The Cheltenham festival is coming around quickly and with that in mind we have picked out an ante-post selection for the National Hunt Chase on the first day of the four day meeting.
Our pick for the marathon distanced race is the Gordon Elliott trained Run Wild Fred with the Gigginstown owned gelding being primed for this event since his first run of the season.
The eight year old is technically still a novice over fences this season having not won last term in his first term over the bigger obstacles.
Although not winning he put up some superb efforts, including seconds in the Thyestes Handicap Chase and Irish Grand National.
This term he returned at Cork in a Grade Three Novice Chase over 2m4f and he finished a fair second behind Cape Gentleman with trip far too short, overall it being a prep race.
It worked perfectly setting him up for the Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan as he went on to win eased down by close to eight lengths.
Looking to truly see how good he was last time out at Leopardstown over Christmas he finished a good second behind stablemate Fury Road in the Grade One Neville Hotels Novice Chase.
This confirmed that the National Hunt Chase would be his point of call at the festival, staying the trip well and also being able to mix it with the best in Ireland at three miles.
At 5/1 he still represents big value and is our ante-post selection for the race.
