ITV Racing Tips: Saturday Each-Way Double for Cheltenham

ALAPHILIPPE (best price 6/1) was 16 lengths adrift of Good Risk At All at Carlisle on his chase debut, but the 2m4f was too short for him, and the trip suited the winner more. Back over three miles, I expect Fergal O’Brien’s charge to prove a different proposition.

This talented nine-year-old is lightly raced for his age, and two of his best performances have come at this course over this distance. He won four of his first five starts, including a Grade 2 race at Haydock on soft ground back in February 2021.

He was then deemed good enough to contest the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle a month later at the Cheltenham Festival and ran really well to finish fifth of 16, in which he was less than a length behind Stattler. Not seen for the rest of the year, he returned in a Pertemps qualifier at Warwick and wasn't beaten far in fifth before returning to the festival in March to contest the Pertemps.

Sent off 11/2c, he travelled so well and was beaten just a short head when second of 22 after being hampered inside the final 50 yards by the eventual winner. I have no doubt he would have won otherwise. Clearly, this course plays to his strengths, and, with plenty more to come under favourable conditions, he is handed a confident vote to deservedly win here. I am really strong on his chances. 

SPRINGWELL BAY (best price 2/1) improved with every start last season and concluded his campaign with a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Turners Mersey Novices’ Hurdle. He did well to finish where he did after being badly hampered at a crucial stage of the race. He travelled really well through that race, and this is a major drop in grade, as he now drops into a class 3 handicap.

He has a good record after a break, and his staying on third in a Grade 2 event at this meeting last year is a solid piece of form. The six-year-old should have more improvement in him now that he is tackling this longer distance, and a mark of 137 looks well within his compass. I can easily see him reaching 145+, and that might happen if he wins this well. He will be difficult to beat with so much in his favour.