The Champ represented by a swathe of runners at Cheltenham including defending Champion Chase hero Special Tiara.
Kayf Tara’s star performer at last year’s Cheltenham Festival was the evergreen Special Tiara who landed the G1 Queen Mother Champion Chase for Henry de Bromhead and Sally Rowley-Williams. The 11-year-old had previously finished third twice in the race and is entered once again to defend his crown and to add to his tally of three Grade 1 victories.
Special Tiara is not the only son of Kayf Tara with a Grade 1 entry at the Festival next week. Britain’s champion National Hunt stallion could have three representatives in the Gold Cup, in which his most recent top-level winner, Edwulf, holds an entry alongside Tea For Two and Blaklion.
Identity Thief, whose six victories include the G1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle, is another from the De Bromhead team to be crossing the Irish Sea and he holds an entry for the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday. Just prior to that, North Hill Harvey could line up for the Arkle Chase, and he also has an entry for the Grand Annual on Friday.
The dual Grade 1-winning hurdler Lieutenant Colonel, who, like Identity Thief runs in the Gigginstwon House Stud colours, is set to take on a strong field for the G1 Stayers’ Hurdle, the feature race of Thursday’s card.
With no fewer than four entries at Cheltenham is the Noel Meade-trained Moyross, who has the G1 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, the G1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, the G3 Coral Cup and the G3 Pertemps Final all as potential targets.
Glenloe and Copper Kay also have Coral Cup engagements, while Glenloe also features in the Pertemps Final entries along with A Great View. The multiple-winning mares Poppy Kay and Kayf Grace feature among the list of horses entered for the G3 County Hurdle on Friday, though James and Jean Potter’s Kayf Grace could take her chance in the G1 OLBG Mares’ Hurdle on the opening day.
Halo Moon, Carole’s Destrier, Final Nudge and Bells Of Allsworth could make it a quartet of runners for Kayf Tara in Tuesday’s G3 Ultima Handicap Chase, while No Comment, a good recent third in the G1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase, is set for the stamina test which is the National Hunt Chase on Tuesday.
The admirable Ballybolley, now a 10-time winner for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, including at the Grand National meeting, bids to add another big Festival success to his repertoire in the G3 Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate, in which he could be joined by Kayf Adventure.
We can expect to see plenty more of Schiaparelli’s offspring appear at the Cheltenham Festival in the future and he is represented by his first next week, the novice hurdle winner Angels Antics, who is entered in both mares’ races for Nigel Twiston-Davies.
