The 2022 Festival Novices' Chase is also known by many as the Festival Novices Chase and it’s always a highlight of the Cheltenham Festival, with some of the leading novice chasers competing on Day Two of the meeting and the distance is a gruelling three miles plus.
Many leading contenders who perform well in the Festival Novices Chase go on to compete in later Cheltenham Gold Cup races and Monkfish seems to tick that box, with Willie Mullins having a superstar on his hands and the seven-year-old seems a virtual certainty to be sent off as the short price favourite to win this one.
Monkfish won the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle twelve months ago when obliging at odds of 5/1 and he’s enjoyed a couple of relatively easy victories since that triumph at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, with the horse landing the spoils at Fairyhouse before a Grade 1 victory in the Neville Hotels Novice Chase over Christmas.
Nevertheless, there will be punters looking to oppose Monkfish at the prices and Latest Exhibition looks a good idea of an each-way gamble at the current prices, with Paul Nolan not a trainer renowned for racking up Cheltenham Festival wins although he’s got a lively chance in the Festival Novices Chase this time around.
The horse was only beaten by a neck in the Albert Bartlett in last year’s Cheltenham Festival and has continued to serve up some impressive performances, winning a Beginners’ Chase before running well behind Monkfish at Leopardstown.
The Big Breakaway could line up in this race for trainer Colin Tizzard and the horse ran fairly well when finishing fourth in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle last year and has since taken well to the bigger obstacles, with a notable victory being achieved at Cheltenham in November.