There are many routes to Cheltenham and probably most of them are slow moving this morning, but few will have been more circuitous than the one taken by Cappa Bleu.
A year ago he looked a promising chaser in the making when he won the Foxhunter Chase. That form was rated at 148 by the handicapper but, having been switched to Evan Williams for a career under Rules, Cappa Bleu failed to impress. He was beaten in novice chase and then took a crashing fall in the Hennessy Gold Cup in November.
Cue a new plan and a run in a novice hurdle at Taunton last month. Cappa Blue looked fluent enough and although finishing second the winner, Voramar Two, franked the form when winning under a penalty two weeks ago. Cappa Bleu would hardly fit the usual profile for a winner of the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle but his stamina is guaranteed and his jumping should be sound enough.
The JCB Triumph Hurdle is the usual riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma but if trainer form is much of a guide then Nicky Henderson is one to follow. Not only has he trained the winner of the race three times, his hurdlers have a 27% strike-rate this season which rises to 30% for his runners at Cheltenham. Soldatino is not an easy horse to assess on the basis of just one run in Britain.
However, the fact that Henderson elected to begin with a Grade Two race at Kempton last month, which Soldatino won by seven lengths, shows that he is well regarded and, having not been at the yard very long, he could be open to a fair degree of improvement.
There would not be much improvement needed for Oldrik to win the Vincent O'Brien County Handicap Hurdle. He ran a sound race in the Imperial Cup at Sandown Park on Saturday, to finish second to his well-handicapped stable companion Qaspal and ran well over this course in January until a bad mistake at the last.
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