Paul Nicholls column: views on my runners at Cheltenham on Friday
14-time champion trainer and Betfair Ambassador Paul Nicholls talks us through his runners at Cheltenham on Friday and pays tribute to owner Chris Giles.
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The passing of Chris Giles is incredibly sad, he was a wonderful owner for the best part of 20 years
The passing of Chris Giles is terribly sad news. I know he's been poorly for a little while, but 62-years-old, he's got a young family, it's awful for his wife Deborah, his kids and all his grandkids, it's shocking.I trained for him for the best part of 20 years and we had some wonderful horses, lots of ups and downs, but many, many ups with some fantastic horses, so his passing is incredibly sad.He always wanted to win the Tingle Creek, so I'll never forget the day Greaneteen won it not that long ago, he just loved it. Topofthegame winning the RSA Chase, Zarkandar, what fantastic races he won, and all the success with the likes of Silviniaco Conti, we had some wonderful times. I'll never forget any of them, he's been a wonderful owner for the best part of 20 years, it's incredibly sad.
We have to be selective at Cheltenham this week with horses that want good ground
They're calling it good, good-to-soft in places at Cheltenham, but I'd say it's going to dry up a little bit looking at the forecast, Friday and Saturday looks like being goodish ground, perhaps the easier side of good, and then on Sunday it's going to be wet.I never have too many runners at the October meeting, that's always been our case, but we've got a selective few that want good ground at this meeting, none of the soft ground horses will be running.Cheltenham do their very best to get decent ground at the Festival and other times of the year, you can't water to make it soft ground, you've got to try and make it safe ground, and if you get a dry spell and the ground is already good or similar, they'll try and make it a little bit easier, but you can't water to have soft ground, that's just the way it is. It's a difficult thing for Cheltenham but I always think they do their best.
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Paul’s Friday runners at Cheltenham
13:15 Cheltenham – Outmaster
He's won three from three, a point-to-point and two novice hurdles, so he was probably well-placed in the summer. I think a mark of 118 is fair, but this is a competitive race.
He's got an each-way chance. He's won by a combined distance of 95 lengths, but those were only small-field novice hurdles so we shouldn't read too much into that as this is a competitive handicap.
14:55 Cheltenham – Outlaw Peter
He ran really well in these veterans' races last season, but he always seems to come good in the spring funnily enough, but then I said that last week about Sans Bruit.
He seems very well, he's as fit as I can get him at home and veterans' races suit him. He's gone up a little bit for winning at Haydock in the spring and running consistently well, but if he's back to his best form he'll go very well.
He's been a great horse for me over the years; these veterans' races are great for him.
16:00 Cheltenham – Babyken
He's going handicapping for the first time off a mark of 112 which is a fair enough mark for what he's achieved.
He's had a wind op in the summer as he was struggling with his breathing, he's had a couple of away days and he seems very well, but he needs to improve on what he did last year, but 112 could end up being a good mark.
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