A mixed week for our ante-post selections, with a couple seemingly dead in the water along with some good news, too. Camping Ground didn’t stay the three miles in the Cleeve Hurdle and whatever form claims he had over Thistlecrack before, those are now firmly reversed and trainer Robert Walford says…
Author: Joel Roberts
0.5pts each-way Baden @20/1, Cheltenham 15:00
A top renewal worthy of its status as a trial for the Neptune at the Festival. Let’s start from the top of the betting where Yanworth and Shantou Village dispute favouritism after unbeaten seasons and easy Grade 2 victories apiece. Yanworth steps up in trip and hasn’t come off the…
1.5pts win Camping Ground @11/4, Cheltenham 15:35
This year’s renewal of the Cleeve Hurdle looks top-class with first and fifth in the World Hurdle betting – for which it’s a trial – out to strengthen their claims. We really like both, having tipped the odds-on favourite Thistlecrack to land the Long Walk Hurdle in December and having…
1pt win Acapella Bourgeois @7/2, Leopardstown 13:20
Two leading fancies for the first day of the Cheltenham Festival take centre stage today for Willie Mullins, his champion hurdler Faugheen and ante-post Arkle favourite Douvan. The latter is long odds-on for the seemingly straightforward task of following Un De Sceaux’s hoof prints in winning the Irish equivalent today, though Faugheen…
1pt each-way Aurore D'estruval @8/1, Ascot 13:50
This is a big test for the prolific Vroum Vroum Mag, who has won all seven of her Irish starts and has so far been kept against her own sex. She’s another in the familiar Rich Ricci silks from the Mullins yard, and Ruby has made the trip to Ascot,…
1pt win Sire De Grugy at best morning price, Ascot 15:00
No Sprinter Sacre or Dodging Bullets, but a top-class renewal nonetheless with the much-hyped Un De Sceaux arriving from Ireland for the all-conquering Mullins yard. He’s up against 2014 Champion Chase winner Sire De Grugy as well as Haldon Gold Cup winner Vibrato Valtat, Simply Ned and Traffic Fluide. Now, I’m…
Cheltenham Festival ante-post update
As the media noise around the Cheltenham Festival bubbles and the form book gradually takes shape, ante-post prices fluctuate and we’re keeping a keen eye on the prices of our selections. Tombstone @20/1 (now 16/1), Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Tuesday 15th March As predicted, the 20/1 didn’t last too long and he’s…
1pt win Sceau Royal @16/1, Triumph Hurdle, Cheltenham 18th March
One Festival market that’s not really taken shape yet is the Friday’s Triumph hurdle, where the well-named Ivanovich Gorbatrov trades ante-post favourite for the latest O’Brien to the training ranks, ex-Irish champion jockey Joseph. After a solitary facile success in a Leopardstown maiden, his horse trades a 7/2 favourite whereas it’s…
1pt win Thomas Hobson @6/1, 0.5pt each-way Ballagh @16/1, Warwick 15:00
Warwick hosts a nice card today with the Grade-2 Leamington Novices’ Hurdle attracting two Irish raiders from the all-conquering Mullins yard. Neither are favourite as that accolade goes to the Skeltons’ Born Survivor, who won well last time out in a race where the second has since bolted up to…
1pt win Tombstone @20/1, Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Cheltenham 15th March
To the delight of punters, for the past three years the Cheltenham Festival’s curtain raiser, the two-mile Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, has gone to Rich Ricci, Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh. For the same connections and long before he’d even raced outside France, Min has headed the market for the 2016 renewal.…