REST OF CHELTENHAM PREVIEW:FORPADYDEPLASTERER will be the most high-profile of a seven-strong Irish team for this afternoon's Ballymore Properties Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham but Majestic Concorde could yet come out of the clouds to land the Day Two opener.
Any pre-race focus on Forpadydeplasterer will be entirely justified based on his career profile to date, not to mention the copy-friendly connotations of his name and the links to Bertie Ahern's "dig out" problems at the Mahon Tribunal.
The 12-member Goat Inn syndicate that owns the horse were in fine voice after a Deloitte victory at Leopardstown last month, a contest that has proved a good trial for today's race in the past, and will be gearing up for a raucous repeat.
His trainer Tom Cooper's high opinion of the horse is also a plus point, considering the Tralee man's proven ability to get one right for the festival, and ground conditions will be fine.
The other Grade One winner Trafford Lad, as well as Venalmar who Mouse Morris regards as having as good a chance as any horse he has ever brought here, provide the shortest priced Irish back up in a contest that the home team are confident of picking up with either Aigle d'Or or Group Captain.
However, those searching for value may well find themselves looking further down the field and liking the look of the Dermot Weld trained five-year-old Majestic Concorde.
Two easy wins for this horse were followed by a fourth to Whatuthink at Christmas where Forpadydeplasterer was eight lengths ahead of him.
However as a former Irish Cesarewitch runner-up, that two miles was surely too short for Majestic Concorde who will relish the extra trip today and looks to have a good chance at a very good price.
Certainly it won't shake his followers' hopes that the usually well-connected Ladbrokes have been almost half the generally available 25 to 1 in ante-post trading this week! There will be plenty of long-priced options among the dozen Irish hopes for the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, including the four hopes Willie Mullins has of securing a remarkable sixth win in the race.
Ruby Walsh is on Apt Approach who sluiced up on his Gowran debut and who appears to be the number one hope among the Mullins contenders.
However, the horse sweated up quite noticeably during the Leopardstown post-race gallops session 10 days ago and it will be interesting to see how he behaves today.
Despite a 24-runner field however it's hard to escape the claims of the likely favourite Zaarito who has more experience than most with three runs, the last of which he looked exceptional in. Colm Murphy has a huge opinion of the horse and the shrewd Wexford trainer is rarely wrong in such matters.
Willie Mullins will be looking for a third SunAlliance Chase triumph with the ex-French mare Pomme Tiepy and the prolific winner must be a major contender in a comparatively weak renewal of the three-mile plus slog.
Most of the leading British fancies have been taking turns beating each other and in the circumstances, last year's Pertemps winner Oscar Park is worth checking out.
Fakenham and Fontwell are not tracks that normally throw festival contenders but Oscar Park was impressive last time, is open to improvement and is proven up the hill.
On ratings Oranis is a stand out in the four miler. However, this race has a history of getting hot-pots beaten and Back On Line represents a shrewd Cheltenham trainer.
Leg Spinner will the centre of most Irish attention in the Coral Cup and Robbie Colgan's 3lb claim could end up being invaluable to the Cesarewitch winner. The bookmakers will be taking no chance with a Tony Martin horse like this and in a 28-runner cavalry charge like this, maybe Take Your Mark, who always finishes well, represents some each way value.
SELECTIONS
2.00: Majestic Concorde (nap)
2.35: Oscar Park
3.15: Fair Along
4.00: Take Your Mark
4.40: Back On Line
5.20: Zaarito (double)
