Leading owner and BetBright Chairman Rich Ricci has two weeks to go before his colours leave the parade ring on the opening day of the Cheltenham festival. It's both a nervous and exciting time for all involved with horses potentially heading towards the big meeting, and, in his penultimate Cheltenham Countdown Column, Ricci admits to dreaming the Champion Hurdle dream with Limini.
Plans are firming up, that's for sure. You could say that we’re leaning strongly towards supplementing Limini for the Champion Hurdle but I still think we will wait until next Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning at the supplementary stage before finalising a decision.
My view on it hasn't changed over the weekend: there is no point supplementing unless we think she can finish in the first three.
To my mind there is a big difference between being entitled to take our chance and having a chance of winning. We’re ‘entitled to run’? So what! I want to be sure as we can be, that we’re going there with a chance, not just making up the numbers.
It’s an important distinction.
I have allowed myself dream that Limini (below) can be very competitive in this year's Champion Hurdle although while I have dared to dream, I haven’t got carried away.
She’ll work today and, all going well, a few more times before we have to make a decision on Wednesday week.
Willie and I have spoken very briefly about it. We talked about the form of the Punchestown race and both came to the conclusion that Apple’s Jade more or less ran her race, and that was taking into account the proximity of the third horse, Rock On The Moor, Gordon’s comments after the race concerning his horse, and the timings and sectionals of the race at Punchestown.
If any or all could be believed, well then we ran a very big race. The fact that Willie was very positive at his Cheltenham media day yesterday indicates to me that she has come out of the race well.
No matter what Limini does, the Mares Hurdle is still the most logical place for Vroum Vroum Mag to end up. She could have dropped back to 2m or stepped up to 3m, but she won the Mares Hurdle last year and seems better suited to the intermediate trip than any other.
"Let’s Dance has more entries than most horses at the festival but it looks likely now that she’ll run in the Mares Novice Hurdle on the Thursday"
She wasn't right at Doncaster but was still so brave, and if she's back to her best she should go close.
It means we’re two weeks away from travelling to Cheltenham with a strong team of mares, that’s for sure. Let’s Dance has more entries than most horses at the festival - I think she’s in about five races - but it looks likely now that she’ll run in the Mares Novice Hurdle on the Thursday.
It’s worth bearing in mind that she ran a super race on the New Course in the Triumph Hurdle last season and that race has worked out very well. We’ll preserve her options until we have to call it, and I do think she’ll go very close in the Neptune if she ran in that, but the mares novice does look the most likely.
We also have the €50,000 bonus to the stable staff were she to win a race at the festival, something that is not lost on me.
We do know what race Bapaume will run in, and he is one of our better chances because he’s both a good jumper and a great galloper. He’ll love the new course, goes on any ground and has a real, fighting chance in the Triumph. It was nice to see the form franked to a degree at Fairyhouse on Saturday.
I know the media gathered at Willie’s yesterday and everybody’s eye was drawn, as usual, to Douvan (below).
He is such a wonderful horse and is the captain of our team.
But I hate those kind of races where you’ve got the odds-on, roaring hot favourite. It’s so difficult to enjoy it, and in fact I almost just endure it. I just hope he gets to the Champion Chase in one piece.
I spoke about Djakadam last week and was happy to hear Willie so positive yesterday, talking about how the horse has matured. That’s brilliant news.
Look, we believe he gets the trip, he likes the racecourse having run two crackers there, and even in a year when Colin Tizzard still holds such a grip on the race, it’s great to go there with such a big chance.
Of our other novices, Livelovelaugh won by 20 lengths on his last start over 2m4f and will probably head to the Neptune while Turcagua is much better than his last run at Clonmel and has enough ability to run really well in the Albert Bartlett should we decide to travel him.
We have a few runners waiting anxiously for their British marks this Wednesday and until they are revealed it won’t be easy to see exactly what goes where. But we do have a few likely travellers. Koshari is in the Coral Cup, the County and the Martin Pipe but he doesn’t have a mark in Ireland yet never mind Britain so what he does - whether he travels or not - will depend on the handicap rating.
He had a valid excuse for a poor run last November so we’d sincerely hope he’s better than the bare form of that.
"You can put a line through Montalbano's run the last day at Leopardstown, he’s better than that"
Renetti and Thomas Hobson both have plenty of experience but have very different requirements when it comes to ground. Renetti, who is in the Coral Cup and the County, needs soft ground, whereas Thomas Hobson, who has plenty of boot but doesn’t jump well enough, prefers better ground.
Cap d'aubois is only 50/50 to travel while Montalbano could be interesting if he’s working well enough. He’s in the three novice hurdles but he’s also in the Martin Pipe and has a rating of 142, which is 6lb higher than his Irish mark but feels workable to me.
You can put a line through his run the last day at Leopardstown, he’s better than that.
It’s hard to believe we’re just two weeks away - and, with the way things were going, to have two weeks of virtually no bad news around our festival team, means we’ve had a charmed existence!
Fingers crossed for more of the same over the next two weeks.
*BetBright sponsor the BetBright Cup, a competition marking the intense rivalry between Irish-trained horses at Cheltenham, and the home contingent.
