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 16/1 the rest of the field, which gives the market a confused look.
Bookmakers and punters alike have no short-priced Willie Mullins-trained favourite to latch onto, so the famous O’Brien name might be the foremost reason the favourite is as short as he is.
Beware the Irish banker, though, as the ill-fated Our Connor proved in the 2013 renewal.
At 16/1 and in the same ownership as the first two home in last season’s Triumph, Alan King’s French import Sceau Royal looks generously priced given he’s already notched at Cheltenham and the horse he beat into second, Adrien Du Pont, has since won at Grade-1 level at Chepstow.
Despite making his first mistake when landing the odds as a 2/11 favourite at Huntingdon last week, his jumping is razor-sharp for a juvenille hurdler and he’s clearly got plenty of class.
His trainer has put forward prep races at Kempton, Newbury or Haydock before Cheltenham, so we’ll see him again and I can only see his price coming in before Cheltenham.
He appears to be versatile ground-wise and I think he’s achieved far more than the current ante-post favourite so he looks worth siding with early at a generous price.
1pt win Sceau Royal @16/1 (WillHill), Triumph Hurdle, Cheltenham 18th March
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