The 11/2 Cheltenham Festival Day 1 Accumulator That Bookies Don’t Want to Win

The 2025 Cheltenham Festival isn’t far away and the bookies are already running scared of the four favourites on day. We all remember the most famous time there were four short priced favourites on day 1, when Annie Power fell at the final fence to scupper the accumulators. 

Bookies are heading into the 2025 Cheltenham Festival facing a battering on Tuesday. All eyes will be on Kopek Des Borders to get favourite backers off to a winning start in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. The next race on the card is the Arkle Trophy where Majborough is odds on following the withdrawal of Sir Gino.

This year, the Championship races have been moved to 4pm so the Mares’ Hurdle comes first and IF Brighterdaysahead lines up in that race, it should be another winning favourite on the day that will leave the bookies running for cover ahead of the Champion Hurdle.

Constitution Hill looked like he might never be seen on a race track again following a serious bout of illness but he returned to his best last time out and is now the strong favourite to retain his Champion Hurdle crown, however, there are still some question marks of who will line up in this race with the potential that both Lossiemouth and Brighterdaysahead could be re-routed to the day 1 feature.

If all four horses run in their expected races, the bookies will have racked up some serious liabilities and they’ll be desperate to get at least one of the hotpots beat.

 

Cheltenham Day 1 Accumulator

Kopek Des Bordes (Supreme Novices’ Hurdle)

Majborough (Arkle)

Brighterdaysahead (Mares Hurdle)

Constitution Hill (Champion Hurdle)

ODDS – 11/2 with BetMGM and they do have non-runner no bet.

 

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What the Bookies Say

Coral’s spokesman John Hill said: “We’re expecting there to be a few short-priced favourites on day one this year, especially if Brighterdaysahead runs in the Mares’ Hurdle. Naturally, those horses are sure to be popular in accumulators, so we’ll be hoping to get at least one of them beat.

“Kopek Des Bordes has been the best-backed horse in our ante-post markets since his success at the Dublin Racing Festival. We were knocked over straight after his impressive victory and the support has continued. He’s in a lot of day-one and week-long multiples, so we’re likely to be cheering for anything but him.”

Michael Shinners, spokesman for Sky Bet who sponsor the Supreme, added: “It’s one-way traffic in the non-runner no bet market for Kopek Des Bordes in the Supreme, with 60 per cent of all stakes going on him, while Constitution Hill is just about our biggest ante-post single loser of the week. The uncertainty around his wellbeing earlier this season meant he was available at 4-1 for over a week at the end of November.”

Kopek Des Bordes and his stablemate Majborough head the most-backed multiples on Betfair Sportsbook, according to spokesman Barry Orr. He is 4-7 with them to give Willie Mullins a seventh Arkle since 2015 and a third in a row.

“We’ve seen plenty of doubles, trebles, and accumulators for the quartet, but by far the most popular duo are Kopek Des Bordes and Majborough,” he said.

“Punters are looking at the potential make-up of the Supreme and Arkle and anticipating that both will go off shorter on the day. They are currently the anchor runners in all multiples on the Betfair Sportsbook.”

Paul Binfield, Paddy Power: “Our non-runner no bet markets have meant that punters are happy to include Brighterdaysahead in the Mares’ Hurdle as that leg will be void if she does turn up in the Champion. Kopek Des Bordes has been all the rage since the Dublin Racing Festival and out of the quartet, he’s been the most popular. 

“We’re always slightly apprehensive about multiple mayhem on the first day of Cheltenham and we just about managed to escape with the unfortunate tumble of Annie Power in the Mares’ in 2015. As bookies we’re aligning with punters in hoping Gordon Elliott runs Brighterdaysahead in the Champion to avoid any further unnecessary stress brought on by the four shorties, with the Mares’ then becoming a wide-open heat.”

Alex Apati, Ladbrokes: “Kopek Des Bordes has been popular since his impressive Dublin Racing Festival win. Our 7-4 immediately after the race was quickly snapped up and punters have been willing to take all prices down to our current 10-11 despite us not seen any huge stakes. We actually saw more for his stablemate and talking horse Salvator Mundi in the early part of the season. 

“Across the board Sir Gino was more popular than Majborough in the Arkle before being ruled out of the festival. No doubt we will see more for him leading up to the first day. Constitution Hill has been ever popular since his comeback win at Kempton, and given he dispatched for what most people saw as his main rival in Lossiemouth, we’ve laid him pretty much to the exclusion of everything else. Individually our positions will be manageable but as every bookmaker will tell you, we certainly don’t want all four of the above horses landing on the first day.”

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