Raceline: Cheltenham Festival tips

ARE you ready? Are you packed? Are you calm? Are you on?

These are the only four questions that matter to racing fans as the countdown to the highlight of the racing year reaches its climax.

The 2013 Cheltenham Festival is almost upon us, and thousands of the sport’s followers are preparing to descend on the Cotswolds for a week of the best jumps racing in the world.

Award-winning journalist Alastair Down hit the nail on the head again yesterday. “It’s an annual pilgrimage, and people come because they have great faith in it,” he said. “They love it and they trust it.”

Down’s ‘Racing Post’ colleague, Tom Kerr, went even further, branding this year’s Festival as the ideal antidote to the country’s doom and gloom.

“The banks are shot to pieces, millions are out of work and wages haven’t risen a penny in years,” the under-rated, under-utilised Kerr wrote.

“Once trusted institutions topple like dominoes, politicians lie, celebrities swagger, footballers take home cheques for hundreds of thousands every week, and we’re all drowning in a sea of economic depression and professional disappointment.

“But we’re all human beings, and we have to come up for air. What is racing if not escapism of the most basic kind?

“Its protagonists are animals -- mere, unthinking, beautiful beasts -- and rough-hewn jockeys, uncomplaining, tough, as if transplanted from a different, more honest era.

“That is racing, and Cheltenham is racing writ large. It is racing with endless, devil-take-the-hindmost drinking; it is racing with good friends, great spectacles and the heady atmosphere of thousands upon thousands of our fellow men united in common feeling. It is a roar of life raging against the mundane.

“This time next week, we will be back in the world of failed banks, no jobs and crap wages. So damn it all, for this week we live.”

If that has not got you in the mood for Cheltenham, I don’t know what can!

Here’s a little more help, courtesy of my final eve-of-meeting selections, updated slightly from last week.

More than one selection is given in some cases because many running plans have yet to be finalised. Also, because the races are so competitive, it is always wise to consider alternatives and to draw up a shortlist of three or four horses. A 1-2-3 is given for each of the four big races.

The tips are listed in order of priority but all are considered potential winners. It is left to your discretion whether you back them to win or each/way. The staking plan is all down to you too. Good luck!

DAY ONE (TUESDAY MARCH 12)

1.30 (2m Supreme Novices’ Hurdle) MY TENT OR YOURS (Champagne Fever, Rock Critic)

2.05 (2m Arkle Novices’ Chase) SIMONSIG (Benefficient)

2.40 (3m JLT Handicap Chase) LOCH BA (Monkerty Tunkerty, Chartreux)

3.20 (2m Champion Hurdle) 1st GRANDOUET, 2nd Zarkandar, 3rd Rock On Ruby

4.00 (3m7f Cross-Country H’cap Chase) ARABELLA BOY (Big Shu)

4.40 (2m4f David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle) UNE ARTISTE (Swing Bowler)

5.15 (2m4f Novices’ H’cap Chase) SHANGANI (White Star Line, Bobowen, Kapga De Cerisy)

DAY TWO (WEDNESDAY MARCH 13)

1.30 (4m John Oaksey NH Chase) RIVAL D’ESTRUVAL (Back In Focus, Vesper Bell, Rose Of The Moon)

2.05 (2m5f Neptune Novices’ Hurdle) PONT ALEXANDRE (The New One, Two Rockers)

2.40 (3m RSA Novices’ Chase) UNIONISTE (Hadrian’s Approach, Super Duty)

3.20 (2m Queen Mother Champion Chase) 1st SPRINTER SACRE, 2nd Sanctuaire, 3rd Somersby

4.00 (2m5f Coral Cup H’cap Hurdle) DISCOTECA (Inish Island, Master Of The Sea, Owega Star, Black Thunder)

4.40 (2m Fred Winter Juvenile H’cap Hurdle) COUNSEL (Saphir Du Rheu, Totalize)

5.15 (2m Weatherbys Champion Bumper) UNION DUES (Blackmail, Sizing Tennessee)

DAY THREE (THURSDAY MARCH 14)

1.30 (2m4f Jewson Novices’ Chase) DYNASTE (Module, Aupcharlie)

2.05 (3m Pertemps Final H’cap Hurdle) ELY BROWN (Bouggler, Seymour Eric, Hada Men)

2.40 (2m5f Ryanair Chase) CUE CARD (Menorah, Champion Court)

3.20 (3m Ladbrokes World Hurdle) 1st REVE DE SIVOLA, 2nd Peddlers Cross, 3rd Bog Warrior

4.00 (2m5f Byrne Group H’cap Chase) DIVERS (Domtaline, Shangani, Howard’s Legacy, Kapga De Cerisy)

4.40 (3m1f Kim Muir H’cap Chase) ALFIE SHERRIN (Galaxy Rock, Chartreux, Relax)

DAY FOUR (FRIDAY MARCH 15)

1.30 (2m1f JCB Triumph Juvenile Hurdle) ROLLING STAR (Hidden Justice, Far West)

2.05 (2m1f County H’cap Hurdle) IFANDBUTWHYNOT (Tennis Cap, Ted Veale, Tanerko Emery, Il Fenomeno)

2.40 (3m Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle) AT FISHERS CROSS (Inish Island, O’Faolain’s Boy)

3.20 (3m2f Betfred Gold Cup Chase) 1st SIR DES CHAMPS, 2nd Cape Tribulation, 3rd Bobs Worth

4.00 (3m2f CGA Foxhunters’ Chase) SALSIFY (Cottage Oak, Chapoturgeon)

4.40 (2m4f Martin Pipe H’Cap Hurdle) SALUBRIOUS (Ericht, Tanerko Emery, Toner D’Oudairies, Top Of The Range)

5.15 (2m Grand Annual H’cap Chase) VIVA COLONIA (Kapga De Cerisy, Shooters Wood, Eastlake)

CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL TIPS SUPPLIED BY SCOOP RACING (RICHARD SILVERWOOD).