Drop In Class To Suit Horizontal At Cheltenham

Although the prizes on offer won't be quite as lucrative as last month there are still some decent types taking their chances at Cheltenham tomorrow. Most punters will be concentrating more on the flat racing now, but even though the festival is almost a year away it is always worth watching the action at Cheltenham as clues can often be found for potential festival types, especially handicappers.

The horse I am interested in tomorrow goes in the class 3 23.5f handicap hurdle at 4.10 and Horizontal Speed is a fascinating contender dropped in class. He has to carry top weight off a mark of 130, but he has been contesting mostly class 2 events and he will find this company a lot easier to live with. His form figures for his last 3 runs read 989, and it is for that reason that he is a 25/1 shot. Now on the evidence of those three efforts he hasn't got a hope here, but his previous 4th over course and distance (heavy) behind Singlefarmpayment back on New Years Day was a cracking effort.

He ran off a mark of 137 that day and he was front rank the whole way round. He was travelling by far the best approaching the final fence and he looked as though he was going to hack up. However, he just ran out of steam on the bottomless ground in the closing stages and he ended up finishing an excellent 4th, beaten just over 4L.

His previous run at the track, in a listed handicap chase (20.5f good to soft), also resulted in an excellent 4th placed finish off 137 behind Irish Cavalier at the festival back in March 2015. Again he was ridden aggressively and he was beaten just over 3L at the finish. He has not been anywhere near his best in his last three runs at Haydock twice (23f heavy) and Kempton (21f good), but the return to Cheltenham and the drop into class 3 company are reasons to be optimistic.

He has won on ground ranging from heavy to good so the forecast underfoot conditions are not an issue, and the cheekpieces are on to try and sharpen his concentration. He is 2lb below his last winning mark of 132 and with Noel Fehily in the saddle (17/91 for yard) hopefully he can reward each way support at odds of 33/1.

STEVOS' SELECTION: 4.10 CHELTENHAM-HORIZONTAL SPEED E/W 33/1