Best Bets On Cheltenham Festival 2018

If you listen quietly, the buzz of the Cheltenham Festival can be heard.

From the 13th - 16th March, Prestbury Park, Gloucestershire becomes the centre of the National Hunt scene for a very good reason. This racecourse, trainers, horses and punters come here with winners in mind.

With Grade 1 races aplenty, punters can easily feel light headed wondering which race to make as their banker. If you have ever been to the course and part of the crowd, betting at this place is something to behold. The Cheltenham betting experience is like no other. Even watching TV on the box in the corner of the room, shivers go down the spine. The Cheltenham Roar starts what is a day of reckoning. The best horses battling for success. History makers not satisfied with their honours. ''Just one more victory''.

As a novice bettor, you may wonder how to bet on Cheltenham 2018. In truth, unless you have very deep pockets or bet small, you may not want to consider a flutter on every race.

The big races always get the pulse racing.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is for many the most significant National Hunt racing on the calendar. Run over a distance of 3 miles 2 1/2f, this Grade 1 race is open to horses aged five years and older. Twenty-two fences stand between success and failure. There is no easy way to win this class race.

From a historical point of view, there is one horse that stands proudest of all. Golden Miller won this race five time in succession from 1932 – 1936. Can you imagine if a horse achieved that now! It would be the Frankel of the National Hunt.

Modern-day champions don't lack any lustre.

Best Mate is an iconic winner of three races (2002 – 2004). Hard as nails. 

Kauto Star sticks in my mind. The only horse to regain the Gold Cup. A truly gallant, majestic and much-loved horse.

Sizing John won last year's Gold Cup for for trainer Jessica Harrington, ridden by Robbie Power, defying Minella Rocco and Native River who finished second and third, respectively. 

Get ready for the latest Cheltenham betting offers from all the leading bookmakers.

Are you ready for the biggest betting bonanza?

16th March - 3:30 Cheltenham – The Gold Cup.

Nicky Henderson could have a real bumper Cheltenham. With a number of leading fancies, this could be a year to remember. Might Bite is a horse hitting the headlines. This gelding is a nine-year-old bay owned by The Knot Again Partnership. An Irish-bred son of Scorpion, he is unbeaten in his last five races. With an official rating of 169, this is a progressive horse. Taking a look at William Hill betting, this horse is available at 3/1. Henderson is no stranger to success in the Gold Cup. Bob's Worth won back in 2013. He started the 11/4f, running out a tidy seven-length winner.

The Gold Cup is a race of old faces, winners and stoic campaigners. Winners often try to defend their hard-fought titles. Sizing John, last year's winner, is a reminder that only a few taste glory. At odds of 6/1, there could value if betting each way.

Who else registers as a live hope?

Colin Tizzard trains Native River. This son of Indian River ran a storming race last year when finishing third. He was pretty strong in the betting but couldn't defy Sizing John. A most recent win, when odds-on at Newbury, saw a classy display. Plenty of punters will be snapping up 11/2 which William Hill offer at this time.

Gold Cup Pointers:

The majority of Gold Cup winners come from the major fancies if not the favourites. Bookmakers have plenty of data to help assess the chance of each runner. With only one horse winning at 20/1 in the last twenty years (Lord Windermere), it suggests you are wise to stick with the first four or five in the market.

Good luck with your bets. 

2K to 10k Betting Challenge (Bet No 4 ) Wed 21st Feb

The 2k to 10k betting challenge continues on Wednesday evening ,with class two 11f handicap from Kempton . 

February has been very slow month,with very few suitable betting opportunities on All weather ,though just have to stay patient . The bankroll now stands at £1811 stakes drop to £72.00. 


10 runners declared for the 32Red.com 1M 3F (0-105) handicap on poly track at 7.45pm .Not the strongest looking class two handicap ,though still looks interesting contest.The three main contenders are Al Hamandy , Kelly's Dino & Cosmepolitan .

AL HAMANDY : 4-Y-0 Bay Gelding,winning 3 out 10 on All Weather.Consistent sort been in fair form this winter.Winning 12f class three handicap at Kempton in November.Also finished second in handicaps at Lingfield & Wolverhampton in December.Goes well here at Kempton (12512 ) though will need career best to land this class 2 contest,off mark 95 .

KELLY'S DINO : 5-Y-0 Bay Gelding,winning 2 out 3 on All Weather .Lightly raced sort ,though been good form this winter ,winning handicaps at Southwell & Wolverhampton in January .Also finished fair third in 9.5f class 4 handicap at Wolverhampton last time .Takes step up in class ,though looks open to further improvement over this longer trip.Each-way claims .

