Alfa Back on Cheltenham Beat

Irish trainer Charles Byrnes has made something of a u-turn in revealing that he now intends to send his progressive staying handicapper Alpha Beat to the Cheltenham Festival for the National Hunt Chase having only last month made it clear that the horse would not take his chance and would instead be trained for the Irish Grand National, writes Elliot Slater.

Byrnes’ change of heart appears to have been prompted by the realisation that Alpha Beat would be saddled with a high weight for the Fairyhouse marathon and he now favours going to Cheltenham for the non-handicap four-mile event. Byrnes had been convinced that Cheltenham was not a possibility for the winner of his last five starts and was all but certain he would not be ready in time to give a good account of himself, but it now appears that Alpha Beat has progressed well with his training and this has been the main reason behind the sudden change of plan. With Alpha Beat’s track record for success the horse racing odds for Cheltenham look like backing this horse would turn out a profit.

Alpha Beat’s winning run began when landing a Roscommon handicap chase in June of last year off a mark of 92 after which he scored at Wexford, following up off a stone higher mark. A win off a lower rating in a handicap hurdle followed at Limerick in July, before the seven-year-old, (raised another 14lbs) returned to fences to win at the Galway Festival in August off a mark of 120. The handicapper than slammed the grey with a further 17lb hike to a mark of 137, but even that didn’t stop his winning run as he landed the £85,000 Kerry National Handicap Chase at Listowel in September, beating Dancing Tornado by three-and-a-half lengths.

Alpha Beat has now been re-introduced into the National Hunt Chase ante-post list as a best priced 10/1 second favourite, although he is generally on offer at 8/1 behind 6/1 favourite Chicago Grey.