Foxhunter Chase Tips : JP McManus to triumph over Backstage at Cheltenham with On the Fringe
The Foxhunter Chase is one of the oldest races at the Festival and the first running was won by the favourite Palmy Boy, owned and ridden by Mr J Widger.
Since then it has developed into the Gold Cup for the amateur riders and is thought of as the highlight of the hunter chase season, which is run over the same course and distance as the Cheltenham Gold Cup and has the reward of £35,000 for the winning connections.
The compelling chase is one of three races exclusively for amateur riders at The Festival – the others are the National Hunt Chase and the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Chase. It can only be seen as a race for developing young talent in the saddle; promising youngster Sam Twiston-Davies won in 2010 while Joe Tizzard won this race in 1998 with Earthmover.
It has been hard for a horse to dominate in this race despite its non-handicap status – since 1946 only The Callant (1956 and 1957), Whinstone Hill (1958 and 1960), College Master (1961 and 1962), Double Silk (1993 and 1994), Fantus (1995 and 1997) and Earthmover (1998 and 2004) have won the Foxhunter Chase twice although no horse has won it three times.
It has also been a race for veterans as three of the five 13-year-olds to have been successful at The Festival since 1946 have come in this event – Earthmover (2004) Merry (who dead-heated in 1953) and Greenwood (1950).
Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle Tips
On the Frindge was unlucky last year and JP McManus can go one better this year at 10/1. Take advantage of a Cheltenham saver bet with an increased free bet of £150/€150 from Stan James for all visitors of Footybunker.com to spend on any race at Cheltenham! Claim here!
Run in scorching sunshine last year’s renewal was dramatic as ever. Derek O’Connor rode home his second winner of the Festival when Zemsky took advantage of a late fall from probable winner Baby Run, who was searching for his second consecutive win in the race. Baby Run’s jockey 16-year-old Willie Twiston Davies was inconsolable when being walked back to the paddock and his tears were one of the abiding memories of a fascinating day’ racing.
There is always a well-backed favourite of this race come the day and this year’s looks to be Backstage trained by Gordon Elliot. Since being unable to finish the course in the Grand National, the ten-year-old has gone on to win his next six races on the point-to-point scene. If he can transfer that form to the challenging surroundings at Prestbury Park then he will be very hard to beat.
It seems punters like to put their faith in former high-class handicappers in this particular race however, a quick look at the stats suggest that 20 of the last 23 winners of the Foxhunters’ emerged from a point-to-point/hunting chasing background. That bodes well for the chances of On The Fringe, who looks the biggest danger to current ante-post favourite.
It is unusual that a festival goes by without JP McManus greeting the winner’s enclosure and On The Fringe looks an ideal type to increase his superb strike-rate at Prestbury Park. The seven-year-old was well backed for this race last season but came up short when being hampered on several occasions. He will be back this season more experienced and has reportedly been lined up for this race all season.
Cloudy Lane will be well-known to punters and could prove profitable if he continues his classy transition from handicaps to fox-hunter chases.
The former Donald McCain-trained star has run in three Grand Nationals, finishing sixth and eight sandwiched in between a nasty fall in 2009. That experience has made his thrive in the hustle and bustle of the fox-hunting scene, winning at Ayr in February by 12 lengths – it seems age certainly isn’t a barrier for the 12-year-old.
