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A Christmas Cheltenham Festival betting preview

By Matt | December 19, 2009

The Cheltenham Festival seems a long way away, but we’re actually only about twelve weeks from the March betting spectacular. And so as the turn of the year approaches it seems a good time to take a look at the key races so far that could give us an indication of Cheltenham’s big betting races.

Champion Hurdle betting
The lightly raced and unbeaten Zaynar rightly heads the betting in the Champion Hurdle and at 5/1 looks priced about right. Its tempting to describe those next in the odds as failures; none of Binocular, Solwhit or Celestial Halo has distinguished themselves in their recent races.

The exception is Go Native, who put in a smooth staying performance when winning the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle in November. 12/1 makes him a decent each-way alternative to Zaynar.

Queen Mother Champion Chase betting
Master Minded will inevitably be well backed here, but it’s the trio of horses behind him in the betting that catch my eye. The Tingle Creek Chase set down some clear markers, with Twist Magic finishing 15 lengths in front of Forpadydeplasterer and a country mile in front of the race favourite Big Zeb.

Most of the bookies reflect this race in their odds, except Coral who bizarrely price Twist Magic at 10/1 where elsewhere he is as short as 5s. Tens is outstanding value and should be snapped up before it goes!

World Hurdle betting
Big Buck’s 5/4: that’s all I want to say on this race. While Paul Nicholls’ horse is odds against I’ll be backing him: he hasn’t put a foot wrong since unseating Sam Thomas in the 2008 Hennessy Gold Cup and has won his last five races, including the 2008 World Hurdle.

Cheltenham Gold Cup betting
This race is going to be massive, with two-time winner Kauto Star up against Denman, who defeated him to win the Gold Cup in 2008. They’re 9/4 the pair at the moment, with Cooldine and Imperial Commander 12/1 and Forpadydeplasterer back at 25s.

Much in the betting will depend on Kauto Star’s performance in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, although at the moment preference has to be for Denman after the way he destroyed the opposition in this year’s Hennessy Gold Cup.

Anticipating a win for Kauto Star in the King George suggests Denman’s odds will get longer after Boxing Day so it’s worth holding out until then before betting on him to win the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

It’s worth putting a small sum on some of these now as a bit of insurance against shorter odds nearer the festival, so I’ll suggest the following now:

Selections

3 points Zaynar (5/1, Ladbrokes) to win the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle
2 points each-way Twist Magic (10/1, Coral) to win the Cheltenham Queen Mother Champion Chase
4 points Big Buck’s (5/4, Ladbrokes) to win the Cheltenham World Hurdle

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