Mistakes with his fencing likely contributed to him dropping out of contention from before three out, and he was well beaten when unshipping Paul Townend at the last. If you liked Ballyburn for this, his representative is the Henry de Bromhead-trained Slade Steel, who was third and second to the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle favourite in a bumper and a Grade 1 novice hurdle respectively. Henry is perhaps the best target trainer of all in recent Festivals, his hit rate at the last five being a scarcely believable one in seven. Foxy Jacks has run cross country here three times and failed to get round twice, though he did win on the other occasion! That was in the November handicap last year in which the heavyweights Delta Work and Galvin both went missing, presumed not off.
Our Scout and Trader have picked out the following bets for Race 1 👇🏼
O’Connor has been a fine rider over the years but there are no weak links in the riding line-up here, and this race ought to go to the best horse at the trip, pure and simple. The National Hunt Chase has changed markedly in character since gaining Grade 2 status and being shortened in trip. In some ways that’s a shame, but the farrago of the 2019 running where the few who finished were legless was a pathetic last hurrah for the race of old.
Cheltenham Gold Cup Tips
Recent form shows how well they’ve been running, Last Run is the number of days since their last outing and the forecast is the forecast decimal odds according to Timeform. As with any form of betting, there are always risks involved. While Free Horse Racing Tips can increase your chances of winning, there is no guarantee of success.
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There have been ten headgear-wearing winners of all aged handicap hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival since 2008, from 293 runners. That’s a 3.41% strike rate for a loss of 119 points (ROI -40.61). Those without headgear won 37 from 865 (4.28% SR, -256 at SP, ROI -29.6%). There’s no shortie in the betting this time, current prices being 3/1 and upwards your pick. Tenuously top of that pile is Telmesomethinggirl, trained by Henry de Bromhead and running in the Kenny Alexander colours of Honeysuckle, meaning it could be quite a 45 minutes or so for connections. This mare won the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at last year’s Festival over two miles, but has been beaten in all three starts since.
Novices’ Chase result
The best bet of Wednesday runs in the hardest race of the day. The Fred Winter is like a game of poker with trainers keeping all sorts of tricks up their sleeves with these inexperienced horses. His trainer, Brian Ellison, had the third in this race last year with Nietzsche and I sense The King Of May is a far better horse than him. Brian does not say much but when he does speak, you listen. He’s a very shrewd trainer who has Definitely Red in the Gold Cup. With the more recent addition of betting apps, it has become easier than ever before for punters to back a horse.
- Willie is 0/14 in this race but went very close last year when Saint Sam was second (Ciel De Neige 3rd in 2019, too).
- Just a few taps on a smartphone can replace trudging down to the high street betting shop, or even placing a wager with a bookmaker trackside.
- He stays well, has class and is proven at the track and the Festival.
- Azzerti is a best price 12/1 at present, which looks a bit of value.
- Nor, mind you, has the win percentage been anything other than aspirational for most other yards.
- Sent off 10/3 favourite for the November edition, he was never put into the race; but he did run a little better in the October variant, finishing a place and four lengths behind Minella Indo.
- The former has his trainer’s long term Supreme record very much in his favour, but his trainer’s recent form very much not.
- A few positions on shorties at fancier prices, for all that the spectre of our picks winning but not by far enough looms, may help to wile the worst of these remaining Covid days.
With nine fences to go
The Coral-Eclipse looks a one-way Enable fest now that Lord North is out of the race so I’m going elsewhere on the Sandown card on Sunday. O’Brien’s exciting colt produced a massive performance in the Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot, flying home with a withering late run to topple some well-regarded prospects. And with Enable making her long-awaited return in the Coral-Eclipse on Sunday, the stage is set for a sporting showdown to savour. He has shown his best here and went close over course and distance last time out.
