UK Horse Racing Tips

With the prestigious 2018 Cheltenham Festival now only a stone’s throw away the bookmaker odds and red top newspaper chatter has already started focusing on who they think this year’s ‘stand out’s might be (no pun!). Might Bite is heavily favoured at just 3-1 to win this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup with last year’s victor Sizing John also in the running. Of course there may well still be a few changes to the line ups, as one or two fancied horses have already dropped out from this and other Cheltenham races. That’s always important to factor that in, especially if you opt to place an early bet on this or any other race with a potentially large field.

Betting on big horse racing events like the Cheltenham Festival, Royal Ascot or the Grand National can often be a different skill / art than your typical day to day betting. With the Cheltenham Festival just around the corner it’s worth looking out for the latest Cheltenham betting odds for the 2018 festival.  These events are often highly competitive and in my opinion fewer horses slip under the radar (as can more readily happen in day to day betting, where sometimes people get rather gungho on the betting markets without really knowing a lot about what they’re laying or betting on). Weighing up the pros and cons of what to place your money on can be a trickier affair than usual.

That’s not to say there aren’t significant betting opportunities out there. The Cheltenham Gold Cup and other races at the festival have seen huge priced winners over the years and that’s just with bookmakers odds, rather than the betting exchanges. Norton’s Coin is perhaps the name that would first role off the tongue when thinking of Cheltenham betting opportunities of old. He won the Gold Cup at 100-1, then there’s Hardy Eustace winning the 2004 Champion Hurdle at 33-1, Western Warhorse winning the 2014 Arkle Challenge trophy, the list goes on! Sometimes looking for a big priced bet can be a perfectly valid option. Let’s not forget that Hove bookmaker Ben Keith took a £375,000 win bet on Willie Mullins Douvan in the 2017 Queen Mother Champion Chase, only for it to disappoint at odds of 2-9. A betting nightmare for one odds-on loving punter.

So who will be the stand outs of the 2018 Cheltenham Festival I wonder, and are there any horses in particular you’ve had your eye on. I’m naturally inclined to sometimes look beyond the favourites in the betting when I’m approaching races that have one too many unknowns for my liking, which can be true as I’ve said of the big Festivals. There will of course be long and short odds opportunities to bet on over the four day Festival and we’ll be analysing many potential selections from favourites to outsiders closer to the start of this prestigious event which in 2018 starts on 13^th March and ends on 16^th day of the month.

Lanfranco “Frankie” Dettori rode his first winner in Britain in 1987 and, for much of his career, was synonymous with the royal blue silks of the Godolphin organisation, founded by Sheikh Mohammed in 1994. Indeed, on an extraordinary afternoon at Ascot in 1996 Godolphin contributed the majority of his so-called “Magnificent Seven”, when he rode the winner of each of the seven races on the card.

However, the popular Italian was demoted in the Godolphin pecking order in 2012, finally severing all ties with the organisation to become freelance and subsequently served a six-month ban after testing positive for cocaine. On his return to race riding, a frustrating lack of rides led Dettori to seriously consider retirement at the end of the 2013 season.

Thankfully, he was rescued from the doldrums by Sheikh Joaan al Thani, the co-founder of Al Shaqab Racing, who appointed him as retained jockey. Dettori finished a forgettable season with just 16 winners – his lowest total for 25 years – but, the following year, renewed his association with former champion trainer John Gosden, who’d supported him many years before.

Fast forward to 2017 and Dettori rode a highly respectable 63 winners from 237 rides in Britain, at a strike rate of 25%, for a level stakes profit of 45.55 points. He also became the first jockey to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe five times, on the superstar filly Enable – fittingly trained by John Gosden – who was recording her fifth Group One victory of the season.

Dettori has been crowned champion Flat jockey three times and while, at the age of 47, he is unlikely to scale those heights again, 30 years, 15,000 races and 3,000-odd winners since he joined Luca Cumani as an apprentice, we haven’t seen the last of his famous flying dismount.

