Vincent O’Brien County Handicap Hurdle to serve a starter for Gold Cup Day

Day Four | Paul Berry | December 29, 2011 at 11:43 am

We continue our Beginners Guide to the Festival by moving to the final day as we take a look at the Vincent O’Brien County Handicap Hurdle, which serves up a starter for the main course – the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

By the time the final day of the Cheltenham Festival comes around, everybody is talking about the Cheltenham Gold Cup. It is the highlight of the Festival and the biggest prize of all for jockeys and trainers alike.

As such, the final day of the festival is named Cheltenham Gold Cup day. However, there are six other competitive races to consider, including the Vincent O’Brien County Handicap Hurdle.

This event is second up on the final day of the Cheltenham Festival and stands as one of the longest serving events in the festival’s history.

Looking at the specifics for this event, it is a class A Grade 3 hurdles race, competed by horses aged five and over covering a distance of two miles and one furlong.

In terms of who has been most successful in this race, Paul Nicholls has trained six winners, while Ruby Walsh – the reigning Irish National Hunt Champion – has dominated the field recently with three wins from the last six races.

Looking at the betting markets for this year Brampour is the favourite at 10/1, followed by Prospect Wells and Rock on Ruby who are both 14/1. Other contenders at this stage include Final Approach and Gibb River at 16/1.

The beauty of the County Handicap Hurdle though it that it has a history of winners coming from further adrift as far as the odds are concerned.

It has thrown up many big price winners over the years – including 20/1 shot Thousand Stars in 2010 – and 2012 could be the same again. Therefore, who is ruling out the likes of Moon Dice, Pateese or Flat Out? All of whom are available at 20/1 at this stage.

Overall it is a very enjoyable race and one where racing punters look to make significant profit. The County Handicap Hurdle at next year’s Cheltenham Festival gets underway at 2.05pm on Friday 16th March.