TEMPLEGATE delivers his latest Cheltenham Festival ante-post advice below – after being blown away by one new superstar of the sport.
Our man puts up two selections… and he’s already tipped up a 50-1 Grand National pick for Members Enclosure readers.
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Over to Templegate…
On a day when Jonbon put in another brilliant effort to win the Clarence House Chase, it was going to take some effort to be the highlight at Ascot.
But LULAMBA sent a shiver down the spine thanks to his superb success in the opening juvenile hurdle.
The four-year-old showed quality in France before being snapped up by the all-conquering Donnellys who have sent him to Nicky Henderson.
There are already seven Triumph Hurdles in the Seven Barrows trophy room and it will surely be eight thanks to this brilliant young hurdler.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D103995%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]He was giving 520,000 euro buy Mondo Man 10lb but the result never looked in doubt as he travelled sweetly and jumped well in scoring by more than three lengths.
It could have been any distance a motionless Nico De Boinville wanted such was the amount of petrol left in the tank.
I try not to get carried away by what happens in January at very different tracks to Cheltenham like Ascot – but even at the last bit of 13-8 available Lulamba is a corking bet for the Triumph.
He’ll be off level weights with his rivals there and you may just want to wait to see what East India Dock does on Trials Day in the hope Lulamba’s price drifts out a tad if he’s impressive.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=” ‘Now that is a rocket’ – Willie Mullins horse absolutely obliterated in Cheltenham Festival betting after huge debut” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6367180295112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Whatever happens, I’ll be stunned if he doesn’t win the Triumph as there’s plenty more to come.
It could end up being a pretty small field as he’ll scare most of them off.
JONBON saw off Energumene with plenty left in the tank and the Champion Chase should be next.
Gaelic Warrior will have to do something special at the Dublin Racing Festival to convince me Henderson won’t be carrying off another big prize in March.