Unaccompanied can put Weld back in the spotlight

RACING:IT IS 21 years since the legendary Curragh trainer Dermot Weld secured the sole Cheltenham Festival success of his career to date but Unaccompanied can bridge that gap in style in today's JCB Triumph Hurdle.

The four-year-old championship was also the race that Rare Holiday won back in 1990 when springing a 25 to 1 shock but Unaccompanied comes here with a very different profile. For one thing the daughter of Danehill Dancer is a rare National Hunt runner for the Moyglare Stud which, like Weld, has made a huge impression over decades in the world of international flat racing.

Unaccompanied is also a filly and it is 11 years since Snow Drop was the last of the fairer sex to land the Triumph. But most importantly of all she arrives at Cheltenham with a resolutely upward profile that has seen her win both her starts over flights with plenty to spare, including when defeating Sailors Warn in a Grade One at Leopardstown last month.

It is impossible to know for sure how that sort of form equates to what has been happening in Britain, and it is nine years since Scolardy won the race for Ireland. There is also Weld’s suspicion that Unaccompanied may prefer a dig in the ground to be at her best.

However, she has won on good to firm on the flat at Galway and considering how the best of the home team appear to have been beating each other on a regular basis this term, Unaccompanied looks to have the potential to be a major player at the business end.

Thousand Stars was a decisive Irish winner of last year’s Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle and a strong team of raiders line up again this afternoon. Gordon Elliott’s Ebor winner, Dirar, the MCR hero Final Approach and Edward O’Grady’s Alaivan are just some of the fancied Irish runners but they could all do well to cope with the in-form Alarazi who is chasing a £75,000 (€87,000) bonus after scoring in last Saturday’s Imperial Cup.

The bonus is available for any Imperial Cup winner who goes on to win at the festival and the double has been pulled off in the past by Gaspara (2007), Blowing Wind (1998) and Olympian (1983.) They were all Pipe-trained horses and while Lucy Wadham doesn’t have anything like the profile, she has proven over the last decade she is a shrewd operator.

This week’s results have often given the lie to any concept of there being an “Irish banker” but there will be plenty of sore heads if Sir De Champs doesn’t land the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle. It may not be one of the prestige prizes but time may yet prove that the Michael O’Leary-owned horse is different class to these.

Willie Mullins has run Sir Des Champs just once since buying him in France and that Navan appearance in January resulted in an ultra-smooth display. Mullins’s nephew, Emmett, takes the ride today and could be in for a memorable experience.

Askthemaster is at the other end of the extreme in terms of betting prominence but there would be no more emotional success to wind the 2011 festival up than if the Irish outsider can land the Grand Annual.

The veteran 11-year-old is trained in Co Cork by Robert Tyner whose amateur jockey son Jack suffered fatal head injuries in a point-to-point fall last month.

Philip Enright is scheduled to ride Askthemaster today and the partnership could surprise a few of these at generous each-way odds.

Barry Geraghty is hoping the horse he sold to Nicky Henderson as a yearling, Bobs Worth, can land the Grade One Albert Bartlett over three miles and a course defeat of Rock On Ruby in January reads very well now after that horse’s Neptune second. Bobs Worth could be worth taking on though with Kilcrea Kim. Winning handicap form is always useful in novice races and Kilcrea Kim has that. He also comes from the in-form Philip Hobbs yard and is proven at the three mile trip.

Baby Run is reported to be at least in the same sort of form as when he won last year’s Foxhunters and that may be enough again.

Brian's Daily Picks

1.30pm Unaccompanied

2.05pm Alarazi

2.40pm Kilcrea Kim

3.20pm Imperial Commander

4.00pm Baby Run

4.40pm Sir Des Champs (Nap)

5.15pm Askthemaster

Nap and Double

Sir Des Champs and Unaccompanied