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Cheltenham Festival: four key clashes for Friday's racing
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Cheltenham Festival: four key clashes for Friday's racing

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Cue Card

Cue Card after winning the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day

  PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)  

 By Lewis Porteous 6:00pM 17 MAR 2016 

Cue Card v The stats

There would be no more popular winner of the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup than the resurgent Cue Card, who has found the form of his life this year in winning three of Britain’s most prestigious staying chases.

Wins in the Betfair Chase and King George have set him up for a £1 million bonus should he strike gold on Friday and register a third Cheltenham Festival success.

However, while there are some quality opponents in his path there is also a worrying age stat to overcome, as no horse aged ten or older has lifted the Gold Cup this millennium.

Cool Dawn in 1998 was the last ten-year-old, the same age as Cue Card, to win the race, with nine of the last ten winners aged between seven and nine.

To cast further doubt over Cue Card’s claims, eight of the last ten winners headed into the Gold Cup with between five and ten runs over fences under their belts. Cue Card has racked up 21 runs in chases already and hardly fits the mould of a modern Gold Cup winner.

That said, he is a past master at overcoming adversity and has a habit of silencing the doubters.

Willie Mullins

Willie Mullins has been runner-up in the Gold Cup five times

  PICTURE: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos  

Willie Mullins v His nemesis

Ireland’s champion trainer may have taken over as the festival’s top trainer but he has yet to win the biggest prize of all.

Mullins has saddled the runner-up in the Gold Cup in each of the past three years and five times in all during his career.

With Vautour winning Thursday’s Ryanair Chase, Mullins now relies on last year’s second Djakadam, 2014 runner-up On His Own and dual-festival winner Don Poli as he tries to overcome his festival nemesis.

Facing strong challengers from both Britain and Ireland, team Mullins will have to be at their peak to land a first success in the race in what looks a fiendishly competitive Gold Cup.

Pacha Du Polder (Victoria Pendleton

Pacha Du Polder & Victoria Pendleton after victory at Wincanton

  PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)  

Victoria Pendleton v Prestbury Park

While the Gold Cup is the undoubted highlight on the final day, Victoria Pendleton’s festival debut in the St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase could steal the headlines.

The Olympian’s quest to ride at Cheltenham has divided opinion but after guiding her big-race mount Pacha Du Polder to an easy win at Wincanton on just her second ride under National Hunt rules, she now gets the chance to take on the one of the most formidable jumps tracks in the world.

Former cyclist Pendleton has been perfecting her riding technique in muddy point-to-point fields but she now has the challenge of taking on the undulations of Prestbury Park and its daunting fences.

As an Olympic gold medalist, she will be no stranger to big-pressure situations but coping with the intensity of the festival on Gold Cup day offers a unique challenge.

KILLULTAGH VIC

Killultagh Vic after winning last year’s Martin Pipe for Willie Mullins

  PICTURE: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)  

Bookmakers v Punters

For the final time: let battle commence. After some brutal results over the first three days the final day of the festival will decide who is ordering steak on Friday night and who has to settle for a packet of crisps.

Two pivotal races on the final afternoon will be the County Hurdle and the Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle and it could well be that man Willie Mullins who again decides their fate.

Mullins had his first festival handicap winner in the County with Thousand Stars in 2010 and followed up with Final Approach the following year. For good measure he saddled 25-1 winner Wicklow Brave last year.

Similarly in the Martin Pipe, he has won three of the seven runnings and could hold the key in the final battle between backers and layers.

The day ends with the Grand Annual, not the easiest race for punters, with Alderwood in 2013 the only successful favourite since 2004.

 

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