The wait is over, spring has turned up and it’s Champion Hurdle day at Cheltenham Festival. The big race is a curious punting puzzle this year and we’re sitting on a 25/1 each-way ticket on runaway Relkeel Hurdle winner Camping Ground, who it might surprise you to know is the…
Author: Joel Roberts
Cheltenham Festival 2016
The form is in the book, the cards are finalised (nearly), spring has turned up (late), and it’s one more sleep ’til the 2016 Cheltenham Festival. We’ll be there all four days and promise all of our tips for the day before noon, and if you haven’t followed our ante-post selections…
0.5pt win Jer's Girl @50/1 NRNB, Triumph Hurdle, Cheltenham 18th March
I’ve stuck half a point on JER’S GIRL to win the Triumph Hurdle on Gold Cup day – Friday. She’s a whopping 50/1, and when you consider the favourite, Ivanovich Gorbatov, beat her by just a head on his last start – the Grade 1 juvenile hurdle won by Footpad…
0.75pt each-way Balios @8/1, 14:20 Meydan
Cheltenham Festival is very much front of mind this time of year, though there’s plenty of top-class flat racing occurring in Meydan too, as the Carnival builds up to World Cup night later this month. The prize money on offer in Dubai dwarfs that of Cheltenham, and that’s why plenty of British…
1pt win Jungle Cat @5/1, 13:10 Meydan
Meydan hosts a Group Three trial on Saturday for the Group One Al Quoz Sprint on World Cup night, won last year by everyone’s favourite Sole Power. That success aside, he wasn’t his brilliant best last season and, ironically for a horse that’s never won over the distance, his best…
1pt win Thomas Hobson @16/1, Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle, Cheltenham 18th March
You won’t see many Willie Mullins-trained pink-silked Grade-1 runners during Festival week going off double-digit odds, but THOMAS HOBSON looks likely to buck the trend in the Albert Bartlett. Well-fancied stablemates Vautour, Douvan, Djakadam, Min, Limini, Annie Power and Vroum Vroum Mag are all skinny prices for their respective assignments, and…
Cheltenham Festival Ante-Post Update, 1st March
A lot has happened since our last update, and the media clues are in full flow. Let’s get the bad news out the way first, as there’s plenty of good. Simonsig, Killultagh Vic, Faugheen and, most painfully, Ar Mad are all out through injury. Rotten luck, as it can happen to…
0.5pt each-way Camping Ground @25/1 NRNB (various), Champion Hurdle
Injuries to Faugheen and Arctic Fire and the retirement of dual-winner Hurricane Fly means none of the placed horses in last year’s Champion Hurdle will re-compete. In fact, the only likely runner from last year’s race is The New One, whose trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies has been in bullish mood in recent weeks…
1pt win Pilansberg @7/1, 14:00 Kempton
Alan King’s Gibralfaro has been given a lofty rating of 151 ahead of his tilt at the Triumph Hurdle, for which this Grade 2 juvenile hurdle has provided a few winners in the past. If such a rating is to be believed, he’s very well-in at the weights with St…
1pt win Oceane @14/1, 15:05 Kempton
Alan King saddles two for this two-mile novices’ hurdle at Kempton, with Barry Gerraghty taking the ride on Winter Escape in the McManus silks. He was last seen a few weeks back easing home on the bridle to record back-to-back successes at Doncaster. Bookies and punters alike seem to see…