Jamie Snowden says he’s hopeful that You Wear It Well can cause an upset in the Mares Hurdle at Cheltenham Festival on Tuesday afternoon.
The 4.10 PM race is currently dominated by Willie Mullins’ Lossiemouth, who is best priced at 4/5 with BetMGM and BetUK at the moment.
But, Snowden is quietly confident that his seven-year-old mare can spring a surprise at a generous 25/1 with Unibet.
“She’s feeling great, looking great, she’s appreciating a bit of sun on her back now so hopefully, horses for courses and all that, but she can put up a good performance,” he said.
She won at the famous festival last year when she defeated Henry De Bromhead’s Magical Zoe by three lengths.
You Wear It Well also beat Nicky Henderson’s red-hot favourite Luccia on that day, who is entered into the Champion Hurdle later today.
Snowden’s mare has had a less fluent preparation for the Festival this time around, but he’s managed to manoeuvre a pathway for her over the last six months.
“We go into the race off the back of a different kind of preparation,” Snowden admitted. “But, she’s had a good year, a slightly interrupted year, every race we’ve planned on going to has been postponed or abandoned so we’ve lacked a bit of a rhythm through the year.”
Despite the disrupted build-up, You Wear It Well has shown no signs of regression in her performances.
She won a listed race at Wetherby in November, was third in a grade one at Sandown in December and was narrowly beaten by Marie’s Rock at Doncaster in late January.
The unforgiving rain at the racecourse in recent hours will no doubt have an impact on proceedings later today, and Snowden will be hoping that the heavy ground stifles Lossiemouth’s chances and heightens the potential for a surprise winner.