Irish Eyes Cheltenham Festival preview and tips

Recommended bets:

Tuesday: 4pts win Limini, OLBG Mares’ Hurdle at  5/4 (General) 

Wednesday: 1pt win Tombstone, Coral Cup at  5/1 (General)

Thursday: 2pts win Yorkhill, JLT Novices’ Chase at  6/4 (General)

The obvious starting point for the Irish at Cheltenham is Willie Mullins. 

Having trained a massive 24 winners over the past four years, the odds suggest he’ll have another six this year but with Annie Power, Faugheen and Min on the sidelines there is the chance his tally might not be quite so high as it has been - despite having the long odds-on shot Douvan in his team once more.  

However, Mullins remains the man to follow, despite these reverses, and one of his best chances of the week, outside of the obvious Douvan, runs on the very first day.  

She was not originally going to get the nod in this column, as it was assumed that she would be 4/7, however you can forget all the specials that bookmakers will tempt you with next week as there is one that stands out a mile. 

That is the current offer of 5/4 about Limini’s chance in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle. 

Make no mistake, this is a good race, but Limini possesses a turn of foot that the others simply do not have, which is hardly surprising given she is bred to be a top Flat horse.

A daughter of Arc winner Peintre Celebre, she hails from the immediate family of Vintage Tipple, whom Willie’s late father trained to win the Irish Oaks. 

Limini was an impressive winner of the novices' equivalent last year but there is far more to her than that. As a Flat horse, she finished fifth in a Listed race on only her third start, and the third horse home upheld that form when subsequently winning three Listed events.

Limini went on to win her next three consecutive races in the space of just five weeks. Then, transferred from Nicolas Clement to Willie Mullins, she proceeded to win her first three races over hurdles too, most notably in the Dawn Run last year.

Granted, she blotted her copybook when finishing third at Aintree and second at Punchestown when her jumping let her down, but she seems a different animal this season after a stunning return to action when she beat race-fit Apple's Jade last month.

There were three races run at two and a half miles at Punchestown that day and Limini, naturally, recorded the fastest time. In fact she was a full 15 seconds faster than the handicap hurdle winner, despite carrying 10lbs more than him.

Granted that is to be expected given we are talking about a Cheltenham Festival winner but it nevertheless gives credence to the opinion that Apple's Jade ran to form and was simply beaten by a much superior mare.

When you consider that Ruby Walsh hardly touched Limini and that she was not fully wound up, it makes the performance all the more creditable and on that evidence, her jumping appears to have improved no end.  

The strong pace the race will be run at, her own tactical speed, her ability to go on any ground, her much-improved jumping technique and of course the fact she has already beaten her main challenger all point to Limini rating one of the bets of the week.

The 5/1 about Tombstone for the Coral Cup is unlikely to last and the chances are he will be sent off at closer to half that price come Wednesday.

Fourth in a vintage renewal of the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle last year, behind none other than Altior, Min and Buveur D’Air, he easily accounted for Jezki last time out despite being officially 20lbs wrong at the weights.  

For some unknown reason he was only raised 1lb for that win and Phil Smith has provided Micheal O’Leary with some compensation for his Grand National decisions by allowing Tombstone to compete off a mere 1lb higher this his Irish mark here on 149, so he must have bundles in hand, at least 7lbs.

A horse probably needs that in a race like this and Gordon Elliot is proving almost as adept as Willie Mullins at targeting races at Cheltenham. Tombstone looks as good a bet as you’ll find in any handicap at the Festival.

The third best Irish banker of the week - behind Douvan and Limini - has to be the enigmatic Yorkhill, who will take all the beating in the JLT.  

Much has been made about his jumping being a little erratic during the early stages of his schooling at Leopardstown last Sunday but it should be remembered that it was just that, a schooling session, for a horse that only had two previous chase starts.

Mullins obviously felt that he needed more experience and it just so happened the schooling session was televised and consequently witnessed by far people than normally would be the case. By contrast there were no cameras present for his session a week prior to Cheltenham, where he appeared to have learned plenty.

Yorkhill remains a keen-going sort, but if Walsh can get him settled early and over the first, he can get into a nice rhythm and it should be plain sailing after that. 

Granted, that may be a big ‘if’ but this is Walsh we are talking about, the most successful jockey at the Cheltenham Festival with 52 wins to his name, so the horse and our investment couldn't be in safer hands.

Yorkhill won the Neptune last year with a massive leap at the last to beat none other than this year’s Stan James Champion Hurdle favourite, Yanworth.

He is so talented that he could easily have won this year’s Champion himself, or indeed given Altior a serious test in the Arkle, but the JLT over further looks the perfect choice at this stage in his career.  

Posted 0820 GMT on 12/03/2017