Content
- Oh, and Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
- Jeremy Clarkson’s first ever racehorse backed to make winning debut
- Cheltenham Festival 2021: Trainer Form
- MOST READ RACING
- Lingfield Tips
- Types of Horse Race Bets
- With nine fences to go
- Arkle Chase – Shishkin to win by six lengths-plus (10/3 Skybet)
- Our Scout and Trader have picked out the following bets for Race 4 👇🏼
- Royale Pagaille – National Hunt Chase – 5/2 bet365 (NRNB, BOG)
- Novices’ Hurdle result
- Spangled Mac
- Get email updates with the day’s biggest stories
There have been ten headgear-wearing winners of all aged handicap hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival since 2008, from 293 runners. That’s a 3.41% strike rate for a loss of 119 points (ROI -40.61). Those without headgear won 37 from 865 (4.28% SR, -256 at SP, ROI -29.6%). There’s no shortie in the betting this time, current prices being 3/1 and upwards your pick. Tenuously top of that pile is Telmesomethinggirl, trained by Henry de Bromhead and running in the Kenny Alexander colours of Honeysuckle, meaning it could be quite a 45 minutes or so for connections. This mare won the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at last year’s Festival over two miles, but has been beaten in all three starts since.
Oh, and Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
- He’s also added another ten placed horses for a brilliant 28% place strike rate.
- Here are the Ayr Gold Cup past winners for the last 10 renewals.
- A facilitator is merely something that greases the wheels, smooths the process, or saves time.
- I doubt he’ll iron that out before March but, if he could take off and land adroitly throughout, he’d be interesting for all that it’s (very) hard to forget his errant transit in the 2020 Supreme.
- The nearly-four-miler as it has become known is in many ways the bellwether for the meeting and indeed the sport.
- I don’t see how that makes him second pick for a Champion Hurdle.
Found A Fifty has led in each of his four chase spins and will face pace contention here; that might compromise his chance. In any case, he looks a little way behind peak showings from the other pair mentioned so far. As I write there are four horses priced at 5/1 or shorter, headed – just – by Gaelic Warrior. Trained by Mullins for Ricci, he was presumed for the Turners after his romp in the Grade 1 Faugheen Novices’ Chase over two and a half miles at Christmas. But then came Leopardstown and the Dublin Racing Festival (DRF) where, in the Grade 1 novice chase there, he just ran a shocker.
Jeremy Clarkson’s first ever racehorse backed to make winning debut
Likely to be at least truly run, and potentially a little fast early; the winner will need to travel and jump at top speed as well as possess sufficient stamina to see it out after the last. For the final segment of this article I want to have a brief look at Grade 1 races. These races comprise 50% of the 28 Festival contests and, in the last 15 years, they have accounted for roughly the same percentage of all the Festival contests (some of the newer races being upgraded during the review period).
Cheltenham Festival 2021: Trainer Form
This oldest race of the Festival and monument to the Corinthian nature that characterised National Hunt racing for a million years has undergone more nips and tucks to its race conditions than . Brandy Love has been very lightly raced but is a Grade 1 winner at this range, when seeing off Love Envoi who, by contrast, was having her sixth battle of last season. I don’t expect her to confirm the form with Harry Fry’s mare.
MOST READ RACING
Taking 4-1 as an example, a successful £1 bet would yield a return of £5 – the £4 winnings plus the stake. A horse with a string of 1s by their name is likely to be a lot shorter in the betting than one with 0s, for example. Fresh always runs his race but may lack a yard of pace these days. Two Tempting finished ahead of a few of these at Chester and is always underestimated in the betting.
Lingfield Tips
Although she hasn’t been at her best this season, she was a 9 ½ length runner-up to Lossiemouth in the International Hurdle here (2m 1f) last time. We know she seems to thrive at the Festival and the fitting of first-time cheekpieces could improve her performance against Lossiemouth. Lossiemouth’s nearest market rival, stablemate Ashroe Diamond, boasts an impressive record of five wins from six starts against her own sex. If the favourite falters due to stamina, Ashroe Diamond could capitalize, although the fitting of a first-time hood for a return to 2m 4f would be a slight concern.
