Thoughts from the 2024 Cheltenham Festival paddock including horses to follow

By David Cleary

10:29 · THU March 21, 2024

Timeform's David Cleary passes on his paddock expertise by picking out the brightest future prospects from the 2024 Cheltenham Festival judging by their looks.

These pieces don't write themselves, you know. It may not read like it, but thought and preparation goes into the final version.

For this one, on the hurdle races (and bumper) at the Cheltenham Festival, I have notes on 25 horses that I might mention, all of them with something positive to be said about their physique and potential. Not all of them ran well and not all of them will have made the cut by the time I reach the end. However, it's perhaps a reflection of the state of jumping that 12 of the 25 are trained by Willie Mullins.

In the four championship novice hurdles and the Champion Bumper, my view of the best type in the race was sent out by Mullins in four of the five cases. Given the stable's weight of numbers in those events – there were a minimum of five and as many as eight from the yard in each of those – that perhaps isn't surprising.

Success for British stables in some of these races is becoming a distant memory. The home team is without a win in the Baring Bingham (run this year as the Gallagher) since 2017; the most recent GB victory in the Champion Bumper came the year before.

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Predictability is the death knell for any sport, save Formula 1, the popularity of which has eluded me for a lifetime. How racing tackles the situation, the overwhelming dominance of one trainer (which is not Mullins' problem), is crucial to the future well-being of jump racing in both Britain and Ireland.

The Gallagher was the nadir, so far as this dominance went. Just seven went to post, five of them trained by Mullins, the other pair 20/1 shots from British yards that had won a handicap and a listed novice respectively on their most recent start. Mullins' quintet took the first five places.

Ballyburn, who had beaten the previous day's Supreme winner Slade Steel impressively in the Brave Inca on his latest start, had little difficulty following up in similar fashion. In terms of making the grade at the very highest level, there's no doubt Ballyburn was the number one prospect over the week.

Ballyburn took a strong hold, carrying his head alarmingly low, which along with his physique suggest a horse that will be even better over fences. His pedigree offers encouragement in that regard too. He's bred to stay three miles, but he has the speed to be effective at two, as he showed in the Brave Inca. Little wonder that the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup have been mentioned as long-term goals. Fences next season would be my hope.

Mullins' Gallagher team included two runners-up at Grade 1 level, but the second spot was filled by the Clonmel maiden winner Jimmy du Seuil. He had no chance with Ballyburn, but this athletic sort found plenty of improvement for the step up in trip, despite having been sweating and on his toes beforehand.

About the pick of the field on looks was the eventual third Ile Atlantique. He's a well-made sort, very much a chaser on looks – it would be no surprise to see him back next March as a leading contender for the Brown Advisory. Mullins also ran another well-made type in Predators Gold. He was let down by his jumping, making at least four mistakes of note. He's best judged on previous efforts, which point towards his making a useful novice chaser next winter.

Slade Steel's success in the Sky Bet Supreme denied Mullins the perfect start to the meeting. His Mystical Power had jumped to the front at the last but was run out of it by the rallying winner in the last 100 yards. Slade Steel, who sweated up at the start, still needs to fill out, while Mystical Power is an athletic sort, though both may be more hurdlers than chasers in the longer term.

The Supreme was a messy race and it may be that the best prospect in the field finished third. Firefox, yet another taking son of Walk In The Park, was better than the result, short of room early in the straight and not ideally served by the way things unfolded. Firefox has chaser written all over him.

Of the other Mullins runners, I liked Asian Master the most on physique. He looked in fine shape too and shaped well, impressing with the way he went through the race, his rider's inexperience at this level perhaps a factor in how his chance unfolded after two out.

The favourite Tullyhill was among the more disappointing runners for the yard during the week, though not as disappointing as Nicky Henderson's Jeriko du Reponet. That one's performance was a harbinger for what must have been a wretched week for the trainer and his team. Although there was the odd half-decent performance, too many of the stable's runners were beaten coming down the hill and pulled up in the straight. Some, such as Jonbon, were scratched as a result of what happened on the first day. Constitution Hill was already an absentee.

Sir Gino, who would have gone off a warm favourite for the Triumph Hurdle, was another regrettable Henderson non-runner. I'd liked him a lot when I'd seen him in the Finesse on Trials day and it would have been good to see him alongside Majborough, who was a standout on the day, head and shoulders a better type than his Triumph rivals.

Majborough, having just the third start of his career, came on plenty for his stable debut in the Spring at Leopardstown last month. Such was the level that he ran to on Friday that Sir Gino would have been pushed to get the better of him. Majborough, a fourth Mullins-trained winner of the Triumph in the last five years, looks to have a bright future, with fences sooner rather than later surely on the cards.

Of the other runners, I'd pick out Salvator Mundi. He had been off nearly 11 months since his debut (when runner-up to Sir Gino) and shaped encouragingly until his effort petered out late on. He was on his toes beforehand and was wearing a hood, suggesting a possibly excitable sort who might need to settle down to fulfil his potential.

The field for the Albert Bartlett was just as we've come to expect, with plenty of obvious chasing types in the line-up. The outcome was pretty typical as well, with a winner at a double-figure price – the favourite last won the race in 2013 – and stamina tested in a way that few other novice hurdles manage, the two points related, obviously.

The winner Stellar Story had to draw down deep on his stamina to overhaul the front-running The Jukebox Man in the final strides. Both have a physique for fences, though the year-younger runner-up might prove the better prospect.

This was a race with more than its share of below-par efforts from leading contenders, the Challow winner Captain Teague, who possibly didn't stay, Gidleigh Park, the paddock pick, who was too free for his own good, and the Mullins-trained favourite Readin Tommy Wrong among them. All three came into the race with really positive profiles and it may well be best to forgive them this reverse.

It was fitting that Willie Mullins sent out his hundredth Festival winner in the Champion Bumper, given how he has dominated the race over the years. Jasmin de Vaux didn't really catch the eye beforehand and his performance was that of no more than an average winner, but he's still likely to make an impact as a novice hurdler next season.

Cantico was about the pick of the field on looks, but he ran as if amiss. I'd be happy to give him another chance. Sixmilebridge was another who looks the part, but he'd lost his race even before he got into the paddock. He arrived in the pre-parade ring in a red hood, but was so geed up and sweaty that it was removed before he went any further.

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