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Marie’s Rock had graduated to winning the Mares’ Hurdle and Love Envoi the Mares’ Novices Hurdle. If he can jump like he did at Kempton, then he ought to run really well for Anthony Honeyball, who was unlucky not to win this race with Ms Parfois a few years ago (winner Rathvinden would have been demoted under new whip rules). Like Ms Parfois, Kilbeg King will be ridden by Will Biddick, who has been the best English amateur at Cheltenham over the past decade and more. Salvador Ziggy has achieved as much as the pair above but is a more realistic price, with his second under 12st in the Kerry National a fine effort for a novice. He comes here after an abortive trip to run in the Grand National Hurdle at Far Hills in October, and while the absence might be a worry, he was second in the Pertemps last year off an identical lay-off. I’m struggling to make a case for any of Kings Hill, Supersundae and Gold Dancer.
Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle full result
That doesn’t mean Ireland doesn’t have a say in the race, though, as Irish-bred horses have been responsible for the last five winners and ten of the last 11 (exception French-bred). Willie also has Il Etait Temps, soundly enough beaten by GW at Limerick in that Faugheen but a winner either side, most recently in the G1 Irish Arkle, also at the DRF. He too wears a hood here and, though more likely to run his race than Gaelic Warrior, I feel, his best race is not as good as that one’s, and only a fine margin in front of Found A Fifty, just a neck back last month.
Horse Racing Tips: Jason Weaver’s 2024 Breeders Cup picks on Friday features an 11/2 fancy
The main danger is last term’s scorer Billaway, who relishes this stamina test. He looks sure to be finishing best of all and will be many punters’ place option. Depending on your selections, you can place a variety of bet types, including singles and multiples. You can add selections straight from a Bet Builder match centre, making it simpler and quicker to place bets backed by data. CommissionYou’ll need to take into account commission paid to Betfair ranging from 2 – 5% depending on how much you bet with them.
Tips for Ascot: Best value bets on Saturday December 23
- However, there is a major difference in how the winner is determined as the trainers’ championship is decided by total prize-money rather than winners.
- Essentially this means that around 70% of all races in the past four years have had an Irish-trained favourite.
- He is clearly a very classy recruit whose maiden win offers hope that the quicker Cheltenham turf won’t be a problem.
- So, where should you be going to place your bets on horse racing?
- One final thing I would urge you to do is to check the Racing Post Ratings, which are usually found to the left-hand side of the odds.
- This year falls into the latter bracket, and surely bookies all over the country will be desperately trying to ‘get’ Facile Vega.
- But if Energumene is ridden more conservatively, there are two possible dangers.
The hood was left off Alcala on latest start, when he was well beaten before falling two out. The headgear returns today but he is a very risky proposition. A final word on the thrilling exhibition by Un De Sceaux yesterday which crowned an outstanding day for Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh. Many had been premature in casting doubts over the Mullins yard and the early prices on offer for Un De Sceaux were value – which we took full advantage of.
Trainers
The first chase of the week is the Arkle Challenge Trophy, a two mile event for novices. If it perhaps lacks a little star quality this year – there can’t be a Shishkin/Altior/Douvan every time – it remains competitive from a betting perspective. The last ten years (from 2013 onwards) have seen Irish runners dominate these events more and more. To spell it out, in the most recent two Cheltenham Festivals, Irish runners have secured 22 wins compared with just six for the UK.
Post-Millennium
He’ll be finishing strongly and looks a solid each way alternative to a ‘nothing between them’ top of the market. If we’re looking for the Hail Mary, a phrase our editor Matt loves so much, then it has to be Latin Verse. He looks so unlike a Boodles winner it’s untrue – this will be his seventh hurdles start and he’s already raced in an all-aged handicap at Ludlow last time out, one which he won by no fewer than 19 lengths. A 10lb rise for that win not only looks lenient – Timeform expected him to get a stone and more – but it creeps him right into the bottom of the handicap. If you’re a lover of figures (and we are, of course) he comes out well on both form and time.
