CLAINES racehorse trainer Dr Richard Newland will fly the flag for Worcestershire at this week’s eagerly-anticipated Cheltenham Festival.

The spotlight falls on the Prestbury Park circuit tomorrow with the four-day meeting building to Friday’s crescendo — the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

While serious contenders are limited in the county, Newland is quietly confident his two runners — Act of Kalanisi and Bellflower Boy — may repeat the glorious scenes achieved when Burntoakboy eased to glory in the 2007 Coral Cup.

That meeting five years ago marked an amazing Cheltenham debut for Newland but he has not returned to the winners’ enclosure at the famous meeting since.

He said: “Both of our runners have quite realistic chances, so that’s exciting — the best chance I’ve had at Cheltenham for a few years.

“Act of Kalanisi will be in the Coral Cup on Wednesday — the race we won five years ago with Burntoakboy — and Bellflower Boy is in the Pertemps Handicap on Thursday, which is a three-mile race.

“Burntoakboy was our first runner at Cheltenham, so for him to go on and win was amazing — but that can give you false expectations as it is so competitive there.

“Preparations have been very good — Act of Kalanisi has had a pretty light campaign. He won a very nice race at Ascot in February last year, but chipped a bone in his foot and has taken a while to come back.

“When he did, he was a little slow before Christmas but then came third in the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton in January.

“Since then, we’ve tucked him away for this week — he’s been perfectly fine since that last race.

“We are as confident as we can be — it is still not too late for things to go wrong though, but he has a serious chance.”

Newland added: “I bought Act of Kalanisi in October 2010 hoping he might be good enough to be a Coral Cup horse, so it has been in the back of my mind since then.

“In fact, he probably would have run in the race last year if he hadn’t broken a bone in his foot.

“He probably carries our best hope and has a very solid chance. Having said that, Bellflower Boy is a bit of an enigma— he is a very different horse.

“He is an amazing story really as I picked him up very cheaply — I paid £6,000 for him which isn’t very much — and he’s won six races for us.

“He has more than surpassed all of our expectations and definitely is a horse that has two ways of running. If he’s in the mood, he’s very good, but he can be not with it at all.

“Last year he won four races but he was then so disappointing before Christmas it made us think where we were going with him.

“He dropped down the handicap but had a little problem with some discomfort in his joints and we were able to treat that.

“Since then, he has spectacularly found his form again and his last run was his best performance ever — he won very easily.

“So you couldn’t say he has no chance, but the handicapper has exacted his revenge and he has a lot of weight to carry.”