifier at Chepstow just 18 days before the Festival - was breaking a losing run of almost three years.
It almost goes without saying then, but it could pay to look beyond the obvious once again and here are three intriguing contenders who are currently being overlooked in the betting.
ZAIN NIGHTS (Lucy Wadham) - 40/1 at Sky Bet (NRNB)
Click here to back Zain Nights for the Pertemps Final with Sky Bet
Cast your mind back to Cheltenham's Showcase meeting towards the end of October and the Qualifier won by Gordon Elliott's The Wallpark. It looked a warm enough race at the time... subsequent evidence shows it to have been a piping-hot race.
The Wallpark had five subsequent winners behind him that day, including Cleeve hero Gowel Road, and Elliott is apparently still weighing up whether or not to join that one in the Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle with The Wallpark.
There was Grade 2 West Yorkshire Hurdle winner Beacon Edge back in fifth, plus Gavin Cromwell's Leopardstown winner Al Gasparo down the Cheltenham field in 11th.
The third horse was ZAIN NIGHTS, sent off the 5/1 co-favourite alongside Al Gasparo and The Wallpark having ended last term with three straight handicap wins. He's yet to add to his tally this time around but we know that's no bad thing when it comes to the Pertemps and, after a couple of lesser runs in November and December, he was back on song again with an eyecatching effort in another Qualifier at Huntingdon on January 23.
His mark of 128 still looks workable and it could be a close run thing whether or not he makes the cut, the last 10 lowest-rated horses to get into the Final having carried marks of 129, 121, 126, 131, 134, 135, 137, 135, 135 and 135. Ground on the good side would seem beneficial for this formerly smart Flat horse and he should run well if it's not too testing.
JIPCOT (Jonjo & AJ O'Neill) - 33/1 at Sky Bet (NRNB)
Click here to back Jipcot for the Pertemps Final with Sky Bet
JIPCOT has won a race already this season but we can't hold that against him as he really needed to be defying a mark of 121 at Newbury in December in order to enter the conversation for a race like the Pertemps.
Since then he's run two eyecatching races in defeat, sticking on from off the pace to finish third around Windsor, a track that didn't appear to play to his strengths, before qualifying in fourth behind One Big Bang and Doddiethegreat at Haydock earlier this month.
Jipcot's only previous Cheltenham outing saw him finish down the field behind Lossiemouth in the Triumph Hurdle while in the care of Ben Pauling a couple of years ago, but this season looks to have been geared around the Festival ever since not looking quick enough for two miles on his seasonal debut in the Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las.
It's been a while for team O'Neill (Holywell their last winner in 2013), but no trainer can match Jonjo's four Pertemps Final victories as a trainer and although this horse also has entries in the Coral Cup, County and Martin Pipe, he's so unexposed as a stayer that it's the three-mile contest in which he's possibly able to do most damage.
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LUCKY LYREEN (Gordon Elliott) - 16/1 at Sky Bet (NRNB)
Click here to back Lucky Lyreen for the Pertemps Final with Sky Bet
He who laughs last and all that...
Sunday saw the final Qualifier take place in very testing conditions at Naas and Gavin Cromwell's gambled-on Will The Wise showed guts to overhaul Maxi Mac Gold in the closing stages and land the money, the pair of them fighting out a hell of a finish and pulling four and a half lengths clear of two horses trained by Gordon Elliott.
Elliott is closing in on O'Neill's record, having won the Festival handicap three times with Delta Work and Sire Du Berlais (x2), and it all now comes down to The Wallpark (who as already mentioned could run in the Stayers' instead) and these two from Naas, with his two other entries not qualified (Staffordshire Knot just missed out when fifth at Leopardstown over Christmas).
Staffordshire Knot is owned by Gigginstown House Stud and it would be no surprise to see Naas fourth Patter Merchant given another chance to prove his stamina, but I much prefer the case for LUCKY LYREEN, who was keeping on nicely when sixth of 25 behind Grand National-bound Perceval Legallois over three miles at the Dublin Racing Festival.
He'd won his maiden over the trip on soft/heavy going at Punchestown last February so stamina looks his absolute forte and, already rated 132 in Ireland, Sunday's effort under 7lb conditional Finn Brickley was presumably just the ticket ahead of the Cheltenham weights being finalised on Tuesday.
Pertemps Qualifiers & video replays
Cheltenham (October 26)
1. The Wallpark
2. Gowel Road
3. Zain Nights
4. Hardy Boy
Newbury (November 7)
1. American Sniper
2. Emitom
3. Monmiral
4. Henry’s Friend
Aintree (November 9)
1. Harbour Lake
2. Guard The Moon
3. Magical King
4. Willaston
Kempton (November 11)
1. Pyramid Place
2. Stoner’s Choice
3. Jackpot d’Athou
4. Dargiannini
Punchestown (November 24)
1. Franciscan Rock
2. Karl Des Tourelles
3. Desertmore House
4. Slanagaibhgoleir
Market Rasen (November 27)
1. Supreme Gift
2. Harbour Lake
3. What A Johnny
4. Willaston
Sandown (December 7)
1. Henri The Second
2. Up For Parol
3. Super Survivor
4. West To The Bridge
Carlisle (December 15)
1. Shallow River
2. D Art D Art
3. Gweenie May Boy
4. Gold In The Rivers
Wincanton (December 26)
1. Thomas Mor
2. Dartmoor Pirate
3. Lord Accord
4. Long Draw
Leopardstown (December 28)
1. Win Some Lose Some
2. Whatsavailable
3. Feet Of A Dancer
4. Koori Star
Warwick (January 11)
Meeting abandoned
Huntingdon (January 23)
1. Super Survivor
2. Shanagh Bob
3. Malaita
4. Zain Nights
Musselburgh (February 2)
1. Pyffo
2. Bugise Seagull
3. Red Risk
4. Idem
Exeter (February 9)
1. Catch Him Derry
2. Hititi
3. Jeriko Du Reponet
4. Lossiemouth
Haydock (February 15)
1. One Big Bang
2. Doddiethegreat
3. Chasingouttheblues
4. Jipcot
Chepstow (February 22)
1. J’Ai Froid
2. Rickety Bridge
3. Firestream
4. Classic Concorde
Naas (February 23)
1. Will The Wise
2. Maxi Mac Gold
3. Lucky Lyreen
4. Patter Merchant
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