Paddy Power ready for Cheltenham
10 Mar 2011
Many of the connections of the possible runners will be hoping that they have the right horse to pull off a Paddy Power Imperial Cup-Festival race double, which earns them a lucrative bonus of £75,000 from Paddy Power.
If they can win the Paddy Power Imperial Cup, they will also become eligible for the £75,000 bonus from the universe's friendliest bookie to the connections of the winner of this race should the same horse go on to win any race at the 2011 Festival Meeting at Cheltenham from March 15th-18th, 2011. This will be distributed as follows: £50,000 to the winning owner, £15,000 to the winning trainer and £10,000 to the winning stable.
So far David Pipe and his father Martin are the only trainers to have pulled off the Paddy Power Imperial Cup-Festival race double, scooping the additional pot in the process. Martin managed it twice courtesy of Olympian (1993) and Blowing Wind five years' later. The former went on to win the Coral Cup, while Blowing Wind landed the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle.
David emulated his dad in 2007 with Gaspara, who later was an easy five length winner of the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices' Handicap Hurdle in the colours of a certain Mr M C Pipe!
In 2008 he again won the Paddy Power Imperial Cup with Ashkazar, who was three and a half lengths too powerful for Fredensborg under an inspired Timmy Murphy ride, but the winner was unable to cope with Crack Away Jack in the Fred Winter in which he went down by two and a half lengths.
This year Pipe has Arrayan and Ronaldo Des Mottes among the 40 entries. They are 12-1 and 20-1 respectively to win on Saturday. The former has two Festival entries and is shortest for the County Hurdle with Paddy at 14-1, while Ronaldo Des Mottes is in the same race at 16-1.
Evan Williams intends running Fiulin, a 20-1 chance with Paddy, who has been placed in two novice hurdles this season, including behind Dunraven Storm and Recession Proof at Ascot in October.
The Welsh wizard said: “He's grand after Ascot and he's a horse that we well and truly thought might have won a novice hurdle by now but he's been beaten by some decent horses. He's in good form and has come out of that race very well.
“Put it this way, you've not seen on the track what he's shown at home and he's a lot better than he's shown so far and one day it will come to fruition.”
Asked if Paddy's generous bonus was on his mind as Fiulin is entered in seven Cheltenham races, shortest in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle at 20-1, Williams responded: “We'll keep an eye on it but he's not won his maiden hurdle yet and it's a long way to winning the Paddy Power Imperial Cup and the bonus. But he's a horse with plenty of ability and we're hoping that he runs well on Saturday and worry about everything else later.
“He needs top of the ground.”