Key questions as Josies Orders goes for another cross-country win

3.05 Cheltenham
Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase | 3m6f, 6yo+ | ITV4/RUK

KEY QUESTIONS

Can Josies prove a giant again?

Grand National winner Tiger Roll has not been declared but racegoers can enjoy the sight of two more festival favourites doing what they do best when Josies Orders takes on last year's winner Bless The Wings over the cross-country course's many and varied obstacles.

Bless The Wings, so often the bridesmaid at the festival, took this race last year from Cantlow, with Josies Orders only third, but this year's Grand National third turns 14 in a fortnight's time and he was well beaten behind Josies Orders here on his reappearance.

Josies Orders, awarded the Glenfarclas Chase at the 2016 festival on the disqualification of Any Currency having won this race earlier in the campaign, really had to battle here last month after being headed on the run-in by Fact Of The Matter.

However, he was firmly on top at the finish to clinch a fourth Cheltenham cross-country win, underlining his aptitude for this discipline in which he has scored twice around Punchestown's banks course.

Enda Bolger, the unrivalled master of the cross-country scene and also the trainer lightly weighted My Hometown, is optimistic. He said: "The complexion of the race has changed a bit now that Tiger Roll doesn’t run. The weights have gone up, but Josies Orders is on song and we’re looking forward to a big run."

He added: "My Hometown will be there to pick up the pieces."

Will the prize cross the Channel?

The absence of three-time festival winner Tiger Roll has led to an unexpected 8lb rise in the weights, but that is good news for French challengers Amazing Comedy and Vol Noir De Kerser, both of whom were well out of the handicap proper.

Connections of Vol Noir De Kerser have a fine record in this sphere abroad and have already bagged the ten-race Crystal Cup European Cross Country Challenge, for which this is the last of the ten legs, the series having begun at Pau in south-west France in February and has taken in four further races in France along with visits to Poland, Belgium, Italy and the Czech Republic for the Velka Pardubicka.

Vol Noir De Kerser,'s trainer Patrice Quinton and owner Ecurie des Dunes have won their respective categories in the Crystal Cup for the last four years and both top their respective leaderboards yet again.

Their nine-year-old should not be underestimated at long odds as he has been targeted at this and needed the run when fourth behind Amazing Comedy in the Grand Steeple Chase-Cross-Country de Compiegne.

Quinton said: "Vol Noir De Kerser wasn't at all ready for it at Compiegne as we had given him a break due to some other races being cancelled.

"We ran there with the objective being ready for Cheltenham, and Thomas [Beaurain, jockey] said a year ago that if any horse could perform well in England it is him as he is very tough."

Bless The Wings (Davy Russell) jumps the last clear 12 months agoCredit: Alan Crowhurst

What they say

Sam Curling, trainer of Wounded Warrior
We haven't had him that long but he's been schooling well and hopefully he can run well.

Jamie Snowden, trainer of Fact Of The Matter
He ran a cracker in the cross-country at the last meeting and a reproduction of that form would give him every chance. They say horses tend to improve for their first experience of those fences, so I'm hopeful.

Emma Lavelle, trainer of Junction Fourteen
This will be a new experience for him and a step into the unknown distance-wise, but he's been away and done plenty of schooling and he's absolutely loved it. He definitely has the ability and this might be just the thing to revitalise him.

David Cottin, trainer of Amazing Comedy
He was very impressive in the Grand Steeple Chase-Cross-Country de Compiegne in November and jumped very well that day. He came out of it great and is in very good form. I rode him when he finished fifth over the cross-country fences at Cheltenham at the 2017 festival and he should stand a better chance in handicap company now he knows the track. It is my dream to win at Cheltenham and I expect him to run well.

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