The three-mile Pertemps Final on the Old Course could turn out to be quite the slog.

£100,000 is up for grabs, a sum that makes this race the second least valuable on the day but this race is still a major betting affair and that’s what grabs our attention.

Twelve hurdles are to be taken by what should be a maximum field of 24 runners. Last year’s Stayers’ Hurdle winner Sire Du Berlais took this race in 2019 and 2020, with Delta Work winning it before that and we hope there’s something just as goof lurking this time.

In attempting to reduce this field down we had very little luck. So well grouped are these horses in the handicap that it was a basket case to try to resolve. We have eked out seven against the field though, those being:

Main Contenders

Cuthbert Dibble 

Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Cuthbert Dibble has been considered a live contender all week, the gelding seeking a four-timer and being a single-figure price for this race.

He’s an obvious type, but there is one thing bothering us. He improved markedly between his wins at Ffos Las and Chepstow over around 2½ miles, but didn’t step forward nearly as much despite scoring over three miles at Haydock.

True, it was very testing there but he’ll need to stay every yard in this race off another revised mark and that will not be simple.

Emitom 

Alan King’s Emitom may be a ten-year-old now but he’s bang in form and has a major chance here.

Second twice earlier in the season, he won last time out against Kyntara (see below) and we reckon that’s the sort of form needed to win this race. Though he won well, it wasn’t easy last time and he’s up in the weights which at this age gives him a hard task.

Gowel Road 

Also representing Nigel-Twiston Davies, though reportedly the second string, is Gowel Road.

A big price, this horse shouldn’t be underestimated entirely although he isn’t seen on the track an awful lot these days and his last win was in 2022. That said, he’s nudging down the weights and at some point, his time will come again.

Hector Javilex 

Charlie Longsdon’s runner is 3-9 over hurdles and, having reached a career peak around January 2023, he is showing big signs of getting his best form back.

Natural improvement from his trial run at Musselburgh to this race would see him go close, but considering the chances are the team at home have prepped him perfectly he could most certainly outrun his odds. Big each-way chance.

Judicial Law 

At around 40/1 at the time of writing Judicial Law is a crazy price. While acknowledging that he has run 17 times over hurdles and is exposed, we need to keep in mind the positives.

Jonjo O’Neill’s runner has won 5 times already. That’s a good strike-rate. He is also only seven years old and so regardless of how many times he’s run we can still expect improvement from him.

He’s only 2lbs higher than when second of 20 around here in October and so if that improvement comes, he has what we’d think is an obvious chance.

Kyntara 

Charlie Deutsch has partnered Mel Rowley’s Kyntara on his last four hurdle starts, producing form figures of 1122.

The story runs deeper than that. He was impressive at Aintree in December, producing a performance that would see him win most handicaps off the 131 mark he has now and we can expect that he’s got better since then.

He was only runner-up at Warwick and Newbury coming here but will have learned plenty and he has claims to be called the best handicapped horse in the race in these conditions.

Monmiral 

Paul Nicholls doesn’t specifically target the Cheltenham Festival with most horses like others do, but Monmiral can’t be ruled out.

Still only a seven-year-old, he has won half of his hurdle races and could be well handicapped given that he’s slipped down the ratings.

Summary

This really is just so close to call. It would be no surprise were any of the above horses to win this, nor indeed several others due to run in this field.

Given all the information we have, KYNTARA is very narrowly the best of the bunch to our thinking. At the time of writing he is still around the 20/1 mark too, so that makes him a pretty decent each-way bet given the number of places bookmakers are advertising.