Angels Dawn on the hunt for more Cheltenham glory

Angels Dawn has already given Sam Curling one huge moment at the Cheltenham Festival and the County Tipperary trainer is hoping she can provide another as he prepares her for action in the St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase.

Winner of the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup at Prestbury Park in 2023 and third in the Thyestes at this point of the season last term, the 10-year-old has plenty of class and will now bid for another Festival success in the other contest for amateur jockeys at the meeting.

It is a trophy connections would love to get their hands on and after looking a cut above in two point-to-point victories, the Angels Dawn team are hoping for soft ground on the Friday of National Hunt’s showpiece event.

“For sure, we’re looking forward to Cheltenham, she’s going very well and has won her two point-to-points, so we’re just getting geared up now for a crack at the Hunters’ Chase,” said Curling.

“She’s had a couple of racecourse schools and we said we’d take her straight there fresh. She’s in great form and is working very well and if there is any ease in the ground, I think she would have a great chance.

“She’s a brilliant mare and we’re very big into the point-to-pointing, so to have a chance in the hunters would be brilliant. It would be the main race we would love to win, so it’s great to go over there with one we think has a chance.”