IF there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore no need for faith.

– From the Ralph Fiennes Cardinal Lawrence character in the current award-winning movie Conclave.

Faith is important at this time of year, as much for punters as prospective Popes! It’s approaching the time when we have all the evidence backing up the Cheltenham ‘bankers’, and we have to decide who to have faith in and wondering where a bit of doubt might remain.

The ‘bankers’ consist of Sir Gino (4/5), Constitution Hill (4/5), Jonbon (5/4), Teahupoo (5/4) and Galopin Des Champs (5/6). That’s an easy €1,500 return for a €50 accumulator, would you think?

Today will reaffirm our Gold Cup faith in Galopin Des Champs. Majborough is the threat to Sir Gino and I’d not want to do the ‘GSI’ into Sir Gino until we see the Mullins horse perform again today.

Teahupoo might be the less flashy ‘talking’ horse, but opposition to him looks sparse in the Stayers’.

No one big threat has appeared and most of his rivals have more losses than wins this season against their names.

There can surely be no doubts with a fully on-song Constitution Hill, can there? The reactions to Saturday’s win were interesting. If, as it looks, we retain full faith in the ability of the horse, how much doubt do we place on the rider?

Paul Townend is at the top of his game, he rarely gets it wrong. It certainly looked on Saturday, from all the slow-mo replays at the final hurdle, that it was a case of Nico said go, Constitution went okay, and then said no, having thought the better of what he was being asked to do, he then got caught in indecision between the two, scrambling over the last hurdle.

Looking back over the season, a similar scenario played out in the Tingle Creek Chase. Look at the second last fence. Nico de Boinville again asked Jonbon to take the fence off a long stride. By now, Jonbon knows his own capabilities and said no, and went in close.

It goes to show that, even with top horse and rider communications, they can still get it wrong.

All of Constitution Hill’s form suggests he is well ahead of his rivals, but coming to the last, you’ll still be holding the breath at those short odds.

THE complexion of the Grand National has certainly changed over the last 10 years and a look at this year’s entries certainly indicate that.

It goes from one-time Gold Cup fancies in Bravemansgame and Envoi Allen to one of this year’s top novices in Hyland, and encompassing many top handicappers in between, like the two Irish National winners, I Am Maximus and Intense Raffles.

A lot of the weekend talk was about Iroko, but I’m not convinced he has the perfect profile for the race, even with it now being a lesser test for a horse.

Though last year’s race had the obvious ‘new arrival’ in the eight-year-old winner - of the first four home, Delta Work was 11, as was Minella Indo, and Galvin was a 10-year-old. And top weights are regularly making the top four. The times of confining your search to those below 11st are gone. Noble Yeats and Any Second Now made the frame off 11st 11lb and 11st 8lb.

In the entries, Envoi Allen caught the eye. He is 11 and looks a horse with no obvious race target.

Despite that, he was good enough to win the Grade 1 Ladbroke Chase again at Down Royal.

With compressed weights and the race being less severe, he could be the type whose class will allow him to travel into a place. He’s 50/1 and there are worse bets in the race at this early stage.

(Not) Talking trainers another bad move

THE reaction to the proposed media ‘black-out’ by British trainers signed up to their PRA, to ask for financial payment for interviews, went down like a lead balloon early this week.

It seemed even more divisive when you consider that many of the trainers were sponsored, for increased media exposure, by bookmakers. It was just another branch of the racing industry being incredibly poor at presenting a case for its needs, resulting in more bad publicity.

The details behind the intention may have been a lot less controversial than at first thought, reading John Berry in the TDN.

“None of the money given in recognition of trainers’ collective co-operation would be given to any trainers, but instead would pay for the running costs of an enterprise [the PRA], which was aiming to raise significant sums to benefit primarily owners but everyone else who gets a cut of prize money.”

It’s worth remembering that, even with many high-profile premier league managers, many of whom don’t have English as a first language, the majority of interviews provide nothing more than brief sound bites. There are more capable people in the racing media than ever before and the show would move along, as it has done for many decades.