'You Can Get Some Fancy Prices' - Dark Horses To Watch On Day One Of Cheltenham's Showcase Meeting Racing returns to Cheltenham on Friday, as their two-day Showcase Meeting gets underway. We’ve got seven fiercely competitive races to have a look at and the main race of the day is the Grade 2 Oddschecker Novices' Hurdle. We’ve picked out three dark horses to follow and they may have slipped dangerously under the radar. They include one for Irish trainer John McConnell, who has an excellent record at this meeting. 1.15 - William Hill Each Way Extra Handicap Hurdle Montecam represents the dangerous John McConnell and you can get some fancy prices for the lightly raced six-year-old. The step up to three miles didn’t go to plan at Bellewstown on his penultimate start and he eventually faded, after being too keen in the early stages. It was a much better display over 2m4f at the same track last time out and he finished second. That form has worked out rather well, as the third won next time and the fourth has won twice since, including a Listed contest. A stiff 2m4f should be right up his street on that evidence and a big run could be on the cards. McConnell’s gelding showed promise as a novice hurdler for previous connections, winning a Hereford maiden hurdle for Nicky Henderson, and there could be more to come. This is definitely a competitive race and if there was one horse to make the frame at a big price, it could be this one. 2.25 - Foundation Developments Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle Zaochen Enki arrived from France, having previously been trained by Arnaud Chaille-Chaille and finished second on debut at Senonnes-Pouance. There was lots to like about his British debut at Wincanton in March and he went on to score comfortably. Travelling like a dream throughout the race, his rivals had no answer and he probably had more in hand than the official margin suggests. He was therefore a little disappointing at Chepstow and racing too keenly early on impacted his finishing effort. Switching to handicaps here, he’s likely to get a good gallop and that should help him to settle better. We haven’t seen the best of Paul Nicholls’ four-year-old yet and an opening mark of 115 looks very workable, especially as Freddie Keighley takes 8lb off. Nicholls had two winners and a second from three runners at Plumpton on Monday and it would be dangerous to rule out this thoroughly unexposed sort. 3.00 - Oddschecker Novices' Hurdle Speaking of in-form trainers, Olly Murphy is firing on all cylinders at the moment and he is set to be represented by Sir Galahad in the feature Grade 2 novices’ hurdle. Murphy and stable jockey Sean Bowen had a four-timer at Perth on Tuesday and that bodes well. Sir Galahad has been running in some of the more competitive handicap hurdles over the summer and has still only had six starts in this sphere. He got off the mark at Wetherby in March and followed that up with two wide-margin successes in novice company. Scoring again on handicap debut at Worcester in June, he has since run well in a couple of Class 2 events. Murphy’s four-year-old comes back up against his fellow novices here and he can use his experience in open handicaps to his advantage.
