The Cheltenham Festival is a rare gem. The one week in the year where everybody loves horse racing. Having a bet and horse racing go hand in hand, so here are a few rules to help navigate the greatest punting week of them all.
Utilise the time
There are 48-hour declarations for Cheltenham and a year of build up. In practice, the 48-hour decs mean that on Sunday morning we know what horses are running on Tuesday. This is a blessing as it gives punters an extra day to clue themselves up. There is pressure on bookmakers to have every race priced as quickly as possible, this will undoubtedly lead to mistakes on their part, so it's up to eagle-eyed punters to spot them.
Ruby Ruby Ruby Rubyyyyyyyy
The only rule for watching the top festival rider of all time, as he heads towards 40, is to enjoy him while he's still here. He is quite simply the greatest jockey of his generation and possibly any generation, and when he is banging in the winners, the punters are in clover. His return from injury only adds to the festival and it's good to see, as all sports need their biggest stars on the biggest stage.
Be like Mulder and Scully
The volume of information ahead of the festival can be overwhelming at times. There are blogs, videos, preview nights, industry Q&As, handbooks, magazines, as well as all of the usual sources of horse racing and form study information, not to mention reams more on social media (especially Twitter). The days of punters being kept in the dark until the post-race interview are largely gone. As they said in
The X-Files, the truth is out there, punters just need to locate it.
Selectively wrap the green flag
There were an incredible 19 Irish-trained winners at the festival in 2017, but it's worth bearing in mind that only three of them were favourites. Irish trainers are all too aware how difficult it is to compete against the strength of Gordon Elliot and Willie Mullins, so know they need to be selective in how they campaign their horses. The top of the market was hard work last year and the number of Irish winners masked how difficult it actually was for many punters.
Some riders are more qualified than others
Irish amateur riders such as Derek O'Connor, Jamie Codd, Nina Carberry and Patrick Mullins are vastly superior to some of their British counterparts. The horses that are ridden by Derek and Jamie especially, should be the first port of call for any of the Qualified Riders' races over the week.
Watch the "bounce factor"
There are some big names having a second run back after a long break this year, notably Altior in the Champion Chase and Native River in the Gold Cup. The bounce factor is a debated term in horse racing circles - but in essence, it's a theory that a horse runs poorly on their second start after a long break. The stats seem to back the theory up but that said, will it be enough to stop Altior?
Look at Willie Mullins in handicap hurdles
The Master of Closutton will have an enormous team and plenty of short-priced runners like Getabird, Footpad, Un de Sceaux and Laurina. His biggest book of early entries was in the Coral Cup with 21. His strike rate in some of the handicap hurdles is excellent, having won three of the last six Martin Pipe hurdles and having four wins in the County since 2010. Watch out for where Carter McKay runs!
Trainers can only play the cards they are dealt
As mentioned earlier, Irish trainers are all too familiar with struggling against Gordon Elliot and Willie Mullins-trained winners. The duo's domination has meant a change in the spread of equine talent and punters have to act accordingly. For Paul Nicholls, for instance, the days of Kauto Star, Denman and Master Minded now feel long in the past - his modern Cheltenham winners are of a different variety, with seven of this last nine winners coming in handicaps.
Ignore the oldies
There might be plenty of knowledge to be gleaned from chatting to your grandad about other things, but backing older horses in Open class races at Cheltenham is not a wise strategy. Only four aged-10 have won in the last decade and none aged-11 or more. As ever, there will plenty of Cue Card and Faugheen fairytale talk, but like all fairytales, it's almost certainly fantasy.
Play to your strengths
If English handicap hurdle form study leaves you cold or sends you around in circles, then just don't have a bet in that race. There are 28 races, with extra markets galore, if you can't find an angle in a particular race, stop and move on. Blindly backing favourites in handicaps is a shortcut to the poorhouse as their record is appalling.
Watch out for the young guns
There are always great breakthrough stories at the festival and a fresh face in the winners' enclosure adds to an already electric atmosphere. On the riding front, James Bowen is a teenage sensation in the UK and Bryony Frost, who already has a festival winner to her name, are two kids who could go mainstream this week. While in the training ranks, Joseph O'Brien is still only 24 and could see a winner or two. The youngest trainer in Britain is Amy Murphy and she'll be hoping Kalashnikov performs in the Supreme.
For God's sake enjoy yourself
This is the greatest annual spectacle in the equine calendar and an absolute must visit on any sports fan's bucket list. Rules are made to be broken, so don't limit your enjoyment. If you do get the bug, remember there's racing almost every day of the week, the more you enjoy and watch it, the likelier you are to have a successful punting week at Cheltenham.
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