Despite owner Michael O’Leary’s efforts to quash the hype, SAMCRO arrives with a sizeable reputation and his racecourse performances say that he deserves it. He has won all three hurdles races easily, including a Grade One at Leopardstown, and there is a strong suspicion we have yet to see just how could he is. Vision Des Flos showed the benefit of a wind operation when turning a competitive Exeter Listed race into a procession and should ensure Samcro earns his prize. Black Op represents the team that won Tuesday’s first race and they will have a solid line to novice form. Next Destination finished third in last year’s Champion Bumper here and has built on that level of form over hurdles.
Todays Betting Stats
SPECIAL TIARA Bold front runner who capitalised on Douvan’s injury to win this race a year ago. Well beaten by Altior at Sandown later and he looks to have had his day in the sun. ALTIOR Grand chaser who seeks his third consecutive win at the festival.
RSA Novices’ Chase – Marlborough’s preview and tips
The first chase of the week is the Arkle Challenge Trophy, a two mile event for novices. If it perhaps lacks a little star quality this year – there can’t be a Shishkin/Altior/Douvan every time – it remains competitive from a betting perspective. The last ten years (from 2013 onwards) have seen Irish runners dominate these events more and more. To spell it out, in the most recent two Cheltenham Festivals, Irish runners have secured 22 wins compared with just six for the UK.
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For a horse with a lot of placed efforts to his name, he kept going strongly to win by three and a quarter lengths from the Wathnan Racing-owned duo of Haunted Dream and Torito. “He’s taking on the older horses, the best sprinters in the world, and he’s held his own against them. He’s only going to improve on that as he gets older, I’m very pleased with the run.
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We’re talking the likes of Cause Of Causes, Tiger Roll, and Delta Work, all of them ‘medalling’ in the Grand National subsequently. And all of them trained by Gordon Elliott (by proxy in one case), a man who trained a National winner before he’d trained a winner in his native Ireland. It’s pretty clumsy and there’s no getting away from that fact.
Cheltenham Festival 2021: Trainer Form
Final day of the festival and the going remains on the good side. A cloudy day is forecast and the south-westerly breeze should see the track slightly drying through the day. We start with the Gold Cup, which has had more headlines recently for the non-runners rather than those taking part. To some extent, the development of online betting has driven unprecedented growth in horse race betting – even if the status of racing has been diminished somewhat, thanks to the explosion of football betting and tennis betting.
Robin Goodfellow’s racing tips: Best bets for Thursday, April 21
Fast, frantic, furious, frenetic, ferocious and other adjectives beginning with ‘f’. Note that neither Gaelic Warrior nor Milldam Bolts Up Daily have raced in UK or Ireland to this point. Their French form suggests both will be waited with to varying degrees.
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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. Easysland was expected to bolt up before flopping at the November meeting; he was then expected to race in France as a preparation but skipped that, too, so comes in off that solitary, below par, effort. He could easily bounce back but is not the ‘gimme’ he looked going into the November meeting.
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His form looked to have regressed through the summer but the return to soft at Haydock last time showed he is just ground dependent. She’s a proven Group performer and David Egan will be hoping he can get plenty of cover from stall four. Jarraaf is improving through the ranks and has impressed twice over this track and trip. The main threat is likely to come from the unexposed Min Huna. William Haggas’ filly was a smooth winner of a handicap at Sandown last month and should still be competitive off an 8lb higher mark.
Horse Racing in the UK
- Again, he’s not necessarily a bad price even though he’s a short price.
- TOPOFTHEGAME fits the usual profile of winners in this trappy puzzle in that he is relatively lightly-raced and progressive.
- The platform’s detailed analysis of accumulators allows users to create strategic betting combinations.
- This rises to a bit more than 12% for those with a single prior win on good ground and hovers around the same figure for runners who have twice won previously on good; it then drops a notable bit for triple good scorers.
To frame this year’s expectation, we need to look backwards. Below is the same information but with the key metrics ranked, e.g. Mullins’ 2020 Festival win percentage was his second best of the past five Festivals; it was his best of five Festivals on each of EW%, PRB, IV, and A/E. So we’ll use IV, PRB and A/E as way points to navigate to a conclusion; but against which period(s) should we measure performance?
If you’d had the proverbial crystal ball and been able to predict every front-runner at HQ since 2009, you’d have been on to a very good thing as you can see from the table below, taken from geegeez’ Query Tool. ‘4’ signifies an early front runner, ‘3’ a prominent racer early, ‘2’ a midfield runner, and ‘1’ a hold up type. This particular race was won by the unexposed, and still unbeaten – now in three races – Hickory, who was a class above his rivals. As the result shows, he was good enough to travel on the heels of the speed, while the placed horses came from far back, even though typically this course and distance favours front-runners (see the green blob above the pace map).
Grand National
The 39 in the last decade which didn’t were all unplaced bar one. Indeed, horses rated 140 or below, including those without a rating, are a combined seven from 308 for a loss at SP of 185 points. None of the 238 horses sent off at 25/1 or bigger managed to win an open Grade 1 at the last ten CheltFests. Moreover, only three priced bigger than 14/1 scored, from 335 to face the starter, with this group losing 274 points at SP. Meanwhile, those priced at 14/1 or shorter won 50 races from 300 starters, and lost just two points at SP. Chacun was imperious at Christmas, value for plenty more than the official six and a half lengths.
Horse racing in the UK
Fleur Au Fusil caught my eye with her recent Leopardstown victory, but she’ll require the hood to help settle her if she’s to get home, although the faster race tempo should also help. Both Jalon D’oudairies & Romeo Coolio, trained by Gordon Elliott, stand out as strong contenders, and it’s difficult to choose between the two. Teeshan appears to be the top choice among the British runners and can secure a place, or even victory, in the race.
