TimeformBlog

[b]The Cheltenham showpiece; jumps racing's Blue Riband; the Gold Cup: whatever you call it, the feature on the last day of the Cheltenham Festival remains the most prestigious race at the most prestigious jumps meeting in the world. With six weeks to go until the big day, Keith Melrose takes a look at the main contenders.[/b] I doubt it's passed you by, but it's worth reiterating that we're going through something of a golden age among the staying chasers. This time last year, we were celebrating how lucky we were to have the prospect of a dual Hennessy winner (Denman) and a bona fide legend of the turf (Kauto Star) toughing it out in the Gold Cup for the third consecutive year. Neither won in the end, but there's no doubting that Imperial Commander gatecrashed the party rather than...

[b]Newbury's Saturday meeting dodged the bad weather, and racing fans were treated to an afternoon of top-quality jumps racing. Timeform look back over the day's action...[/b] All the weekend's best racing was confined to [b]Newbury[/b], where the day's best winning performance came courtesy of [b]Diamond Harry[/b], who produced a top-class effort to win the Hennessy Gold Cup by one and a quarter lengths and fourteen lengths from Burton Port and Denman. Diamond Harry's form still falls short of the standard set by the likes of Kauto Star, Imperial Commander and Denman, but he left the impression at Newbury that he has more in the locker and he certainly has the potential to make up into a serious Gold Cup contender, that view reflected in the fact that he is currently the 17.0 fourth...

[b]Saturday's meeting at Newbury is one of the best NH cards you could wish to see, and though some of the weekend's other meetings have fallen foul of the elements, there is still plenty to get excited about elsewhere as well...[/b] [b]Denman[/b] is currently a 5.4 chance to become the first horse in the history of the race to win the [b]Hennessy Gold Cup[/b] three times, surpassing the record that he currently shares with Mandarin and Arkle. Judged on Timeform ratings, Denman has a good chance, even from a mark of 182 (6 lb higher than last year), and despite the fact that he has forced all but six of his opponents out of the handicap, this looks a vintage renewal. Denman will face particularly stiff competition from two of last year's leading novices in [b]Weird Al[/b] (7.4) and...

[b]Only a week after Master Minded's heroic reappearance, and less than a month since Kauto Star's, the focus turns to the return of another outstanding Paul Nicholls-trained chaser. But can Denman really create history by becoming the first three-time winner of the Hennessy? Timeform's Dan Barber has his doubts.[/b] It is said that records are made to be broken, just not by the same athlete, or in this case horse. Having last year equalled the achievements of Mandarin and Arkle by winning a second Hennessy, [b]Denman[/b] bids to enhance his standing in the pantheon of racing's greats by eclipsing that duo to stand alone as the only three-time winner of the Newbury feature. With a piece of racing history perhaps on the horizon, it would be easy to become rather doey-eyed, but [b]it's...