- Sunracing’s columnist Andrew Balding saddles likely favourite Brighton Boy and he was very strong at the finish at York.
- Combining all runners priced 6/1 or shorter we have seen 182 winners from 807 (SR 22.6%) for a small BSP loss of £7.42 (ROI –0.9%).
- A complete revelation since turning to point to points, ROCKY’S HOWYA beat Chatham Street Lad by 45 lengths last time out.
- The going is Soft – Good to Soft in places on the chase course.
Types of Horse Race Bets
More than that, the same horses seem to have hit the frame with regularity. In 2020, Ireland’s trainers saddled seven of the dozen runners, again taking top honours but this time ceding the consolation spots to the domestic quintet. Irish runners finished 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 10th and fell.
With nine fences to go
Like all humans, trainers are creatures of habit, so get to know theirs. Some will have really good records at certain tracks and really poor records at others. Some will have regular quiet spells at particular times of the year and other spells when the winners readily flow.
Arkle Chase – Shishkin to win by six lengths-plus (10/3 Skybet)
Better yet, they may assist in whittling fields to more manageable numbers with a view to poring over the form on the remaining runners. Ignoring the highly unpredictable handicap chase segment, there are some consistent negative factors worth keeping in mind throughout Cheltenham Festival week. 506 of the 964 starters in all-age Cheltenham Festival handicap hurdles since 2008 have been sent off at greater than 20/1. It may be safe to exclude fillies and mares in all age Cheltenham Festival handicap hurdles. (Incidentally, fillies have an excellent record in the Fred Winter).
Our Scout and Trader have picked out the following bets for Race 4 👇🏼
All the talk’s about Altior with less than 15 minutes left until the big race of the day. Late change of jockey in the Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle. Davy Russell has been stood down for the day after his fall from Bless The Wings in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase. 33/1 Veneer of Charm wins well to make it a treble in the afternoon for Gordon Elliot.
Then we head to Wales for the two meetings on Tuesday with good prize money on offer at Bangor and further south for Chepstow. Decent jumping ground at both with course alterations affecting the official distances. Horse race gambling is the cornerstone of the sports betting world, and has been for the best part of a century.
Royale Pagaille – National Hunt Chase – 5/2 bet365 (NRNB, BOG)
- The course has provided an early hunting ground for a number of national hunt legends.
- Both the jump and Flat trainers’ championships run at the same time as the jockeys’ championships.
- That was in the November handicap last year in which the heavyweights Delta Work and Galvin both went missing, presumed not off.
- Of course, most recently Il Etait Temps won ‘that’ race in which HD dived and FV bombed.
Douvan has something to prove and has not been seen since sustaining a serious injury in this race a year ago. Min, who clocked a decent time at Leopardstown last time, could prove a bigger threat. You should also think about investigating some of the many free horse racing tips that float around online. These tipsters can provide a good way to identify opportunities, and to catch wind of likely strong performers before everyone else does. Of course, you need to be quick off the mark when you get your tips through, because the longer you wait, the worse your odds will get as more punters flock to back the tip.
We have already noted some positives connected with Irish runners or those that raced in Ireland last time. It goes without saying that the vast majority of horses racing at Cheltenham that raced in Ireland last time out would have been from Irish stables; in fact 97% of them were. LTO winners outside Graded and Listed company have by far the poorest strike rate as you would expect. They have incurred losses of £116.97 (ROI -8.3%) over the period of study. LTO winners outside Graded and Listed company have not surprisingly struggled even more when the race at Cheltenham is a Graded one – in these races their record reads 50 wins from 957 (SR 5.2%) for a loss of £149.46 (ROI -15.6%).
