CHELTENHAM NH MEETING - NEW YEARS DAY 2017

Welcome to 2017, Happy New Year to you all.

AND THEY ARE OFF !! ... TO ITV 

We kick off the new year with the traditional opening meeting at Cheltenham, which will be the first to be shown on ITV again after an absence of over 30 years the channel now returns as the exclusive terrestrial broadcaster of British Horse racing. While it is also only 10 weeks till the festival so each meeting should have it's own clues to the future. 

Today it's a 7 race card, the feature events are a pair of Grade 2 contests, the Dipper Novices Chase and the Relkeel Hurdle which are both run over 2m 4f.

Here are our selections for the card; 

12:15 -- 2m 4f 56y Novice Hurdle (Listed).

Dashing Oscar was only able to take 3rd on Friday and even if he reappears will find this hard to win off top weight but could run well enough to place. Stablemate STEEL BOB [Pulled up 16/1] looks a bit of value at the other end of the weights and is paired with MINOTAUR [7th 8/1] to get us off to a winning start in 2017.

12:50 -- 3m 2f 70y Handicap Chase

A nice big field for the staying chase should be fairly spectacular watching these take on the fences again, open contest as you'd expect and we go with DOCTOR HARPER [2nd 14/1] and BELMONT [10th 33/1] as our two against the field. A good race to watch with the big staying handicap races at the festival a possible for some of these?

13:25 -- 2m 4f 166y "The Dipper" Novices Chase (Grade 2)

Just a small field of five now for the first feature event on New Years Day, only Never Equalled looks truly out of things but will pick up a little place money with a safe round. 

The favourite will probably be CLAN DES OBEAUX for Paul Nicholls but WHISPER [WON 11/4] is a decent animal on his day and could be the value bet against the rest this afternoon having won his Novice Chase around this course last month. 

14:00 -- 2m 4f 166y Handicap Chase (Grade 3)

With the Colin Tizzard yard in such great form of late it would be no surprise if his QUITE BY CHANCE [6th 6/1] can take this and carry on the good run. Recent Aintree winner AS DE MEE may not be as suited by this course and preference is for TOP GAMBLE [3rd 8/1] even with top weight.

14:35 -- 2m 7f 213y Handicap Hurdle

WHAT A KNIGHT [Non Runner] / ROCKLANDER [2nd 2/1]. 

15:10 -- 2m 4f 56y Relkeel Hurdle (Grade 2)

Former world hurdle winner COLE HARDEN [3rd 7/1] should fine this ground more to his liking and if allowed a soft lead could prove very hard to peg back. 

At a decent price to place AGRAPART [WON 16/1] looks worth a look too. 

15:40 -- 1m 5f 209y Open NH Flat Race

We finish off with a massive 16 runner bumper, the market will probably be the best guide and it's a race I would personally avoid but if the market speaks well of DAPHNE DU CLOS [2nd 5/2] that might be worth a shout. 


A great day to see in the New Year, a few winners, some places and a nice profit too. Well done on Agrapart Lizzie Kelly you are awesome. 

Will aim to update results later in the day and then we will be into the swing of things for 2017 with regular features for Kempton Park on Wednesday nights as well as Pontefract, and the bigger festivals at Cheltenham, Aintree, Galway amongst others.