- A cloudy day is forecast and the south-westerly breeze should see the track slightly drying through the day.
- Naturally, then, the other 50 winners came from horses priced at 16/1 or shorter, the 381 such runners losing just 31 points at SP, and breaking even at BSP.
- Even to fast looks the most likely pace setup on the scant evidence we have.
- The main threat is likely to come from the unexposed Min Huna.
- She beat the same mare, Minella Melody, by nearly two lengths in a Grade 2 in November and then by more than six lengths in a Grade 3 at the turn of the year.
- It is run over the exact same Gold Cup distance, which offers an interesting angle for viewers.
Cheltenham Festival Stats for All Races
- The daughter of Shantou displayed her immense ability with a smart success at Punchestown in January, giving a pair of well-touted geldings weight and scoring with plenty in hand.
- Of that last named cohort, maybe Teahupoo has advanced his claims since the turn of the year.
- He’s highly respected but not as much as Elliott’s dominance – as well as six from seven winners since 2017, he’s also saddled four of the second placed horses, a quite phenomenal record.
- While online betting may have shaken the sports betting industry, it’s clear horse racing remains, as it has for decades, at the forefront of it.
- For most bookies, it remains their bread and butter, alongside football and tennis as the most popularly wagered sports.
- Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins each have nine, and the next best of Jonjo O’Neill, with four.
- The two I like most are Libberty Hunter and Hardy du Seuil with the former looking really solid in the conditions.
Best of the (limited) British defence is probably Mister Coffey, a perma-bridesmaid trained by Nicky Henderson. He’s finished second in five of his last six starts, a run that includes the G1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase of last year and the Kim Muir a month later. He looked a strong stayer at last season’s Festival and this test might be just the ticket.
But he’s no bargain, especially if his jockey – presumably Rachael Blackmore though she has another option – allows others a head start. O’Faolains Boy set a fair but not searing tempo, aided and abetted by Smad Place, in 2016, the beneficiary of which was the handily-ridden Don Cossack. And in 2015, Coneygree made every yard under an inspired ride from Nico de Boinville. De Boinville’s measurement of pace there was brilliant, saving enough to repel a brace of Irish challengers up the hill to the line. In 2018, Native River won from Might Bite, the pair engaging in a ding-dong skirmish from flag fall; in theory, both should have wilted and been passed. This was definitely not a winner I could have found as it looked on paper beforehand that they’d have at it exactly as they did, an approach in this sort of cauldron which typically spells c-u-r-t-a-i-n-s.
If the ground dries out, it might be that connections of Honeysuckle decide to run over this two-and-a-half mile trip rather than the extended two of the Champion Hurdle. The hallmark of those runs, and indeed her run style generally, is being held together off the pace before cruising through to prevail comfortably. In so doing it is hard to peg the level of her form exactly, always leaving the impression there is more in the tank. Lightly raced, as is often the modus operandi with Willie Mullins’ better mares, Concertista has run just twice this term. She beat the same mare, Minella Melody, by nearly two lengths in a Grade 2 in November and then by more than six lengths in a Grade 3 at the turn of the year.
It does seem a race where all of the preceding trials have been run on different ground and/or under very different pace scenarios. There will be lots of to and fro in the six weeks from now until the Cheltenham Festival gets underway. A few positions on shorties at fancier prices, for all that the spectre of our picks winning but not by far enough looms, may help to wile the worst of these remaining Covid days. Put The Kettle On jumped poorly under Sean Flanagan when slammed by CPS and Notebook last time but can be expected to improve both for a return to Cheltenham and the presumed return of Aidan Coleman to the saddle. In that light, she’s of minor interest at 14/1 each way and also worth at least a second glance when the ‘without the favourite’ market emerges. But it is hard to see her turning tables with her last day vanquisher.
- Mullins-trained Douvan ‘drifting like a barge’ in the betting, according to Matt Chapman.
- He’s a fine horse, very consistent and seems to be thriving.
- The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 13 winners from a total of 195 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 0 winners from a total of 12 runners.
- MAKE MY DAY is the choice to improve on his record of a win and a second from two visits to Goodwood.
- Gordon Elliott has won six of the last seven (one of them under the pseudonym Denise Foster) Festival cross country races and has an iron grip on a bid for a seventh.
- Lightly raced, as is often the modus operandi with Willie Mullins’ better mares, Concertista has run just twice this term.
- The area surrounding Cheltenham racecourse is one of idyllic beauty thanks to undulating hills, wild woodland and babbling streams.
The British handicapper seems not to be on the same page with his European counterparts, ranking Irish form more highly and French form lower. On that basis, it’s easy enough to bypass Gaelic Warrior at such cramped odds and I don’t really want to be with The Tide Turns at not much bigger, though naturally I respect the chance of both. Burning Victory was the beneficiary of Goshen’s black swan event at the last in the Triumph Hurdle of 2020 and she’s travelled all over the place since. Specifically, she’s taken in the Galway Hurdle (7th), a Deauville handicap (1st), the Cesarewitch (2nd), a Navan handicap hurdle (tailed off), the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle (3rd) and that defeat of Queen’s Brook last time.
The horse is banks king Enda Bolger’s latest McManus project, and was revitalised by a first spin over ditches, wedges and all in the PP Hogan Memorial Chase – a key prep for this – last time. There he won in a field of 17 which contained plenty of dead wood; so, too, will Day 2’s Cross Country field. He was effective rather than eye-catching in winning but that was his first cross-country effort in public.