Spangled Mac
Davy Russell will return to the saddle “in a fortnight or so” after spending 11 months on the sidelines with injuries to his neck and back. Divine Comedy burst out of the pack to chase him down, but the 20-1 chance – who went for 450,000 guineas as a yearling – held on by half a length. Prescott, who won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Alpinista in 2022, was saddling just his third winner at the meeting in all, with Wizard King in the 1994 Britannia his only other success. “He’s run very well, he showed a lot of speed early on and the stiff finish just caught up with him in the last 100 yards,” said the trainer. “We needed a lead-up run at Haydock, so she came over early, but just with the changing of seasons we wanted to be here before it was too cold in Australia and too warm over here. We came over in the nice interchange period, and we need not have worried because she settled in brilliantly, and the proof was in the pudding today.
- He is not a guaranteed runner, hence the insurance caveat of NRNB, but this race is looking less and less clear cut by the day.
- Skybet are paying EIGHT places on this race, and a couple of others are seven places deep.
- A non-standard prep has seen him eschew Graded action in favour of a Class 3 handicap last time out; he fair bolted up there, seeing his official rating balloon from 124 to 140 in the process.
- A Plus Tard has been exposed a couple of times in Festival G1 company now and is short enough for all that he’s hugely talented.
- Some will have really good records at certain tracks and really poor records at others.
- It looks a minefield to be honest with most of the field potential improvers.
In front of Telmesomethinggirl but largely whacked before and since this term was Heaven Help Us, winner of the Coral Cup a year ago. Like the favourite, she brings Festival-winning form to the party and her form string at this intermediate distance is 12. She seems better going left-handed and with just a little ease in the ground, conditions she’ll get here.
Get email updates with the day’s biggest stories
- That form is questionable in the context of a race like this, though he beat Jigoro by slightly further than did Mystical Power, and he couldn’t really have won any more easily.
- The King of May ran a cracker on his first run in this country when a staying on third in a hot race at Musselburgh and can take advantage of a decent mark, especially as this stiffer track will suit.
- A smallish field of nine sets the tone for a week where the non-handicaps are expected to be shallow affairs runners wise in the main, with the dominance of those aforementioned superyard chickens perhaps coming home to roost a little.
- All the last ten winners of the Champion Bumper where LTO winners and all of them were aged five or six.
- Even to fast looks the most likely pace setup on the scant evidence we have.
- The eight-year-old’s owner, Patricia Pugh, is curator at the Horseracing Museum in Newmarket but in Altior, the Latin for higher, she has a priceless artefact, the star exhibit, a Champion who can rule this division for a couple of years yet.
- Paul Nicholls is still the winning-most Open Grade 1 trainer in the past decade, with ten such victories to his name.
If you are already a member, then share your thoughts on the Futurity Trophy Weekend 6f Handicap by adding a tip on the race here. You may also be interested in other preview blogs that we have packed full of information, head down to the Other Principal Races at Doncaster Racecourse section for links to these. Getting one’s head around sectional timing is not the easiest way to play the horses, but there are real insights to be gleaned for those who take some time to figure it out.
She’s the classiest mare in the entries for this race by at least seven pounds, and there’s a chance that drying ground sees Roksana re-routed to the Stayers’ Hurdle. There will Bolts Up Daily still be Concertista to deal with, but Honeysuckle will be more 8/11 than 11/8 on the day if she runs here. If she doesn’t, you’ll get your cash back a fortnight hence.
I thought he was very impressive that day at Cork and with this race being in similar conditions I’m expecting a similar performance. It was disappointing to see him beaten at odds-on last time out at Clonmel but it looked a tactical small field race off a steady pace which wouldn’t have suited him, and I think he was done for a bit of toe up the straight. The Mare’s Chase is being billed as a match this year and while I do think both Allegoire De Vassy and Imprevious are brilliant mares, I think the market has overlooked MAGIC DAZE.