It hasn’t been the greatest preparation for Cheltenham 2018 from the Willie Mullins yard. The continued questions over the form of Faugheen and the injury issues of Douvan looks set to deprive him of two of his star turns, either all together or in peak form. There was also the tragic death of 2017 Stayers’ Hurdle winner Nichols Canyon. To cap it all off, he has been without regular jockey Ruby Walsh for the majority of the season.

Things have been looking up for Mullins recently though. Ruby Walsh should be back in the saddle very soon and, most importantly, a number of Mullins’ horses have started to show some excellent form in time for the Festival. Five of his best chances are discussed below, as well as their most dangerous competitors. If you are betting on the races, there are plenty of free bet promotions still available at Freebets.co.uk Free Bets: Cheltenham Festival.

Getabird:

Getabird looks like another gem unearthed by the Mullins and Ricci partnership. Four wins from four from the lightly-raced six-year-old gave reason for connections to be excited, but it was the victory in the Sky Bet Moscow Flyer Hurdle in December that really got punters noticing. A win in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle could point to a big couple of years ahead for Getabird.

Current Odds: 5/2 for Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

Biggest Danger: Samcro, also 5/2 (William Hill).

Un De Sceaux:

Un De Sceaux would probably be considered a modern great had he not had the misfortune of coming up against Sprinter Sacre’s wonderful swansong period at the back-end of 2016. Still, two Grade 1 wins at the Festival demonstrate his class. He won the Ryanair Chase last year and looks likely to tackle it again. A big chance.

Current Odds: 3/1 for Ryanair Chase.

Biggest Danger: Fox Norton 11/2.

Min:

A lot of buzz has surrounded Min ever since his excellent victory in the Coral Dublin Chase in early February. That changed the whole complexion of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, with many punters expressing a preference for Min over the ante-post favourite Altior. Whether he can beat a fully-fit Altior remains to be seen, but that Dublin Chase win was a big, big statement.

Current Odds: 3/1 for Queen Mother Champion Chase:

Biggest Danger: Altior 5/4.

Footpad:

Footpad, along with Gordon Elliott’s Apple’s Jade, have probably been cited most frequently as potential winners of a Grade 1 race at Cheltenham this year. Footpad had an indifferent start to his career over hurdles (3 wins from 10) but has looked excellent since switching to chasing at the beginning of the season. The Arkle looks to be at his mercy.

Current Odds: 4/5 for Arkle Challenge Trophy.

Biggest Danger: Sceau Royal 11/2.

Killultagh Vic:

It is arguable that Willie Mullins has had better Gold Cup entries than Killultagh Vic down the years. However, circumstances may just be perfect for the nine-year-old to fill that gaping hole on Mullins’ impressive CV. Killultagh Vic was last seen falling (when leading at the last) in the Irish Gold Cup in early February, but that hasn’t stopped punters from considering him a real chance for glory. He is a gutsy performer, of the type that will relish a Gold Cup challenge.

Current Odds: 10/1 for Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Biggest Danger: Might Bite 3/1.

Dan Skelton has only been training in his own right for four years, but continues to saddle winner after winner – 133 at the last count – this season. The Warwickshire trainer has a strong contingent of novice hurdlers and, on Sunday, sends Solo Saxophone on the 300-mile round trip down the M5 to Exeter to contest the In Play Betting at 1888Bet Novices’ Hurdle (2.30). The 4-year-old Frankel colt failed to win on the Flat for Dermot Weld last season and looked well beaten, at one stage, on his hurdling debut at Catterick in December.

However, he rallied after the second last flight, overhauling the leader, Outcrop, on the run-in to win by 4 lengths going away. The third horse that day, Haulani, subsequently ran well in a better race at Kempton, but Solo Saxophone was only workmanlike when beating 50/1 outsider Titan in another run-of-the-mill juvenile hurdle at Wetherby last month.

Nevertheless, he has the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival as his main objective, so can reasonably be expected to improve with experience. In fact, he has looked far from the finished articled on both starts for Dan Skelton, so he could be worth chancing, despite taking a significant rise in class.

Selection: Exeter 2.30 Solo Saxophone to win 5/1