Two ante-post bets for the Cheltenham Festival |
With the cold snap likely to play havoc with the weekend race cards in Britain, it seems more sensible for me to take an early look at the Cheltenham Festival from an ante-post point of view. It is stating the obvious but the number one rule of ante-post betting is to do all you can to back a horse that is going to run in your chosen race – in this case one of the contests at the Cotswolds racecourse in two months’ time.
For me that rules out most of the high-class novice hurdles and novice chasers in which Irish trainer Willie Mullins and other top yards like to shuffle their pack with different horses being allocated to different races of different distances right up to the 48-hour declaration stages.
I will look elsewhere for two ante-post bets. The Grade 1 Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup on 13 March is much more open than usual with last year’s winner Inothewayurthinkin failing to sparkle in two runs this season and no other horse stamping its authority on the ante-post market. It is asking a lot – though not impossible – for dual Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs to regain his crown at the age of ten.
One of my biggest faults as a gambler is to stay too loyal to horses that I like when they lose their form but with HAITI COULEURS it is the other way around: I have not stayed loyal enough to him after a winning bet.
In early........