Vauban excelled all last season as a juvenile hurdler, winning 3 Grade 1’s including the JCB Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.  This year he will line up in the Champion Hurdle.  Here he will, unfortunately, come up against Constitution Hill but we are hopeful that he will give a good account of himself and at least come in 2^nd or 3^rd.

Gaelic Warrior was very much a talking horse in the run up to last year’s Festival and ran in the Boodles Fred Winter Hurdle, nearly pulled off a great victory.  One of the flip sides of not winning was that he remained a Novice hurdler for this season and he has won his three races very well, including a valuable handicap at the Dublin Racing Festival.  This year he is likely to run in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle on the Wednesday of the Festival.

Lossiemouth is a gorgeous grey filly who was very unlucky in being hampered early on at the Dublin Racing Festival.  We have not lost any faith, or confidence in her ability and we are hopeful she can land the JCB Triumph Hurdle for us on St. Patricks Day.  

Allegorie de Vassy is another gorgeous mare and, while she has only had two runs over fences, she will line up in the Paddy Power Mares Chase, also on the Friday of the Festival.  She has a huge amount of natural ability and is an exuberant horse who loves her racing.  There are two other Irish trained mares (Impervious and Jeremy’s Flame) who should make it an exciting race & we very much hope Allegorie will cross the finish line.

Over the course of the week we hope to have a number of other runners, Sharjah has a couple of options, Chapeau de Soleil is a very exciting young horse who may run in the Bumper on the 2^nd day (and if he does he has a big each way chance), Chacun pour Soi may line up in the Ryanair and Royale Pagaille should take his pace in the Gold Cup – though the ground will probably not be soft enough for him to show his true class.  My best three chance of the week are Gaelic Warrior, Lossiemouth and Allegorie de Vassy.