Punters would do well to remember these performances from among the hundreds of runners last week
Murphy still the maestro
"There isn't a season so bad that you can't turn it round with a nice winner at the Cheltenham Festival or one of the big spring meetings. These are the times you want to be having winners, when owners are thinking about next season and when the prize money is at its best," said Ferdy Murphy in the run-up to last week's Cheltenham Festival. Those words proved prophetic when, on the back of one of his least rewarding campaigns, Murphy took just eight horses to the Festival and came home with a winner, a second and a fourth. For a man renowned for keeping his cards close to his chest, the trainer ? who has almost single-handedly flown the flag for the north in recent years at Cheltenham ? was entirely open about his runners, freely nominating his only winner, 10-1 chance Divers, as his best chance of the meeting. The Ryanair Chase runner-up, Kalahari King, was given a ride of great bravery by Graham Lee. Seventh over the third-last fence and still only sixth at the next, he was unlucky to come up against a winner with the tenacity of Albertas Run, who just pulled out enough to deny the challenger's finishing run. The flatter track at Aintree may just allow the speed of Kalahari King to come more into play and see the placings reversed in next month's Melling Chase.
Quito catches the eye
Two victories in lesser company have seen Quito De Tresor go up the weights this season, but he's not finished winning yet. Despite being denied his usual prominent pitch in the big field for the Grand Annual Chase, he did well to throw down a challenge at the second-last before only being able to keep on at one pace in the closing stages, eventually finishing fifth after a mistake at the last. Good ground suits and he has winning form at Aintree, so the Red Rum Chase will make obvious appeal but, if connections opt to go back down to a 0-130 race, he'd be a good bet to boss a small field on the strength of this form.
Everyone likes a winner
Sam Winner goes novice chasing in the autumn and may not be seen again over hurdles this season, but it is impossible not to draw attention to his performance in finishing fourth in the Triumph Hurdle, given the astonishing amount of ground he made up. Coming down the hill and jumping the second-last, he was 20th of the remaining 21 runners, detached from the main body of the field and seemingly going nowhere, having lost ground when the pace quickened down the back straight. Suddenly, he found an unexpected extra gear and was going two-for-one from that stage. Having made ground to be ninth jumping the last, he sped up the final incline to finish fourth. The form of this year's Triumph Hurdle looks strong. All of the right horses were fighting it out at the finish and Sam Winner is a fascinating prospect.
O'Farrell makes the right call
The conditional jockey Conor O'Farrell made the move from Kilkenny to join David Pipe's yard last October, having seen an advertisement in the Racing Post, and that could turn out to be the best decision this young man ever takes. He enjoyed an all-the-way win aboard the stable's Buena Vista in the Pertemps Final on his first ride at the Festival and then addded Saturday's Midlands Grand National aboard Minella Four Star, but paid tribute to Pipe for the way he was treated in the aftermath of an incident at Taunton in February, when he lost his irons and fell off Arrayan after the final flight with victory seemingly in the bag. "My confidence hasn't been the same since but, in fairness to David Pipe and the owners, they were the best in the world," said O'Farrell after Buena Vista's victory. "I got back in, they asked me what happened and said, 'Look, just don't worry about it, these things happen. Forget about it and move on'. You can't ask for any more because I never felt as low as I did then. But, at the time, they handled it brilliantly and I can't thank them enough because, if they hadn't, I could have taken it an awful lot worse and I might not be here today."
Costello counts the cost
A broken ankle sustained in a fall at Stratford less than 24 hours before the start of the Festival cost Dougie Costello a number of exciting rides and he may have watched Wayward Prince's performance in the RSA Chase wondering if he could have done better, even if the stand-in rider was none other than Tony McCoy. Wayward Prince simply never stops galloping and, despite being under pressure from a long way out, he found reserves of stamina on the final climb to the line and stayed on dourly to be third, only a length behind the winner, Bostons Angel. McCoy, riding the horse for the first time, will have a better idea next time as to where the horse's strengths lie and, as a Grade One winner over hurdles at Aintree last year, he would make plenty of appeal if returning to action at the Grand National meeting next month.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/mar/23/five-follow-cheltenham-festival-2011
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