The International, Cheltenham - Saturday 14th December 2019

Good morning from the Press Room here at Cheltenham Racecourse!

First of all, a massive thank you to Sarah-Jane Muirie and Megan Furze here at Cheltenham for the opportunity to provide coverage of the meeting today, always very gratefully appreciated.

A cracking card in store today, the feature races being the Grade 2 Unibet International Hurdle and the Grade 3 Caspian Caviar Gold Cup Steeplechase. The card is crammed with quality and potential and it all starts off at 12:10 with the JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle, in which Botox Has is already a very short priced favourite to take the opener for the father and son team of Gary and Joshua Moore. The drop in class and lack of the talented Allmankind, who he bumped into in the Prestbury at the November Meeting among the many positives going for him in what looks like an intriguing opener.

Hot on the heels of this is the 12:45, the Ryman Novices Chase, in which Good Boy Bobby bids to keep up his strong form and make it a local winner for trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies. It won't be easy though as the talented Mister Fisher and chasing debutant Champagne Platinum providing a strong pair of opposition from the stable of Nicky Henderson. Beakstown of Dan Skelton and another local trainer Ben Pauling's Nestor Park providing even more opposition to the favourite. A mouthwatering contest to savour.

As always at Cheltenham, the two mile Cheltenham Club Handicap Chase at 1:20 looks competitive to say the least. Recent Chepstow winner The Bay Birch bids to get back on track with this drop in trip, now it would appear the handicapper has their measure. Grand Annual Winner Croco Bay starts his season off at the grand age of 12, and is likely to go straight to the front and give it a good go, all guns blazing, making sure that this contest is a truly run one. Destrier, Theinval and Ballywood all in there as well, making it a race to take plenty of clues from.

The first feature race of the day is at 1:55, the Caspain Caviar Gold Cup Steeplechase, a race in whih Paul Nicholls has taken plenty of times in recent years, most recently in last years contest with Frodon, who went on to take the Cotswolds and Ryanair Chases in a spectacular season for him and rider Bryony Frost. This years he fires Brelan D'As and Secret Investor into the fray, the former trying to go one better than last month's Betvictor Gold Cup when second to Happy Diva, and Secret Investor, who was second at Down Royal in the Daily Mirror Chase on November 2nd behind Real Steel. Plenty others hold significant chances, the likes of Cepage, Clondaw Castle, Warthog and Good Man Pat all coming in off pleasing recent runs, so this one looks like a fascinating contest.

Unowhatimeanharry and Kilbricken Storm have all taken the 2:30, the Albert Bartlett ( Registered as the Bristol ) Novices Hurdle, on this card before triumphing in the race of the same name at the Festival in March, and this field are all bidding to do just that. Champagne Well has the best form, a second behind the exciting Thyme Hill at the November Meeting being the standout piece of form, but others hold chances to, such as Mossy Fen, a winning pointer that has done nothing wrong over hurdles, winning both his recent starts. This is his toughest test yet, but trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies and the team hold him in high regard, so remains to be seen what he can do. The Mulchair and Kiltealy Briggs also hold live chances in an open contest.

The second feature race of the day is the Unibet International Hurdle, and it sees the return of two horses that lit their respective departments alight last season. Favourite Pentland Hills bolted up in the Triumph Hurdle at The Festival before confirming his potential in the Aintree version a few weeks later. He is already near the top of the betting for the Champion Hurdle in March, so will need to win today to cement his place and confirm his intentions for March. It won't be easy however, as Elixir De Nutz makes his return today as well. A star novice hurdler before injury curtailed his season after a dominant win in the Tolworth Hurdle, he bids to give trainer Colin Tizzard a live hand in the race, when he is normally seen as training staying chasers like Lostintranslation and Native River et al. Call Me Lord adds in the firepower from the Seven Barrows yard, while Monsieur Lecoq bids to keep his good run of form going under Lizzie Kelly.

The finale of the day is the 3:40, the Park Mares Handicap Hurdle Race, where Indefatigable bids to continue the fine start to the season and go one better than Wetherby last time when chasing home star mare Lady Buttons, with a rival from today in Vision Du Puy in behind in third. Mares races are seen by many as dull, but this could not be further from the case today, with a decent race in store to close the two day meeting.

Right, best get cracking, food's on and I'm starving!