Twenty fences over an extended three miles stand between the six scheduled starters and a taste of Cheltenham glory in what is usually a competitive long-distance novices’ chase.
With a disappointingly small field going to post for the Brown Advisory Chase, it’s hard to see this being anything but a two-horse race between FACT TO FILE and STAY AWAY FAY.
The former has been strongly talked up to allow the Willie Mullins-Paul Townend pairing to notch up another festival Grade 1, and he certainly made a comfortable transition from hurdling to chasing when asked to tackle larger obstacles this term.
Fact To File was foot perfect when landing successive wins at Leopardstown in December and February – the latter was an actual two-horse race, and he already had the race in the bag when Gaelic Warrior (who franked the form by landing the Arkle here on day one) unseated his rider at the last.
If Fact To File copes with his first effort over three miles, then he should prevail, but while that doubt remains, we’re going to side with last year’s Albert Bartlett winner Stay Away Fay.
Paul Nicholls’ seven-year-old has also taken readily to fences, winning at both novice and Grade 2 level at Exeter and Sandown respectively, before finishing a decent third in open company in January’s Cotswold Chase, which was over a slightly longer trip.
He’ll be sporting first-time cheekpieces to keep him focused in the open spaces offered by such a small field, and he can be expected to give another bold run to give the odds-on favourite plenty to think about over the three-mile slog.
With just half a dozen runners, it will be tough for the other four rivals to split the market leaders, but there’s whisper among Tipstrr’s each-way specialists that Sandor Clegane could give a much better account of himself than his outsider price might suggest.
He was only just over a length behind Stay Away Fay in last year’s Albert Bartlett, has been far from disgraced in three efforts over fences this term, and was last seen finishing runner-up behind the highly-rated Embassy Gardens at Naas in January.
Paul Nolan’s seven-year-old will need some help from the top two if he is to feature, but if either of them falter, he could well be close enough to pick up the each-way pieces.
