Dave Nevison's Cheltenham Festival tips: best bets for Wednesday

Paul Nolan has a tricky customer here, but one that has shown his best form over hurdles and fences at this meeting for the past two seasons. He runs in his first Cheltenham handicap on Wednesday, which might suit him ideally. 

He finished a really good third in the Albert Bartlett in 2023 and, switching to fences, he was not beaten too far by Fact Or File in the Brown Advisory last season. 

He is almost certainly not up to landing that type of Grade One contest, but off a rating of 147, and at a track that clearly suits him, he can go close. 

There is no doubt he is a tricky customer, and the win element of my bet might be lost, but he travels very well around here, and I am happy to take a chance on him putting his head down. 

Nolan has had a winner and a runner-up from just four runners in March, so I am certainly not concerned about stable form. 

This horse is still relatively young to be embarking on a Cross Country career, but he definitely looks to have been campaigned with this race in mind for quite some time. 

He had two outings at this track before Christmas and, in hindsight, they definitely looked like sighters for this event. 

His past two wins have come with the blinkers on, which he hasn’t sported on his past three outings, and he was held up out the back plus never really getting into the race in December, but was doing his best work late on.

He had been prominently raced for all his career wins, most of which have come under J J Slevin who is back on board here. 

reappeared this year with a very satisfactory run in a Grade Two hurdle in February, and that should have put him spot on for this. 

Gavin Cromwell gave an Autumn and Winter break after he had a busy time on the Flat, and over Jumps, in 2024, and the nine-year-old more than caught the eye when he reappeared at the Dublin Racing Festival recently. 

He was dropped out way off the pace, but made significant and relentless headway in the last half mile at Leopardstown. 

He may have raced too far out of his ground because he was beaten just after landing at the last, and he may have also needed his first run since September. He certainly made my notebook for this handicap, anyway. 

My Mate Mozzie is bound to enjoy the fast pace here, and the spring ground will suit him very well. His trainer is a master at laying one out for a race like this, and I am trusting he will have this one spot on.