Cheltenham Festival Race Previews: Champion Bumper

With three runners in the top five of the betting, Willie Mullins has been dealt a strong hand for this season’s Champion Bumper.

With Sir Gerhard joining the stable earlier in the month, he possesses the two Irish runners with the best bumper form this season.

Kilcruit turned heads when he eased away from the field in the Grade 2 bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival, cruising to a 12-length victory.

The six-year-old saw price cut from 10/1 to 13/8 almost immediately after that win, overtaking his new stablemate at the top of the betting.

Sir Gerhard is still unbeaten under rules, winning all both of his races in comfortable fashion.

He is highly anticipated to continue Cheveley Park Stud’s winning streak in this contest, with Envoi Allen and Ferny Hollow both delivering victories in this race in the previous two seasons.

But there is one statistic from the Mullins yard that stands out for this race – his last five winners in this contest have all been double-figure starting prices.

He does have three entries that fall into this category currently – Ramillies (16/1), Cool Jet (33/1) and Grangee (25/1).

All have winning bumper form, with Grangee even winning the Grade 2 Mares’ Bumper at Leopardstown.

Denise Foster’s Three Stripe Life won convincingly on his sole start, while his stablemate Hollow Games has shown promise on his two bumper starts.

The Irish trainers have dominated this race in recent years and it looks to continue, with seven of the top ten in the betting coming from the other side of the Irish Sea.

The best of the British hopes lie with unbeaten mare Elle Est Belle and Nigel Twiston-Davies’ duo of I Like To Move It and Super Six.

Richard Spencer, who usually trains horses for the flat, has stated his hopes of Wonderwall producing a big race in top-class company while Pressure Sensitive represents the Jonjo O’Neill yard.

It’s lining up to be another exciting renewal of the Champion Bumper for fans to look forward to.

BEST SELECTIONS:

• Ramillies E/W @ 16/1
• Elle Est Belle E/W @ 25/1

Read our race previews for the other Grade One’s on day two of the Cheltenham Festival, the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase and Champion Chase.