The National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival has been the subject of much debate over the years and, in some cases, calls for its removal from the calendar after four fatalities in the last two years.

The result has been for the race to be reduced in distance from 4m 1f to 3m 6f. This is possibly understandable given the circumstances but it seems a shame for a race that has provided a platform for winners of top class jumps races such as Hot Weld, Celestial Gold, Stormez and Timbera.

National Hunt Chase Loser to Grand National winner?

But it is as a source of potential Grand National winners that the race is really interesting with Silver Birch and Hedgehunter both running in this race early in their careers. (Aintree runner up Supreme Glory also ran in the NH chase earlier in his career). Silver Birch and Hedgehunter were unsuccessful at Cheltenham (Hedgehunter very unluckily!) but it is a useful early indication of the very high levels of stamina possessed by these horses.
If we translate this to horses that have run in recent runnings of the National Hunt Chase who may be possibles for Aintree this season then we have horses who we can be pretty sure will have no stamina doubts when it comes to battling around the elbow.

This season’s candidates?

Butler’s Cabin won the 2007 National Hunt Chase and then went on to record a famous victory in the Irish National as well. He has very obvious claims for the Aintree National but I’m just slightly concerned that he had a very, very hard season last year even finishing in distress after the NH Chase so I’d be quite keen to leave Butler’s Cabin out of my staking plan – nevertheless his stamina can no longer be taken into question.

More interesting to me are horses who were beaten that day at Cheltenham, as in the style of the horses outlined above. It may be that the horses who get beat in the National Hunt Chase need another season or two to mature into their racing careers and Character Building and Nine De Sivola could well reverse placings with Butler’s Cabin if they meet again in April yet both horses are double the odds in the betting market.

Finally, back in 2005 Point Barrow finished fifth in the National Hunt Chase when 10/3 favourite. Pat Hughes’ horse has since proved himself to be a top class handicapper winning the Irish National and the Pierse Chase but the fact he was given this Cheltenham outing so early in his career underlines his stamina credentials and he is a horse that warrants serious consideration for Aintree.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Grand National 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.