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The Big Race of the day is the Big Race of the meeting – the Gold Cup, run over 3.25 miles (and a bit) and with lots of fences to jump too.
The Gold Cup is a great race and has been won by many of the greats of National Hunt racing – Arkle (three times), Desert Orchid (even though the left-handed course didn’t suit him as much as right-handed Ascot, Kempton and Sandown) and more recently Best Mate and Kauto Star.
This has been a very successful race for me. When Kicking King won, the mortgage was paid off, and I backed Cool Ground at 50/1 in his year. As well as a good few winners including Imperial Call, Imperial Commander and Desert Orchid I have had a clutch of long-priced placed horses such as Dubacilla (a great mare who was second to Master Oats in 1995 at 20/1), Barton Bank (second to Mr Mulligan at 33/1 (I got 50/1) in 1997) and Strong Promise (second to Cool Dawn in 1998 at 14/1 and third to Looks Like Trouble in 2000 at 20/1).
Good staying handicappers, like Cool Ground, have a pretty good record in this race over the years.
And so, to cut to the chase (boom boom!), I have already backed Monbeg Dude, a Cheltenham winner, and winner of the Welsh National in December, at 66/1. I am not exactly expecting him to win – but it’ll be perfectly OK with me if he does! And coming second or third will be just fine too.
And as for yesterday – it may have been a day to make money for somebody, but not for me. It was a lot warmer than the previous two days though.
Oscar Whisky ran appallingly in the World Hurdle – there must be something amiss with him. It wasn’t that he didn’t stay the three miles – he wasn’t going well in the second mile. I guess he will have been checked over by a vet – someone suggested to me that a DNA test of OW after this race might show he had been adulterated with bovine.
[registration_form]
I think Monbeg Dude has fair chance of running into a place, especially if he’s held up off the pace, which is likely to prove relentless. With his stamina, I can see him picking off a few of the others as they battle up the hill.
Long Run seems like the forgotten horse of this years running, he’s the classiest horse in the field and 11/2 looks like a fair price to me.
At Fishers Cross in the 2.40 looks like the proverbial good thing and is my strongest bet of the week and it will start a lot shorter than the current odds of 3/1. It should do as its a 6/4 chance in my book.
Good luck.
Never had much luck with the Gold Cup – my wife and I wait for the National instead.
I follow the National from when the weights are published early in the year, crunch stats for the last part of winter and by the time April comes, I tend to have a shortlist of four.
Each Grand National Saturday (sometimes on my birthday), the tradition here is to buy the RP and check all my stats over a National fry up – ending up with a shortlist of two.
Lots of success for me in this race, including Little Polvier winning at 33-1 and a Miinehoma / Just So double.
Since my wife and I have been married, (5 years) we’ve picked the winner (and made a healthy return) 4 times. Going for our 5th out of 6 this year!
The National CERTAINLY isn’t the lottery it once was – you just need a bit of luck with your horse staying out of trub over the first lap or so.
Always thought the National was easier to make money on than the Gold Cup, and decent money too, as us “once a year punters” still tend to get good odds on the day itself….
Animal Aid reports that the Cheltenham Festival claimed another horse victim when 10-year-old Matuhi was destroyed after falling at the final fence in the 4pm race and suffered ‘an untreatable spinal injury’:
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/NEWS/news_horse/ALL/2846//
For a list horse deaths at Cheltenham since 13th March 2007, please visit http://www.horsedeathwatch.com/, select “Cheltenham” as the course then submit the query. The number of deaths is 44.
It is time we stopped exploiting horses.
By the way.
Are there any cows running today? I know people sometimes (these days) have trouble telling cows and horses apart…
Three chaps from Skibbereen on their way to Cheltenham turned up in The Crossways near Bridgwater having got off the boat at Swansea and then taken a right at Bristol by mistake so they were fed and watered and told to follow the HR signs to the Horse Races and the last we heard they had spent three enjoyable days driving around Pembrokeshire
I gather they made it to the racecourse just in time to back Oscar Delta in the Foxhunter Chase…
That figure which I assume to be correct of 44 Horse deaths at Cheltenham alone is quite horrendous and while I enjoy seeing such great Horses as Sprinter Sacre I can forgo that if it saves unnecessary Horse deaths.For sure all whips should be banned,lets whip owners and trainers and see if it is true it does no damage.
According to the Race Horse Death Watch web site, across all courses 942 horses have died in 2,197 days – that is a horse death every 2.3 days.
http://www.horsedeathwatch.com/
Hello Dennis, I agree about the horse deaths. Fences should be removed from horse racing, or let the owners run the course first? Perhaps the following may give some relief as it involves animals. http://clipnation.com/move-deer-crossing/ I wonder what people are thinking of.