Easthorpe excellent value

EASTHORPE represents excellent value in today's £60,000 added Murphy's Gold Cup Handicap Chase at Cheltenham.

There has been plenty of ante post activity surrounding this race and yet Easthorpe has been strangely ignored despite having fine credentials.

Some distinct qualities will be needed today, notably effectiveness over two and a half miles and the ability to jump Cheltenham's stiff fences.

Those factors explain why very few horses outside the ages of seven to nine ever win the race.

The older animals, while retaining plenty of ability, find their speed has been blunted to assert at the business end of such a hot contest. And those barely out of the novice stage all too easily get caught out by obstacles they find themselves tackling at a faster pace than ever before.

Eight year old Easthorpe has bags of experience, speed and an ideal racing weight as he creeps in at the bottom of the handicap.

Henrietta Knight's charge made rapid strides last term, winning six off the reel before finding Kibreet four lengths too good in the Grand Annual Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Easthorpe has a 5 lb pull with that rival and it is mystifying why Kibreet is a shorter price as he is unproven over today's trip and makes his seasonal reappearance here, while Easthorne turned in a very encouraging effort over two and a half miles at Newbury last month.

Looking in need of the run, Easthorpe made most of the running in a fast run race before going down by one and a half lengths to Strong Medicine.

He is now 14 lb better off with the winner and has clearly been trained with this race in mind. Proven on fast ground, Easthorpe makes much more appeal at the odds than Big Matt, who has similar credentials but is a far shorter price.

Dublin Flyer should make a bold bid to repeat last year's success but has it to do giving the selection 27 lb, while backers are chancing their arm if siding with Addington Boy or Challenger du Luc, who plunge straight into this from the novice arena.

At Huntingdon, Elburg has obvious credentials in the Business Club Handicap Hurdle.

Tom George has worked very hard on the six year old to iron out temperament problems and seems to have done the trick judged on the way that Elburg trotted up at Uttoxeter last week, beating Ballindoo by 10 lengths. This race has cut up nicely for him and he can follow up.

At Wolverhampton, Mashmoum appears to have been let in lightly in the Essence of Time Antique Clocks Handicap.

John Gosden's colt has been put in here on a mark of 82, despite having beaten Applaud, rated 110, and Tumbleweed Ridge, 104, by half a length and the same in a Leicester conditions race last time.