COSMEPOLITAN : 5-Y-0 Bay Gelding ,winning 2 out 18 on turf .Lightly raced on All Weather ,though finished close second in class 2 handicap at Wolverhampton in 2016 ,off mark 92.Also finished good second in 12f class 3 handicap at Lingfield last time .Up 2lb in weights ,though still fairly treated off mark 89 .Solid claims .

VERDICT : COSMEPOLITAN should go well for Alan King, after finishing creditable second at Lingfield last time,that looked decent effort behind the progressive Godolphin horse Celestial Spheres.Looks open to further improvement on All weather after just three starts .Odds around 4-1 look fair value.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COSMEPOLITAN 7.45 KEMPTON 
£36.00 EACH-WAY @ 4-1 SKY BET & BETVICTOR * .
(WINNER SP 9-2 PROFIT +£194.00)

(Betting bankroll now stands at £2005 ) 

Melbourne Cup History: How Often Does The Favourite Triumph?

All the hype surrounded defending champion Almandin and British raider Marmelo ahead of last year’s Melbourne Cup, the richest two-mile race in the world. Legions of punters backed the pair of them in to $7 joint favourites and clutched their betting slips expectantly, waiting for the duel to unfold. But it did not pan out that way. Instead we witnessed an Irish one-two-three as Joseph O’Brien’s $16 shot Rekindling beat his father’s $13 chance Johannes Vermeer to seal a famous victory. Willie Mullins' Max Dynamite, who went off at $20, came in third, and the joint favourites were nowhere to be seen. In the end, Marmelo finished ninth and Almandin was back in 12th.

Bookmakers were celebrating a job well done in the most high-profile event of the horse racing calendar, dubbed the race that stops a nation. “Marmelo and Almandin were both heavily backed before the race, but finished out of the placings, while the winner was a noted drifter today, easing from $13 to $17 before trimming up late into $15,” said Gerard Daffy, media manager of a large Australian bookmaker “He was one of our better results.”

The previous year, Almandin beat the favourite, Hartnell, by five lengths in another blow for punters that were taken in by the hype surrounded the most heavily fancied horse. The last favourite to win the Mebourne Cup was Fiorente, back in 2013. This 3,200m race carries a prize purse north of £6 million, so it attracts the very best runners, trainers and jockeys in the world. The final acceptance fee is an eye-watering $45,000, so owners do not enter their horses unless they think they have a good chance of winning. That means you get a competitive field, stacked with talented runners, most of whom have secured multiple wins at Group 1 level, vanquishing some superstar contenders in the process.

That is why it pays to look further down the card when making a selection ahead of the big race, which takes place on the first Tuesday in November. Rekindling leads the ante post betting in the Melbourne Cup odds for the 2018 renewal, but it is worth noting that the last horse to win this famous race twice in a row was Makybe Diva, who completed a famous hat-trick back in 2005. There have only been five multiple winners – Makybe Diva, Think Big, Rain Lover, Peter Pan and Archer – since the race began in 1861. Superstars like Dunaden, Protectionist and Kingston Rule have all failed to defend their crown, so opposing Rekindling looks like a smart move.

There have been 150 favourites since the race began, and only 34 have won the Melbourne Cup. That is a return of 23%, less than one in four, showing that it pays to oppose the favourite. Archer set the tone back in 1861, when he went off as a heavy outsider by won the race by three lengths, claiming £710 and a gold watch in a winner takes all prize. Since then the Melbourne Cup has continued a tradition of outsiders seizing glory. Four runners – Prince of Penzance, Old Rowley, Wotan and The Pearl – won it at odds of 100/1. A crowd of 101,105 watched Prince of Penzance’s fairy-tale victory in 2015. It was his first ever top-class victory and the first time a female jockey had ever won Australia’s most famous race.

Many favourites are in the mix by the end of the race: 73 out of 150 have placed since the Melbourne Cup began. But the most common winning prices are 10/1 ($11), which has come in 16 times, and 8/1 ($9), which has landed 14 times.

So, what else should you look for when aiming to narrow down this deep and competitive field before making your selection? There have only been two eight-year-old winners and the last three-year-old winner came back in 1941, when Skipton defied the odds to romp to victory. So you probably want to look at horses aged four to seven, and four- and five-year-olds have enjoyed the greatest levels of success, with 44 wins apiece. Only 13 mares and three fillies have won the Melbourne Cup, so it is a male-dominated affair. Barriers five and 11 have been the most successful, while no horse from barrier 18 has ever won the race. All of this data might help you whittle it down to a smaller field to choose from, but the main point is that you should be prepared to oppose the favourite and seek value elsewhere.