Below we are going to take you through our five selections for the festival. For variety, we will break each pick down into a specific category.
Lock of the Week – Paisley Park
It’s just so difficult to see Paisley Park losing the Stayers’ Hurdle, a race he won last year without breaking a sweat. If anything, he has looked better since then, and his favourite-status is further backed by the lack of quality elsewhere in the race. Best odds of 8/11 (Bet365) don’t look massive, but it will be one of the biggest shocks in racing if Paisley Park doesn’t cross that finish line first.
The Gold Cup – Al Boum Photo
The biggest race of the week, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, is always tough to call. As such, we would advise you to check out the most popular Cheltenham betting offers delivered by bookies, as you can usually find stuff like free bets, extra places and enhanced odds for the top races. Regardless of how you boost your bet, we still like the look of the co-favourite and last year’s winner, Al Boum Photo. 4/1 (William Hill) seems a good price for a horse that has shown, unlike many others in the field, that he can handle the tough uphill finish of this long-distance chase.
The Longshot Pick – Al Dancer
The Arkle Challenge Trophy usually fields some fantastic future chasers, and the 2020 version is no different. Notebook and Fakir D’Oudairies come in at 11/4 and 6/1 respectively, and both will likely go on to have exceptional careers. However, neither has the commanding look of previous winners like Douvan and Altior. In short, we smell an upset here and fancy the 22/1 price from William for Al Dancer. Again, it’s all about that steep uphill finish at Cheltenham, and Al Dancer has won over course and distance before.
The Bookies Have This Wrong – Altior
Altior has 20 wins in his last 21 races, and the only blip was last November in a race where he came off a 200+ day-break and was run about half a mile over his preferred distance. Over the two miles of the Champion Chase, a race which Altior won in 2018 and 2019, he has never tasted defeat. 2/1 is the price coming from most bookmakers, and it looks a snip if you look at the form and the facts. His primary challenger, Defi Du Seuil (9/4), looks good, but he will have to be great to beat the best middle-distance chaser of modern times.
Get it While It’s Hot – Envoi Allen
Unbeaten in his seven races to date, Envoi Allen’s team are aiming him at the safer option of the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle ahead of other, sterner tests. He’s 6/4 favourite as you might expect, but looks every bit the guaranteed winner as Paisley Park mentioned earlier. Indeed, putting that pair into an accumulator bet might not be the worst idea for the week at Cheltenham. Envoi Allen wins this, and you can then watch him come back and win a bigger race at Cheltenham in 2021.
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