Telepathique to take on best of Ireland in Mares’ Chase

Lucy Wadham is looking forward to seeing whether Telepathique can end Ireland’s dominance of the Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase at this year’s Cheltenham Festival.

Irish raiders have come out on top in all four renewals of the two-and-a-half-mile contest, with Limerick Lace leading the way 12 months ago for Gavin Cromwell.

Willie Mullins had to settle for second best with Dinoblue on that occasion but has struck with Colreevy and Elimay, while Impervious prevailed for Colm Murphy.

Another strong party will cross the Irish Sea this time, but Telepathique will head the home challenge in fine spirits after winning four of her five races over fences so far.

The seven-year-old started out with a low-key handicap success at Fakenham but has progressed rapidly through the ranks and made all to see off odds-on favourite Brides Hill in a Huntingdon Listed event last time out.

Wadham beamed: “She’s been incredible, she’s gone from 103 to 148 in five runs.

“Hopefully, she will run at Cheltenham in the Mares’ Chase on the Friday, that’s the plan with her and she definitely deserves her chance.

“There’s nowhere else to go, to be honest, so I think we’ve got to go there and we’re looking forward to it.

“Obviously, she hasn’t run at Cheltenham before, so we don’t know how she will handle the track, but she demonstrated last time at Huntingdon that she probably is better to go left-handed than right-handed.

“She’s now rated 148, so really I think that’s where we’ve got to go. I know it’s not a novice, but she seems to have taken to her jumping so well that I wouldn’t be too worried about that.”

Having bagged a brace of wins on good going this term and scoring twice on good to soft, a fair weather forecast between now and the Festival is expected to favour Telepathique.

“I think we do want goodish ground, I think that would be nice for her – I think if it was bottomless, she wouldn’t run,” added Wadham.

“But at the moment, it’s looking like we’ll be OK, whereas others might not be as well suited.

“Especially those coming over from Ireland, who have been racing on soft ground, although we say that and every year they come over and seem to be quite impervious to what the ground is.

“But she’ll have had a nice break from her last run, she’s had some time to recuperate and we’re really happy with her at home.

“So, all being well, we’ll hopefully have a good day out at Cheltenham.”