Plate Handicap Chase

16:10 Cheltenham - Plate Handicap Chase

This looks like a pretty open handicap but the eye is immediately drawn to Celebre D’Allen who’s landed a hat-trick of victories since joining Phillip Hobbs and given how he won at Warwick last month, there should be more to come from him.

The Glancing Queen could provide Alan King with another winner this week having ended a seven-year wait until Edwardstone took the Arkle. The Jermey mare is having her fourth run at the festival and has run with credit on each occasion. She’s taken well to chasing and got dropped a pound for a good run behind L’Homme Presee most recently. She’s a good yardstick and should be in the mix. Gordon Elliott has a strong looking team headed up by Grand Paradis who’ll have the assistance of Davy Russell from the saddle. He’s finished runner-up on his two most recent starts but the form of those runs took a knock earlier in the week.

Donald McCain doesn’t travel down south too often as he normally targets Aintree instead but it’s noteworthy that he’s kept Presentandcounting for this contest. He’s 5-7 over fences and got dropped four pounds for a decent run behind Tea Clipper who finished fourth in the Ultima on Tuesday.

written by Peter Keogh