After a brief hiatus, ‘The Eagles Punt‘ returns with a foray into the world of horse racing which is more to this writer’s specialty than football.
The Cheltenham Festival is the biggest meeting of the National Hunt calendar, the centre piece of the gambling year. The first five races are televised and are shown on Channel 4.
As a prelude, I tend to avoid the short priced obvious favourites instead going for the value options who may be less likely to win, but will provide more of an option at a price.
A review of yesterday’s racing includes the NAP coming in second with strong place value. The NB horse ,The Druids Nephew, won with ease to bring in a solid 8/1 profit.
The best each way shout, Shaneshill, came second behind a monstrous performance from Douvan while Bitofapuzzle placed at 25/1 after Annie Power’s shuddering fall at the last leaving the bookies celebrating that they had only lost £40m instead of £100m!
Wednesday sees the re-appearance at Cheltenham of Sire De Grugy (SDG). Owned by Palace fans with the jockey, Jamie Moore wearing red and blue silks, the 2014 winner returns to Cheltenham with a point to prove.
With previous double Champion Chaser Sprinter Sacre returning from heart problems, Champagne Fever returning to two miles and this season’s best two miler, Dodging Bullets opposing SDG, it looks a much tougher race than last year. However, all the top horses in the market have their own issues.
The selections for tomorrow are as follows:
- 1.30 Neptune Novices Hurdle – Ordo Ab Chao (14/1) each way
- 2.05 RSA Chase – Don Poli (7/4)
- 2.40 Coral Cup – Dell’ Arca (14/1) or Lac Fontana (16/1) each way
- 3.20 Queen Mother Champion Chase – Sire De Grugy (11/4)
- 4.00 Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase – Sire Collonges (5/1) each way
- 4.40 Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle – Arabian Revolution (9/1) each way
- 5.15 Champion Bumper – Bordini (11/2) each way
*Prices courtesy of Paddy Power at time of article published
NAP: Don Poli – Possibly the strongest of the horses coming over from Ireland representing the Gigginstown colours. Don Poli could have raced in the four miler and can jump and stay forever.
NB: Sire De Grugy – I cannot really not choose Sire De Grugy after the previous explanations for it. The horse has recovered well from injury and looked good on his comeback. With doubts across the rest of the field, SDG may have the quality to retain his title despite the reappearance of Sprinter Sacre, but he is a Palace horse so of course we want him to win!
Best Each-Way Shout: Arabian Revolution – A good horse running in the Handicap race for Juvenile horses. Ridden by Barry Geraghty and will be wearing first time blinkers which may bring extra improvement. Has taken well to hurdles, but just not good enough to run in the top level Triumph hurdle race.
Usual Disclaimer: Gambling is for over 18’s (says the 24 year old who has been gambling for about 16-17 years), and only bet money that you can afford to lose.
