French raiders at this year’s Cheltenham Festival

The French contingent have some of their strongest chances in recent memory at this year’s Cheltenham Festival.

The squad is headed by Il Est Francais who we’ll either see on day two or day three of the Festival.

We’ve assessed the best of the raiding party from France and what sort of chances they have of taking some prize money back across the Channel next week.

King George runner-up has options open

One of the big talking horses of this year’s Festival is the French star, Il Est Francais.

He’s already got his head in front in Britain having won last season’s Kauto Star Chase with a fine display of jumping on December 26 in 2023. It has been a mixed bag of results for him since that mightily impressive run at Kempton but he looked firmly back on song when nearly making all the running back at Kempton in this season’s King George.

Il Est Francais may have won that day with a slicker jump two out and Banbridge, now second favourite for this year’s Gold Cup, was the only one capable of getting in the same postcode as the French raider.

His options are open as far as this year’s Festival is concerned. He was taken out of the Gold Cup when the latest round of entries were announced but he’s still in both the Champion Chase and the Ryanair.

There have been calls for him to go to the former contest and seeing him bid to make all over the minimum trip at Cheltenham would be a sight to behold but that race has Jonbon and Solness who both arrive in fine form.

The easier option is the Ryanair over two miles and five furlongs. Connections have hinted that the intermediate trip Grade 1 is his likelier target and with a largely dry forecast over the next seven days, that has to be the smarter choice.

Cottin has Cross Country chance

Another fascinating French contender could be Iceo Madrik who unseated in a Cheltenham Cross Country Handicap before Christmas.

The David Cottin-trained runner boasts some smart form over banks in France and is a better horse than he was able to show at Auteuil last month. Conditions are probably his biggest threat given that a lot of his better efforts have come on very deep ground in France.

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