The silks are simply the colours each jockey will wear and denote who owns each horse, and then to the right we have the age of the horse and the weight they are set to carry in the race. Weights will vary if this race is a handicap – these are races in which horses are weighted according to their past performances – but in non-handicaps most horses will carry the same. Performances are influenced by factors such as a horse’s fitness, the distance of the race and whether the ground is soft and boggy or firm and fast. You can look at a horse’s past performances to work out whether the ground conditions will suit – and it’s understanding these crucial variables that can give punters the edge. VADREAM looks a spot of value to win this for a second time.
- Be wary of horses wearing headgear, especially blinkers or cheekpieces, in Open Grade 1’s at the Festival.
- However, I lean towards the Henry De Bromhead duo of Telmesomethinggirl and Lantry Lady.
- The first handicap of the week and one that normally goes to a runner close to the head of the market.
- Venetia Williams’ wildly experienced novice, Royale Pagaille, looks to have stamina as his strong suit.
- Mullins’ 2020 Festival win percentage was his second best of the past five Festivals; it was his best of five Festivals on each of EW%, PRB, IV, and A/E.
- This year it started on May 4 and runs until April 26, 2025.
Robin Goodfellow’s racing tips: Best bets for Wednesday, April 20
LH – It’s a horse race (“thankfully”), and stuff can go wrong; but it will very much have to for CH to get beaten in the CH. I Like To Move It the “wise guy” horse but his forward-going style may not be suited to the tactical shape of the race. Any of Jason The Militant, Not So Sleepy, or the big pair of Constitution Hill and State Man could take them along.
Likely to be quick, as forward-goers like High Definition and Rare Edition collide with an ocean of adrenaline coursing through the jockeys’ veins for the first rising tape of the week. The 2023 Cheltenham Festival is here, and it’s going to be a belter! 28 races, almost all of them head-scratching puzzles in terms wagering possibilities…
Five-year-old Marie’s Rock had won a Listed mares race at Taunton, and Love Envoi was a year away from making her debut. The outcome of the race largely depends on Lossiemouth’s ability to stay the 2m 4f distance today. However, her tendency to be keen raises a doubt about her effectiveness over longer distances. Last year’s runner-up, Love Envoi, is a contender for the places once again.
- So if a horse has figures of , it would have won its last three races but finished sixth the time before.
- In the end, I’m swerving The Goffer on the basis of the Irish record, which will of course be the wrong thing to do one of these years; but I definitely want a bit of the The Big Breakaway with the extended places as well.
- The second possible in that context is I Like To Move It, whose Greatwood and Kingwell Hurdle wins have advertised his ‘dark horse’ claims.
- Although most winners were clustered in the six to nine years bracket, neither youth nor experience has been a killer blow in handicap chases.
- And that’s a wrap for Day 1 at the Cheltenham Festival 2024.
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- LTO winners outside Graded and Listed company have not surprisingly struggled even more when the race at Cheltenham is a Graded one – in these races their record reads 50 wins from 957 (SR 5.2%) for a loss of £149.46 (ROI -15.6%).
- For an extended edge at the bookies, be sure to brush up on the bestCheltenham Festival betting offerswith Betting.co.uk.
- After what has been a circuitous introduction even by my own highly verbose standards, it’s time for the meat.
- We have to yet to see what he’ll find off the bridle, though, and it is hard to imagine any horse taking this ‘on the snaff’.
- The string of numbers to the left of each horse’s name are the form figures and they are places they have finished in their most recent races, reading from left to right with regards to their latest position.
- Daryl Jacob has been booked for the ride and he makes some decent place appeal.
Those rated higher than 140 won 47 races and lost a relatively small 54 points at SP and 2.75 points at BSP. Noel Meade has an infamous record at the Festival and, while he’s 0 from 13 in this section of races, his Road To Riches was third in both the 2015 Gold Cup and the 2016 Ryanair Chase. Paul Nicholls is still the winning-most Open Grade 1 trainer in the past decade, with ten such victories to his name.
