THIS month's Cheltenham Festival gets called a lot of things – ‘The Greatest Show On Turf, Jump Racings Olympics' – but to hardened National Hunt fans the four day festival doesn't need to be sold to them with fancy slogans – it's simply the best four days racing of the year – fact!
Ok, well not everyone might agree with that, but I suspect plenty will and this year's action looks set to be one of the best yet. With plenty of sub-plots, like who will be the top trainer and jockey over the four days, not to mention the popular, but friendly, rivalry between the Irish and English runners then away from actually finding winners there are a lot of other markets to get stuck into.
In addition to the 27 races, which punters will, of course, be betting on the ‘Top Jockey', ‘Top Trainer' and ‘Number Of Irish Winners' markets provide us with an ongoing interest over the four days, especially as these will go in-running and give us the option to trade out too – with that in mind I'm going to take a quick look at each one in little bit more detail.
Top Jockey: If previous seasons are anything to go by then this looks Ruby Walsh's to lose. The ‘Silver Fox' pilot has landed the ‘top jock' award at the festival seven times, including 6 times in the last 7 years – only Barry Geraghty in 2012 has ruined that run. Looking at the betting Walsh is on offer at around 4/7 and it's easy to see why. With Ruby now attached full-time to the powerful Willie Mullins yard – who were also the top stable in 2013 – then he'll, once again, have the pick of his big festival string, while he's certain to also pick up plenty of decent outside rides too. However, he's clearly no value at that price.
That's why Barry Geraghty could be the call at around 4/1. Being attached to the Henderson yard, like Walsh, he'll have a lot of chances, and decent chances too, over the four days. Yes, Sprinter Sacre still needs to get to the Champion Chase fit and well but if he does then he'll be hard to beat, while the ‘back-to-form' Bobs Worth (Gold Cup) looks the one to beat in Friday's showpiece too. So there's two big chances before we even touch on the other races and with the Henderson team showing clear signs their horses are beginning to hit top form in the build-up to the festival then Gereghty gets the nod – plus, don't forget these markets will go in-play during the festival so there if your fancy gets off to a flyer then you can always trade-out.
Top Trainer: This market has a similar feel to the top jockeys market with Mullins around 1/2 and Henderson 4/1, however, although it might contradict our Barry Geraghty shout the 9/2 on offer about Paul Nicholls looks interesting. Yes, they might not have the string of old with the likes of Master Minded, Kauto Star and Denman, but let's not forget at the time of writing they are well ahead of the Henderson team in terms of winners and total prize money won and having landed the top trainer prize 5 times since 2004 then that's a further plus.
Irish Winners: In recent years we've seen a feast of Irish Festival winners and looking at some of the ante-post markets it could be more of the same in 2014.They notched a monster 14 winners last year from the 27 races (52%) – a tally that bettered their haul of 13 winners in 2011. With the likes of Quevega, Annie Power, Hurricane Fly & First Lieutenant before we've even got onto the Cross Country and bumper race (contests they generally also do well in) then the 7/4 on offer for us to see 12 winners of more will be popular and is the call to make it yet another great festival for the Irish.
Enjoy the Festival!
Cheltenham Festival Top Trainers
2013 Willie Mullins 5
2012 Nicky Henderson 6
2011 Willie Mullins 4
2010 Nicky Henderson 3
2009 Paul Nicholls 5
2008 Paul Nicholls 3
2007 Paul Nicholls 4
2006 Paul Nicholls 3
2005 Howard Johnson 3
2004 Paul Nicholls 4
Cheltenham Festival Top Jockeys
2013 Ruby Walsh 4
2012 Barry Geraghty 5
2011 Ruby Walsh 5
2010 Ruby Walsh 3
2009 Ruby Walsh 7
2008 Ruby Walsh 3
2007 Robert Thornton 4
2006 Ruby Walsh 3
2005 Graham Lee 3
2004 Ruby Walsh 3
Irish Winners
2013 – 14
2012 – 5
2011 – 13
2010 – 7
2009 – 9
2008 – 7
2007 – 5
2006 – 10
2005 – 9
