Cheltenham Festival Market Movers - 22/02/2021

Well, here's a performance no one saw coming, Goshen bolting up by 22 lengths in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton.

Much was expected of the Gary Moore trained gelding after unseating his rider at the last hurdle in last years Triumph Hurdle when clear of the rest but after three disappointing performances this season including two on the flat, people had in some ways lost faith with him.

However, he repaid the faith of those punters that had stuck by him with one of the performances of the weekend. It's been no surprise to see him smashed in to third favourite for the Champion Hurdle with what looked set to be a two horse race between Honeysuckle and Epatante now a three horse race with Goshen in the mix.

Third in last years Supreme Novices Hurdle, Chantry House has always shaped like a chaser and he backed that promise up with a 26 lengths victory in debut at Ascot.

However, he took a huge step back when third of four back at Cheltenham in December but he proved that that performance was just a minor blip with a cracking round of jumping to return to winning ways at Wetherby last week.

He's now been backed in to as short as 10/1 from 25/1 for the Marsh Novices' Chase and with Envoi Allen looking like the one to beat, he looks a nice e/w shout for the race.

Probably the most highly anticipated race of the weekend was the rescheduled Game Spirit Chase at Newbury with RSA Chase winner Champ making his first start of the season however it was Daryl Jacob and Sceau Royal who stole the show.

A tough weekend for connections after the loss of L'Ami Serge on Saturday, the nine year old travelled all over the rest of the field just off the pace and Jacob hit the go button to make it a sprint finish on the flat just after the last with him managing to hold the staying on Champ.

He was available at as big as 40/1 for the Champion Chase before the weekend and you can now get him as short as 12/1. A big performance from Chacun Pour Soi is expected in the race but if he doesn't bang, don't be surprised to see Sceau Royal in the mix in a course in which he has ran three times at.

Quite comfortably the most highly anticipated return to action for a horse so far this season, RSA Chase winner Champ bounced back from a 347 day lay off to finish a solid second in the Game Spirit Chase, ran over a mile less than his RSA victory last year.

It's been one of the biggest questions in the sport in the past six months, where will Champ run first this season? Well, the Game Spirit Chase probably wasn't the first race that sprung to mind for racing fans considering it's ran over two miles and going off Champ's performance in the RSA last year over three miles, he needed further than that, not less.

Sent off from the front, no surprises there, he showed a nice turn of foot on the flat and was well in contention of victory before jumping left at the final fence.

He's now available as short as 5/1 from 12/1 for the Gold Cup and he now looks a serious contender for the race.