Sean Bowen Cheltenham Friday blog: 'She will have a strong chance'

With Cheltenham returning this weekend, Coral ambassador Sean Bowen gives this thoughts on his rides at day one on Friday.

It was unfortunate what happened last time out at Chepstow, when she jinked to the left before the opening hurdle, unseating Shane Fenelon. Her form in the early stages of the season has been good, and some of her races have turned out well. I think she is off a mark she can be competitive with. I am hopeful she will have a strong chance in this race.

This horse is declared to run at Clonmel on Friday which is her primary intention. Unless something goes wrong there, I doubt she will line up here. It is a shame, as it would have been an exciting ride to pick up for Gordon Elliott.

He is getting on a bit now, and it looks like he will need to improve on what he has been doing lately. If he did find his best form though, he would be knocking on the door for the placings.

He is an interesting horse who has some good Flat form, running up to a rating of 93 on the Flat. He then won quite nicely at Perth for Lucinda Russell. Olly Murphy says his schooling and work have been very good, which is why he is taking his chance in a Cheltenham novice hurdle. If it doesn’t work out, he can drop back in class, but he deserves to have a shot at this.

He blew up at Worcester last time out on his first start under Rules. We will be hoping he takes a big step forward here, and he is going to need to if he is to be in the mix.

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