- Yggdrasil is likely to be a popular choice given his unexposed profile and low weight, but he will have his work cut out against some seasoned campaigners and so it may be worth chancing the top weight, TIQUER.
- The third and fifth from the Betfair finished 1-2 in the Imperial Cup at the weekend so that form looks solid.
- Getting one’s head around sectional timing is not the easiest way to play the horses, but there are real insights to be gleaned for those who take some time to figure it out.
- While they’re comfortably the most likely pair for the exacta, that’s not the way to bet.
- So it is that, again excepting the impostor Lord W, every other Gold Cup scorer this century has returned 12/1 or shorter.
- Meanwhile, more materially, the sweet spot is, well, any horse younger than ten.
Luck in running is needed by all; most have a little more meat on their price than this lad. Willie is 0/14 in this race but went very close last year when Saint Sam was second (Ciel De Neige 3rd in 2019, too). Of that last named cohort, maybe Teahupoo has advanced his claims since the turn of the year. He’s still yet to race in Grade 1 company, but has been dominant in winning a brace of Grade 3’s either side of a Grade 2 score. He’s looked like there is plenty more to come but his potential is more than factored into quotes of 8/1 especially when noting his lack of form on a sound surface (for which, granted, he could improve, though I don’t expect him to). Trained by Colin Tizzard, his sole defeat in four progressive chase starts was when well seen off, but still best of the rest, behind Edwardstone in the Grade 1 Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown in December.
He had his warm up for this when cantering home in a two-runner Limited Handicap at Newcastle, against a rival receiving 19lb, and I think he has every chance of outrunning his odds here. I just wish we had eight runners for that 3rd each way place. The lightly-raced mare Magic Daze has been fairly well supported but I’m struggling to see her case. She was second in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle last season before finishing only fourth in a Listed mares’ event at Punchestown. Over fences, she’s one from three so far and she lacks obvious upside to my eye. Perhaps more interesting of the longer-priced Irish runners is Coeur Sublime, who ran in open Grade 1 hurdles last year and was rated 152 in that sphere.
This approach works just as well for National Hunt races as it does for those on the flat, as example 6 perfectly demonstrates. After what has been a circuitous introduction even by my own highly verbose standards, it’s time for the meat. If you’ve got this far, I’m safely assuming you’re at least receptive to the notion that finding bargains is different from – and better than – buying cheap stuff. With that in mind, here are five angles I personally use when trying to isolate value; that is, before striking any bet. Arriving at a selection is also fun, the process taking a good bit longer than the actual event for most ‘serious recreationals’.
AL AASY is not getting any younger at the age of seven but looked at the peak of his powers when smashing the course record at Newbury last time. Al Qareem is a gritty front runner and showed plenty of guts to win this last year. He was no match for Al Aasy last time but this track and ground brings out the best in him. As with the handicap hurdles, Bolts Up Daily it’s been hard work for the girls. Only 19 have shown up but, while they have failed to win, they have recorded an impressive five placed efforts (26.32% place rate vs 18.18% for the boys). But it is worth further squinting at the data, because it relates that those aged five or six notched 27 of the 39 wins (69%) from just 49% of the runners.
Naturally, betting shops – and bookmaker websites and apps – also show all the action. It is also possible to watch races on your phone, tablet or computer screen by logging on to a bookmaker account and streaming via the Racing Post website or mobile app. Every single race every day can be seen live on Sky Sports Racing (free on Sky channel 415) and Racing TV (a subscription channel on Sky 424). Yes, it has its own language, and some find that intimidating, but please do not worry.
This oldest race of the Festival and monument to the Corinthian nature that characterised National Hunt racing for a million years has undergone more nips and tucks to its race conditions than . Brandy Love has been very lightly raced but is a Grade 1 winner at this range, when seeing off Love Envoi who, by contrast, was having her sixth battle of last season. I don’t expect her to confirm the form with Harry Fry’s mare.