UK Horse Racing Tips

The opening race of the Cheltenham Festival is the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and it usually pays in this 2m contest to put your faith in Irish Champion Trainer Willie Mullins who has had the winner in three of the last four years. His best chance later this month appears to be with Melon who has been subject to a huge gamble for this race ever since he scored at Leopardstown on his debut in Ireland. Mullins clearly thinks a lot of the horse, and the five-year-old must have been doing some special work at home for him to go straight to the Festival on the back of this one run. Hopefully he can make it a winning start to the week for you where he is currently available in the betting at 4/1.

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Many bookmakers disagree at this stage over who should be favourite for the Champion Hurdle this year but given what he has achieved this season, the horse they will all have to beat is Yanworth. Alan King’s horse is available at a top price of 7/2 in the horse racing betting for the premier hurdle race at the meeting. The seven-year-old has won all three of his starts in the campaign so far, including the Grade One Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day where he proved he has the speed to be successful over 2m. Given there is no Faugheen or Annie Power this year, it is the perfect opportunity for Yanworth to shine.

Thistlecrack’s defection from the Cheltenham Gold Cup field allows his stablemate Native River to have a fantastic opportunity to win the biggest race of his career at the Festival. The Colin Tizzard-trained chaser keeps on improving and after success in the Hennessy Gold Cup and Welsh Grand National this season, there can be no doubt about his stamina in this testing 3m2f contest at Prestbury Park. The seven-year-old has to be favourite over Cue Card who came down in this race 12 months ago. Although the former King George winner did look back to his best at Ascot in his most recent start, it would take a huge performance for him to prevail at the age of 11. Therefore the preference is with Native River.

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The Mares’ Hurdle is one of the newest races on the Cheltenham Festival schedule and since it inaugurated in 2008, Mullins has trained the winner in all but one of those years. His domination should continue again this year as the 2016 winner Vroum Vroum Mag will be looking to defend her crown where she will take all the beating. She is probably good enough to run against her opposite sex in the Stayers’ Hurdle, however, if successful this year she will only be the second horse to have won this contest more than once. The opposition to Vroum Vroum Mag could be decrease before the Festival if Limini runs in the Champion Hurdle which now looks a strong possibility.

Selections – Melon (Supreme Novices’ Hurdle), Yanworth (Champion Hurdle), Native River (Cheltenham Gold Cup) and Vroum Vroum Mag (Mares’ Hurdle).

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