Cheltenham Festival 2015 movers and shakers

There were Cheltenham Festival clues aplenty in a busy weekend of top class action with Carlingford Lough emerging as a Gold Cup contender with a game success in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown and Vibtaro Valtat enhancing his Arkle claims with an impressive success at Warwick.

Here’s my round-up of the latest movers and shakers for the four-day spectacular which gets underway on Tuesday, March 10th:

Apache Stronghold: Got the better of a titanic battle to gain revenge on Valseur Lido in the Grade 1 Flogas Novice Chase at Leopardstown under a sublime ride from Paul Carberry. The Noel Meade trained gelding had been beaten eight lengths by Willie Mullins’ charge in the Drinmore Novices’ Chase in Decmeber, but showed a very willing attitude to come from off the pace and prevail by 3/4 of a length on this occasion. Meade has always held the strapping son of Milan in the highest regard, and considers the seven-year-old to be a future Gold Cup contender. Apache Stronghold is clearly a very exciting prospect who is improving with every run over fences, and if taking another step forward he has to be a big player in the JLT.
Coral latest odds: JLT Novices’ Chase 5/1 (from 12s)

Carlingford Lough: Emerged as a genuine Cheltenham Gold Cup contender when building on a promising reappearance in the Lexus Chase to provide AP McCoy with his first Hennessy Gold Cup success at Leopardstown. The John Kiely trained nine-year-old made a mistake at the second-last fence, but found plenty under a power packed ride from the 19-times champion jockey to get up close home and beat Foxrock by 3/4 of a length. The pair pulled eight lengths clear of last year’s Gold Cup winner Lord Windermere in the Grade 1 contest, and Carlingford Lough is a real battle-hardened performer who has all the right credentials to play a leading role in the 3m 2f Festival showpiece.
Coral latest odds: Cheltenham Gold Cup 10/1 (from 20s)

Mr Mole: Through his hat into the ring for the Queen Mother Champion Chase when winning an incident packed Game Spirit Chase at Newbury in good style. The Paul Nicholls trained seven-year-old lost 15 lengths at the start when awkwardly away when the tapes went up, but under a confident ride from AP McCoy crept into the contest and was always in command from four out when the odds-on favourite Sire De Grugy made a blunder and unseated his rider. That allowed Mr Mole to cruise home by 13 lengths, but even if Sire De Grugy had stood up I still think he would have triumphed. The son of Great Pretender is now really getting his act together and looks a powerful second string for his handler, who also trains Dodging Bullets, in the Queen Mother.
Coral latest odds: Queen Mother Champion Chase 8/1 (from 20s)