A race for proper national hunt bred types whose long term future is likely to lie over fences, the Albert Bartlett was added to the Festival card five years ago and has been won twice by the Jonjo O’Neill/Tony McCoy partnership.
The Irish won it for the first time last year courtesy of the Mouse Morris trained Weapon’s Amnesty and again look to have a number of leading fancies.
Their main hope would appear to be Shinrock Paddy, but Willie Mullins also looks to have a strong hand with the likes of Quel Esrpit, Enterprise Park and Fionnegas among his entries for the 3 miler.
The market is headed by Tom George’s progressive Tell Massini who created a huge impression when scoring at Prestbury Park last time out and looks sure to run well.
Others with chances for the home team include Restless Harry and The Betchworth Kid, whilst Nicky Henderson has a potential dark horse called Be There In Five who could be overpriced at 25-1.
On the stats front, three out of the last five winners had won at Cheltenham earlier in the season, and those at the head of the market have fared extremely well.
