Cheltenham Festival Tips – The Best Three Bets from the ‘Specials’ Markets
The Cheltenham Festival is the most important four days of the year for National Hunt enthusiasts but can be expensive, too.
However, if you want to enjoy the Festival without getting too deeply involved on a race-by-race basis, most leading bookmakers offer a range of ‘specials’, which can give you an interest in some, or all, of the races for a single stake. We’ve taken a look at what’s on offer this year and come up with three which, we think, could provide rich pickings.
Number of Susannah Ricci-owned Winners
Susannah Ricci, the wife of former Barclays banker, and multimillionaire, Rich Ricci, is officially the owner of a formidable string of horses, most of whom are in training with Willie Mullins. Her Festival team this year includes two ‘bankers’, in the eyes of many, in the form of Monkfish in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase and Chacun Pour Soi in the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Beyond that pair, Royale Pagaille looks a worthy favourite for the National Hunt Chase, while Hook Up and Min are available at single-figure prices for the Parnell Properties Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle and Ryanair Chase, respectively. Although a double-figure price, Koshari is second favourite for the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle and, at longer odds, Sharjah, in the Champion Hurdle and N’Golo, who is entered all over the place, are not entirely forlorn hopes.
Selection: Susannah Ricci to own 3+ Cheltenham Festival winners (3/1 with William Hill)
Shortest Starting Price (SP) of the Week
According to William Hill, the contenders for the shortest SP of the week – and the only horses that count for this particular Festival special – are, in market order, Monkfish, Envoi Allen, Chacun Pour Soi, Concertista, Shishkin and Appreciate It. At the time of writing, just two of that sextet, Monkfish and Envoi Allen, are odds-on in the ante-post betting for their respective races. Despite remaining unbeaten, Envoi Allen had his detractors even before his last-minute transfer to Henry De Bromhead and, with the switch of yards sowing seeds of doubt, it’s not unreasonable to expect his odds for the Marsh Novices’ Chase to drift before the ‘off’. By contrast, Monkfish, who looked better than ever when hacking up at Leopardstown in early February, has had an uniterrupted preparation, with no change of surroundings, routine and other such imponderables; the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase looks at his mercy.
Selection: Monkfish to be returned at the shortest SP of the week (7/4 with William Hill)
Total Winning Distances
Attempting to predict the total aggregate winning distances across 28 competitive races in every discipline of National Hunt racing is no easy task. However, it’s possible to apply a certain amount of logic and, in so doing, give yourself an interest in all, or at least most, of the Festival races. If you’re considering this ‘special’, note that the maximum make-up for each race is 30 lengths. At the time of writing, the going at Cheltenham is good to soft on both the Old and New Courses and good to soft, soft in places on the Cross Country Course. If the current weather forecast is correct, the prevailing going is unlikely to become much, if any, slower between now and the Festival, which suggests that the winning distances will be shorter than if the ground came up bottomless. Furthermore, none of the supposed ‘hotpots’ habitually wins by wide margins so, with the possible exception of Royale Pagaille, in the National Hunt Chase, and Easysland, in the Glenfarclas Chase, ‘runaway’ winners appear unlikely. Consequently, playing ‘short’ on the total winning distances – which still gives you a little over 3 lengths per race, on average, to play with – may be a shrewd move.
Selection: Total winning distances to be under 90 lengths (5/4 with William Hill)
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