Bravemansgame for the Arkle? Not as mad as it sounds - but still unnecessary
The Cheltenham Festival is five weeks away and in the relative calm before the dizzying storm of preview evenings, punters and pundits alike are scratching around for cute new angles and ante-post value.
Among them is Matt Chapman, who highlighted his refusal to ever sit on the fence with the left-field suggestion on Sky Sports Racing that Bravemansgame should be aimed at the Sporting Life Arkle this year – even though the seven-year-old went all the way up to three miles when producing his best performance yet in beating Ahoy Senor at Kempton over Christmas and is around just 7-2 for the Brown Advisory over the same trip plus half a furlong.
The idea is not completely without precedent. Before the advent of the Turner Novices' Chase, and the Ryanair for older chasers, it used to be commonplace for three-milers to not only run over two miles but be quite successful over the shorter trip.
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