Cheltenham fancies

All quiet on the western front at the moment so time to run through a few of my early Cheltenham fancies.

David Pipe will go into Cheltenham with a lot of ammunition, and for now I’m looking at three of his. Buena Vista runs in the Arkle, and although he only just held on last time he is progressive and I know David likes him. Seven is My Number goes in the Champion Bumper – he’s a very nice horse. Standin Obligation runs in the Sun Alliance Chase and could go well at a nice price.

I continue to believe that Degas Art is the one to be on in the Triumph, particularly if the ground comes up good or better. The handicap snip for the Fred Winter could be Chaninbar, who has been allotted an extremely generous mark of 114. Katchit, who beat him 1 3/4 lengths at the start of the season, is currently on 146 – Chaninbar has run poorly since then but I understand he has had problems which have since been dealt with. He could really be thrown in.

I’m sticking with Straw Bear for the Champion despite his defeat at the hands of Detroit City on the weekend. He was fairly beaten but Nick’s horses haven’t been running that well so I’m hoping there is still plenty of improvement to come.

I’m off to the sales at Newmarket tomorrow with a shortlist of horses to look at – I’ll update my blog on my return.