Five horses to follow at the Cheltenham Festival on Thursday

Tipster: Andy Stephens.

Best odds: 100-30.

Tipster: Martin Dixon.

Best odds: 7-1. 

Unlike a lot of this field Firefox hasn't had the opportunity to run in a handicap chase and I think a mark of 150 underestimates him.

A smart and consistent novice hurdler last year (third in the Supreme), he's kept the best company in Grade One novices in Ireland this season, finishing close up in the Drinmore before finding things happening a bit too quickly dropped back to 2m on his past two starts.

He's super reliable, has looked an assured jumper of fences in the main and, even with a big weight, will find this much easier than most of the tasks he's faced over the last 12 months.

Odds of 7-1 are available at the time of writing and I'll be having one of my biggest bets of the Festival each way at that price. 

Tipster: Lydia Hislop.

Best odds: 10-1 (in the 'without Fact To File' market).

The envisaged scenario of this race sees Il Est Français deliver an Allaho-type set-up – the 2021 vintage, when ridden ultra-aggressively by Rachael Blackmore. That means him working to the front by at least the third fence, if not sooner, and building up a head of steam, using the undulations to get breathers in places and get a roll on in others.

Those tactics would likely see Protektorat keeping the closest tabs – and he’s more capable of that than was Min four years ago, whose ballooning jumping was in stark contrast to Allaho’s attacking style. This would permit Mark Walsh to ride Fact To File more unfetteredly than in his last two starts at Leopardstown this season, when conscious that energy wasted translated to a greater thumping Galopin Des Champs. This theory ends with Protektorat acting as the bridge to enable Fact To File to bear down on Il Est Français without him doing the chasing himself.

Of course, we all had a strong idea about how the Champion Hurdle and the Arkle were going to pan out, too. Yet from an early stage, the script for each of those races was looking a bit shaky and by the end of the race had been ripped up, vomited on and ritually burned. It’s a horse race; stuff happens. Otherwise, we’d award these things on a points basis.

I wish, as was the case with Allaho, I had the reassurance that the French raider handles Cheltenham. Admittedly, he doesn’t jump in that nonchalant Gallic manner that gives me the heebie-jeebies about shorties at this place but he has been most impressive at pancake-flat Kempton. The fact he has bled more than once in the past adds another concern, albeit trainer Noel George has only offered positive reports since Kempton. I’d love him to win but there are too many worries at the odds available.

Protektorat was my long-range section in this race last year and right back to his best at Windsor in January, loving a sharp track that rewarded positivity and accurate jumping, but his current price asks punters to take several points shorter than last year’s shallower contest. I wouldn’t be surprised if Harry Skelton tries to put my selection’s jumping under pressure, by the way, so James Reveley is going to have to be alive to that. Standby with the lighter fluid.

Fact To File is arguably the most solid, but he’s a mighty short price in a race likely to be run at a high-stakes tempo. Instead, I’m going to take a position that acknowledges his relative paucity of drawbacks by taking ENVOI ALLEN each-way in the ‘without’ market that excludes him.

Envoi Allen ran right up to his best in early November and yet has been overlooked on the basis of one bad run – namely flopping in the King George, which is exactly what he did prior to winning this in 2023. Down Royal and Cheltenham are his two favourite places; Kempton seemingly isn’t. It’s a bit soon to be writing him off, stable wellbeing permitting.

Bar Workahead (who stopped so quickly something physical must have gone wrong), Henry de Bromhead’s other three team members performed about as well as expected on Tuesday. After being out of form prior to the Festival, to the extent the trainer himself expressed some concerns, there had been steady signs of recovery. My caveat is that I’m writing this before racing on Wednesday, so back away from this opinion if the yard’s fortunes have headed provably south.

Best odds: 6-4.

Tipster: Harry Allwood.

Teahupoo was a brilliant winner of this race 12 months ago and a reproduction of that effort should be good enough to score again here.

Gordon Elliott's charge was just as impressive when winning the Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle after his Cheltenham Festival win last year and has taken the same path this season having contested the Bar One Racing Hatton's Grace Hurdle again in December. 

He used that race as a springboard to Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle glory last season and although he didn't win the Fairyhouse feature this time, it was no surprise he was no match for Lossiemouth who simply had too much speed for him.

The eight-year-old clearly goes well fresh and I certainly think he has the most class in this field, and his rivals have a few pounds to find on the ratings.

Quicker ground would pose a question mark, but conditions were on the softer side of good to soft on Wednesday, and providing the going is in his favour, I expect him to take all the beating. 

Tipster: Dave Nevison.

Best odds: 10-1.

This handicap is ridiculously tight and looking for a source of improvement is my angle into the race. 

Trainer Alan King has declared this eight-year-old with cheekpieces for the first time which might just sharpen him up a little, and that may be all he needs alongside the 6lb he is better off now with likely favourite Jagwar, who won the race he contested last time at Cheltenham. 

Massacio has shown good form on fast ground as well as soft, so conditions should be immaterial and it will be a surprise if he doesn’t run another strong race. 

After a brief quiet spell King’s horses seem to have hit top form once more, though Masaccio has been a model of consistency pretty much throughout his career.