Dan Barber: My five best bets for the Cheltenham Festival handicaps

Timeform jumps editor Dan Barber told Racing TV viewers about his fancies for the Cheltenham Festival handicaps on The Friday Club.

He said: “My five handicap picks and not necessarily all going be good bets, but horses that I thought might be of interest for different reasons.”

Dan is very sweet on a British-trained runner in Wednesday’s Coral Cup, but starts with two to note in Tuesday’s Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle.

Race: Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle (4.40 Tuesday). Best odds: 16-1

If you have stopped his career after his penultimate run at Sandown, I think it would be surprise that we were dealing with a horse that was going handicapping off rating 124.

He subsequently went off favourite for the Grade One Finale Hurdle at Chepstow over Christmas, but that was a write-off run as he got badly hampered and could not recover.

He's a bit of an open book in that he didn't run on the Flat before running at Ffos Las and Sandown, winning convincingly on both occasions.

I think you can easily forgive him that Chepstow run, yet here is horse that was considered to be a more likely winner than Porticello, a leading Triumph hope, running off 124.

Another thing to note is that he's never run away from the mud, yet has a Flat pedigree and there could be 7lb to 10lb of improvement just for less testing conditions. He’s interesting, albeit in a the race where we may well be playing for second if the Gaelic Warrior noises are as accurate as they seem likely to be.

Race: Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle (4.40 Tuesday). Odds: 14-1

He’s probably more of a longer term shout, but he has just something about him physically and doesn't look like a conventional four-year-old. He's got lots of size and scope and I thought he won at Market Rasen last time like a proper horse.

Jonjo O’Neill Jr spent a long time watching AP McCoy ride, as we know, and I thought there was elements of AP when he won on him that day. I don't think Jonjo wanted to give him a hard race, or win by miles, mindful that the Boodles was the plan.

And watching the French videos back, I thought he won those like a proper horse as well, particularly second time up where he beat a couple of horses who've dominated a good French juvenile handicap since; plus been fifth and sixth in the best juvenile race run in France so far. I thought his form lines look pretty strong.

Naturally, the handicapper couldn't do much after Market Rasen, a race that was a means to an end because he needed that run to qualify for the Boodles.

Race: Coral Cup (2.50 on Wednesday). Odds: 8-1

He’s top of the shop for me, and stands out. He was a really good bumper performer last season, winning at Cheltenham and Newbury, and his only defeat was at the hands of Onemorefortheroad, a progressive horse for Neil King.

That day at Warwick, he put in one of the most absurd finishing efforts I’ve ever seen. Not often when you schlepping around the bread-and-butter meetings do you get to see a horse finish as quickly as he did that day. It was one that got away after he had been heavily backed. Just watch him go in those final 25 yards.

It just marked him down as a very interesting horse and he's since gone to Ascot and spread eagled the field in a competitive handicap, looking well ahead of his mark, and he’s only gone up 10lb, which looks generous.

He was well clear of the third, and don’t forget he gave 13lb and a beating in a bumper to I Like To Move It (with Gelino Bello also third), and he went close in the Betfair Hurdle.

He’s a proper operator and is still pretty unexposed, based on the fact that he didn't really take to hurdling initially. He was miles better at Ascot and must be one of the great British hopes in the Festival handicaps, even bearing in mind Britain drew a blank in all the handicap hurdles at the meeting last season.

Race: Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase (4.50 on Tuesday). Odds: 14-1

Phil Turner, the Timeform Chase Handicapper, first alerted me to him when the weights came out, when comparing Timeform ratings to the official ratings.

His rating looks lofty, mid 150s, and he’s not got the same quality of form as Sire Du Berlais, who is running off a similar mark (more of him later), but they clearly thought the world of him. He was picked by Mark Walsh over Janidil in the grade one novice at Leopardstown last season, when third to Monkfish.

His run behind Captain Guinness at Naas in November, when conceding 7lb, was a perfectly serviceable reappearance and this is just going to be a fair bit easier for him.

I know that sounds a bit peculiar considering it's a Grand Annual and we know it’s a deeply competitive race, but this is a horse who's been butting heads with the best that the Irish had to offer in the novice ranks last season – a horse who finished ahead of Asterion Forlonge once last season.

I think the handicapper may have given him a bit of a chance and I do like these top weights in handicaps. You might think they could be vulnerable to an improver who hasn't peaked yet, but they have that class edge. He will also be really well suited by a well-run handicap.

Race: Pertemps Network Final (2.10 on Thursday). Odds: 8-1

This one is from the other side of the Irish Sea, but a very familiar face to all of us.

His form figures at the Festival are the small matter of 112. Two of those wins were in the race I'm expecting him to go for, the Pertemps Final. The second of those victories was at the expense of The Storyteller under a vintage ride from Barry Geraghty and represents very strong form

Last year, he found only one too good in the Stayers’ Hurdle but it appears they've shelved aspirations that he is that type of horse. It seems that the Pertemps has been their aim again, and you just know he's going to give a good account.

I think the handicapper has given him a real chance, down to mark in the mid 150s, and I believe conditional jockey Rob James is going to claim off him as well. That's the icing on the cake.