The Cheltenham Festival
Having spent virtually all night/morning out of bed with a poorly child, unable to get back to sleep, I find myself with an hour or two to check out the form for the day's racing.
Therefore, with apologies to all non-horsey, non-gamblers out there (of whom I'm sure there are many);
Today marks the start of horse-racing's premier festival - Cheltenham! And, following this correspondent's quite sensational tipping service from last year - including advice to place kid's inheritance and mortgage on
Kauto Star in the
Gold Cup (
won!) - We'll have a glance at day one of the festival.
The Festival opens with the
2.00 and my selection should have more than a ring of coincidence about it. For here we have a super opportunity for an each-way punt on
Binocular (!), available at 8-1. A sporting each-way chance also appears in the form of
Deep Purple, available at 16-1 (let's hope it isn't a Black Night - har, har!)
Moving swiftly on (not forgetting to collect our easy winnings from our local friendly bookmaker) to the
2.35 -
'The Arkle'
Quite a strong favourite, but there's excellent value to be had in the form of an Irish Raider
Clopf - an each-way steal at 9-1.
Then on to THE BIGGIE of the day -
3.15 -
The Champion Hurdle.
It's only a couple of years ago that my own horse won at this course, (but in the JCB Triumph Hurdle!!!!) (Penzance won at 12-1 and I, along with, er, 17,000 other people, was his owner - being a member of the Elite Racing Club. Great day!).
This year's renewal, however, gives us a massive dilemma. Do we back the obvious winner, the Irish
Raider Sizing Europe (at a miserly 9-4)? or go for a bit more value? The answer is straight forward, really (as money is merely an irrelevant annoyance to the way our household operates) so in we plunge with two selections against the field.
Catchit - trained by Alan King (who also trained Penzance) and ridden by Robert 'Chocolate' Thornton (who also rode Penzance) will simply scoot up the Cheltenham Hill to win going-away. The 10-1 looks decent each-way value to my old eyes. The second selection is left-field, but at 25-1,
Afsoun looks worthy of a second glance (each way).
It will take so long for the bookies to count out the winnings that I'll just have to by-pass the Cross-Country Chase (Heads on The Ground, from Edna's yard) and concentrate on the
5.20 -
The Fred Winter.
Here is my oustanding punt of the day in the shape of
Ashkazar. The price of 5-2 may be a bit on the short side, but with Timmy Murphy aboard (no-one rides Cheltenham like Timmy) and David Pipe carrying his father's mantle to such great effect recently, That's where my virtual money is heading.
So, having emptied the bookies' satchels on the First Day, off to the pub we stagger, not a care in the world . . . Except for Day Two. More later, if I'm not totally skint by then. B
The information and opinions contained in this message are those of Tim Wootton and, in the extremely likely event that he's talking bullshtt as usual, he nor his estate is financially capable of settling any litigation - so don't bother.:-O