Cheltenham Placepot picks: Paul Kealy's perm for the £100k guaranteed pool

The market may say otherwise, but on Racing Post Ratings there's no more than 1lb separating the four runners in Cheltenham's opener (12.10), which doesn't make it an ideal race for Placepot punters.

That's Nice is well regarded, although on bumper form Wingmen would be at least a stone better than the mare she beat by a length and a half on her hurdles debut. Country Mile is promising, too, and may prefer this better ground to Haydock last time, so I'm not leaving him out.

I'll bank on Caldwell Potter in the next (12.40), though, as he was fairly assured on his chase debut at Carlisle, and will relish the extra trip here and going back left-handed.

The next is fiercely competitive and I can see a case for opposing the front two. My three against the field are the four-timer-seeking To Chase A Dream, Greatwood fourth Tintintin, and Media Naranja, who ran a cracker in a valuable event at Fairyhouse less than two weeks ago.

Chianti Classico is surely going to be hard to keep out of the frame in the fourth (1.50) and, while I've backed Our Power at a big price each-way, I'm happy to stick with the potential Gold Cup contender for this bet.

A competitive veterans' chase (2.25) needs cover, though, so I'm going with Shan Blue, who ran a nice race at Bangor on his return, Eldorado Allen, who has been placed at two festivals in his time, and Raffle Ticket, who despite his age was clearly still improving when last seen.

The final leg (3.00) is a cross-country race in which handicap marks can mean little. French raider Iceo Madrik is favourite despite being 11lb out of the weights, but last month's French-trained winner of one of these was even further out of the handicap. The cross-country specialist goes in with Mister Coffey, who usually runs his race without deigning to put his head in front.

Cheltenham Placepot perm

12.10
1 Country Mile
3 Wingmen
4 That's Nice

12.40
2 Caldwell Potter

1.15
6 To Chase A Dream
7 Media Naranja
8 Tintintin

1.50
1 Chianti Classico

2.25
2 Eldorado Allen
6 Raffle Ticket
7 Shan Blue

3.00
12 Mister Coffey
16 Iceo Madrik

3x1x3x1x3x2=54 lines

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