One thing which many punters do at Cheltenham is to look for the “plot horses” – those which have been running down the field and now look well treated, but the truth is that the handicaps at the Festival are so competitive that doing so means possibly missing the cut and the vast majority of winners are those who arrive at the track in demonstrably good form and I’ll try to narrow down these races each day to find the real value. “Theatrical Moment is a novice who needs to improve his jumping but he’s getting better with each outing and has impressed by the way he’s travelled in his few chases to date. He was the top bumper performer in the UK a couple of seasons ago and has a touch of class about him. He’s also versatile regarding tactics which is a benefit here.” 14:40 William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase (3m 1/2f) The Wiiliam Hill Trophy is always a classy handicap chase and five previous winners have gone on to win the Gold Cup itself, the last being Charter Party back in 1986. This year’s renewal looks well up to scratch with eight of the runners rated 150 or more. Historically, it’s been very difficult for fully exposed handicappers to win this and those with such high ratings rarely have any secrets from the handicapper, so I’ll pass over those in that group which include the well fancied Niche Market, Razor Royale and The Totherone. The first two mentioned probably left their chance behind with tough races in the last few weeks anyway. In looking for the winner of this, I prefer to look at a horse who has had less than a dozen races over fences and may still have a bit of improvement in him (I’d say “or her” but the only mare to have won this was subsequent Gold Cup winner Kerstin over half a century ago, and she had only 10-5 that day), and it’s a race in which novices have done well (Wichita Lineman, Dun Doire and Fork Lightning have all won in recent seasons)