California Gem disappointed in fourth that afternoon but made amends in a Ripon maiden 12 days later, defeating Boom Boom Pow by three-quarters of a length. But the son of Vadamos came out on top that day, and has repeated the feat in one-mile contests on three of his six subsequent starts. After third placings at Pontefract and Newmarket in April, Eilean Dubh was back in business at Hamilton Park the following month and followed up in a big field at York a fortnight later.
Coeur Sublime is another dark horse at a price, and Gabynako a third, in a trappy and open-looking Arkle. Brave Seasca, who has progressed through soft ground handicaps but was no match for Edwardstone last time, is probably a little out of his depth. A smallish field of nine sets the tone for a week where the non-handicaps are expected to be shallow affairs runners wise in the main, with the dominance of those aforementioned superyard chickens perhaps coming home to roost a little. Anyway, macro questions like that don’t belong before an obstacle has been cleared so let’s get back to business.
Many new sites that launch will want to do so with a bang, and will offer deals that they might not be in the position to offer when they are more well-established. ZENTA is an interesting runner here for the same stable and JP McManus’ retained rider Mark Walsh takes the ride. She jumped very well in France and was picked up for powerful connections. She only made she Irish debut about 3 weeks ago and ploughed through every hurdle but hit the line strong. The overall performance was impressive considering how much she did wrong, and I expect her to massively improve for it.
Shishkin is undeniably more of a horse than Footpad, and a tear up on the front end could see him record the largest winning distance of the meeting. He was never more than two or three lengths off the lead. In 2020, Al Boum Photo raced midfield but never more than about five lengths from a lead shared without contest; and the previous year, the same horse was ridden more patiently after a number of rivals battled for early primacy.
There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Hillview Hideaway, GotheringtonA superb, luxury holiday home, Hillview Hideaway is your Cotswold haven for exploring Cheltenham and its history. With its own private patio and a fabulous hot tub, it also has a bright and spacious feel with an open-plan kitchen-dining-living area, and a breathtaking mezzanine bedroom. This year marks the Centenary of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. A story that began in 1924, the Gold Cup has since mushroomed to become one of the world’s most renowned steeplechases.
I had Behind The Wire in at 5/2, he won strongly at an SP of 7/2 from 4/1. Bonus spins on selected games only and must be used within 72 hours. Winnings from Bonus spins credited as bonus funds and capped at £100.
You can also place single bets from the Bet Slip – just click the price in the Bet Slip. Amber Cottage, Cheltenham A cosy, semi-detached, holiday home built in traditional, honey-coloured Cotswold stone made even more fantastic thanks to shared facilities including an outdoor swimming pool. This special spot was also once part of the stables to a once neighbouring 18th-century coaching inn, with evidence of this time still seen in the cottage’s ancient, exposed beams. The area surrounding Cheltenham racecourse is one of idyllic beauty thanks to undulating hills, wild woodland and babbling streams. Cleeve Hill for example, where the Gold Cup originated, is the highest point both of the Cotswolds hill range and in Gloucestershire.
For all of the obvious upside of those ‘opening batsmen’, their second picks have arguably more substance in the book. Jonbon, representing Seven Barrows, is also unbeaten in four, a bumper and three hurdle races, most recently a couple of Grade 2 contests. The first of those was a steadily run small field heat, but the second, the Rossington Main at Haydock, was well contested and Jonbon came home in a good time. He’s not been nearly as flashy as those shorter in the market but he’s highly effective and has been well on top each time in spite of narrower margins of victory. Jonbon cost £570,000 after winning his point to point, a price based as much on being a full brother to Douvan as to the manner of his win between the flags.
We have a team of experts who provide consistently successful tips and have a loyal following of satisfied bettors. We also provide detailed analysis and reasoning behind their tips, giving bettors a better understanding of the races. Free Horse Racing Tips are tips and predictions on upcoming horse racing events that are shared for free by tipsters.