Westmeath interest in Cheltenham opening day

With Cheltenham taking centre stage in the sporting world today, local eyes will be firmly fixed on Mighty Mo Missouri, a Mount Temple-owned horse

The four-year-old is owned by the Mount Temple Three Syndicate and will run in the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, better known as The Fred Winter, at 4.50pm on Tuesday, the opening day of the festival.

The syndicate members are from Mount Temple and surrounding hinterland. The horse is trained by Jessica Harrington and Conor Smitters is down to take the ride.

Mighty Mo Missouri is a maiden, having to date raced nine times over flat and National Hunt without a victory.

The horse made its racecourse bow in a flat race on Galway Plate day in Ballybrit last June. After four races on the flat, it was switched to hurdles this campaign, starting in Cork in December, where it finished 11th of 20.

However, there has been improvement in the intervening races, with two second placed finishes in the last two runs indicating that Mighty Mo Missouri is on an upward curve.

At the time of going to press Mighty Mo Missouri is generally a 28/1 shot.