Trainers set for festival extravaganza

TRAINERS Olly Murphy and Dan Skelton will be hoping for success at next week’s four-day Cheltenham Festival, the highlight of the British jumps season which starts on Tuesday.

Murphy’s Wilmcote yard and the Shelfield stables of Skelton are likely to have a number of horses saddled up for the Cotswolds extravaganza which incorporates the main attraction, the Boodles Gold Cup Chase on Friday.

Ahead of that, racegoers can get into the festival spirit at Warwick on Sunday when the racecourse will be hoping to beat the weather when it stages the Four-Legged Friend Day fixture, writes David Hucker.

The course lost both fixtures in February and officials will be hoping for a good crowd to make up for lost time and the meeting also features the annual running of the LPS Pug Gold Cup in front of the stands, as well as dog shows.

The horses will take centre stage from 1.50pm with the Pony Racing Authority Graduates Handicap Hurdle for conditional jockeys and amateur riders that have ridden in PRA Pony Races.

The first steeplechase on the card is the fourth, the Class 3 EBF Mares’ Novices’ Chase over two and a half miles and worth £15,000, which is followed by the feature Class 3 Volcano Handicap Chase over three miles and five furlongs that carries a prize fund of £18,000.

The race celebrates the popular grey Volcano, who won five times around the course, including last year’s running of this contest when he led from start to finish.