Strong Athlone and Drumraney interest in Cheltenham today

There is strong local interest in Cheltenham today, with Athlone jockey Kielan Woods having two mounts, and a locally-connected horse also featuring.

Woods has hit the headlines at Cheltenham in recent years, memorably winning the Grand Annual Handicap Chase on Global Citizen in 2022, and on Croco Bay, three years previously.

His best chance of extending that record this week could be on the talented Sixmilebridge in the Turners Novices Hurdle tody (1.20pm).

The six-year-old, trained by Fergal O'Brien, was an impressive winner of the Grade 2 AIS Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham's Trials Day in January.

However, the trainer has since revealed the horse is likely to be disqualified from that victory, after testing positive for a banned race-day substance

O'Brien said he believed the positive test was due to a perfectly legal joint injection 22 days before the race.

Racing rules say a horse cannot receive such an injection less than 14 days before running and O'Brien said he believed the horse had not metabolised the drug as expected.

Woods is also on Jonjo O'Neill's Jipcot in the Coral Cup at 2.40pm.

Woods is set to be on board Diva Luna for Ben Pauling in the Ryanair Mares' Novices Hurdle on Thursday (1.20pm).

And he will take the ride on the Harry Redknapp's Shakem Up'arry at 4.40pm tomorrow, in the TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase.

The Ben Pauling-trained horse will be looking for a second successive win in the race, having triumphed last year under Ben Jones.

Meanwhile, the Drumraney area will also be closing monitoring proceedings today.

Local man PJ Murphy, who had a long association with the South Westmeath Hunt Point to Point meeting, is part of the Slaneyville Syndicate which owns Lecky Watson, a runner in the second race on Wednesday.

It's the seven-year-old's second stint over the famous Prestbury Park track, having finished an unlucky fifth in the bumper last year.

Slaneyville Syndicate, is a mainly Carlow-based group of owners, which also includes PJ. The syndicate, which has been existence for many years, purchased the horse at the age of three.

Trained by Willie Mullins, Lecky Watson is the ride of Sean O'Keeffe in the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase (Grade 1) run over three miles and a half furlong, which gets underway at 2pm today.