Cheltenham Day 1 Nap of the Day: The Short Go can end Ireland’s Ultima drought

The Cheltenham Festival is upon us and for the next four days, my Nap selections will come exclusively from Prestbury Park.

On Tuesday, it's an Irish raider in the opening handicap of the week that rates my Cheltenham Day 1 Nap of the Day.

"The Irish don't win the Ultima," they say.

In fairness to the statisticians among us, it's not a regular occurrence. The last winner of the 3m1f handicap chase to come from across the Irish Sea was Dun Doire in 2006.

Treating that stat as gospel and failing to consider Irish runners as a result is unwise, however. They might have struggled to find a winner for 19 years, but the Irish have seen plenty hit the frame - including Meetingofthewaters (3rd) last year, Fastorslow (2nd) in 2023 and Discorama (3rd) in 2020.

There's no curse, and horses aren't conscious of the race they're running in. It's just been targeted, successfully, by the home team and less so by the visitors.

With that in mind, my Nap for the opening day of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival is THE SHORT GO.

I've bored people senseless talking about Henry de Bromhead's eight-year-old this season, and it's fair to say my hopes haven't waned at the 24-hour stage.

The son of Fame And Glory has been firmly on my radar for a big handicap ever since he finished runner-up to stablemate Senior Chief in a warm contest at Cheltenham's October meeting.

On just his fourth start over fences, off a mark of 126, he came from all the way out back, passing 12 of his 13 rivals one-by-one, to get within a length and a half to the aforementioned winner. It was a clear career-best from a lightly-raced individual who remains open to plenty of improvement.

Eleven lengths behind The Short Go was the reopposing Broadway Boy, who's vying for favouritism at time of writing. Nigel Twiston-Davies' significantly more-exposed runner is only five pounds better off at the weights, so I can't understand why he's around four points shorter. In fact, why is he shorter at all?

I think the British handicapper was in a kind mood when reassessing this one's mark a fortnight ago. He was raised six pounds, whereas Senior Chief was put up nine - and the latter performed admirably in spite of poor jumping off that higher mark in the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury a month later.

A few weeks after his visit to HQ, the selection lined up in the Troytown at Navan and was sent off second favourite (11/2). Unfortunately, his race was cut short at the 12th fence and it was still too early to predict where he'd have ended up. It's interesting how strong he was in the betting, though.

De Bromhead always planned to give him a break afterwards with a view to return in the spring, and I think it exudes confidence that connections are willing to roll the dice here without a prep run.

There's few better than De Bromhead at getting one ready for the big day and I'm extremely hopeful that The Short Go, who will love forecast conditions, can run a huge race under Rachael Blackmore, who's no stranger to a Cheltenham Festival winner.

At 11/1 - which mightn't last much longer judging by the money that's coming across the boards - in a Super Extra Place Race (with 6 available instead of 4), this is an each-way suggestion.

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