Dan Skelton previews his day three runners at the Cheltenham Festival
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We start Thursday with Shan Blue (13:20) in the Marsh Chase at Cheltenham Festival. He is bringing high class novice chase form into this and I think the slightly better ground will suit him better than it did at Sandown where he got picked up late.
His work and jumping at home have been good and I think the track will be fine. I am pretty excited about running him.
Obviously there is Envoi Allen in here, which is slightly problematic! But we are happy with Shan Blue and are ready to give it a go.
Spiritofthegames (13:55) is in the Pertemps over hurdles again. He showed improved form last time in my opinion and seems better over hurdles as they seem to take less effort as he gets older.
He will still go back to chasing at some point but he qualified for this race well and is in really good heart.
Oldgrangewood (15:40) has been a bit of a flag bearer for us in races like the Plate. Not much has gone right for him this season, whereas last term everything went right and he won a couple of races in photo-finishes.
Hopefully that changes. He is in good form and we know he has run well at Cheltenham before. He’s not had much relief from the handicapper but I am really happy with him. This will be the best ground he’ll have ever run on at Cheltenham, which will be in his favour.
Dan
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