Cheltenham Festival winners easy to find in the right places

Separating the good
Cheltenham Festival tips from the bad can be
difficult and simply following the most popular tips leads to the
inevitability of missing out on all the value. Last year Cheltenham
Festival site Cheltenham Betting had a good record, picking four
nice priced winners on top of many other placed horses at big odds
and the tipsters on the site will be looking for another profitable
Cheltenham Festival this week.

The best of the many each-way shouts last year has to be First Point who filled third place in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap at the recommended odds of 25/1 whilst the winners included First Lieutenant and Sizing Europe who both won at odds of 10/1, Zarkandar at 7/1 and Junior, winning easily at odds of 6/1 when recommended. Cheltenham Betting highlights the key stats and trends for each race and past winners to help point punters in the right direction as well as providing a tip for each race plus free bets and the bookie offers. So what tips are they flagging up for Tuesday’s action?

The race that is likely to attract most bets on Tuesday is the feature race for the first day of the Festival, the Champion Hurdle. Most bets are going to go the way of Hurricane Fly who is immensely talented and won the race last year more comfortably than the winning margin of one and a quarter lengths suggests. He looks by far the most likely winner of the race but that is reflected in his odds (best price 10/11, at the time of writing). Better value could lie with chancing one of the other runners and Oscars Well looks a tad overpriced at 12/1. He was a little unlucky not to win the Neptune Novices’ Hurdle at last year’s Festival and proven Cheltenham form is a big plus for Champion Hurdle runners. He finished six and a half lengths behind the favourite last time out but stays further than two miles and that extra stamina should come in handy when coming up the Cheltenham hill. If Hurricane Fly isn’t at his best on Tuesday, it could be Oscars Well that takes advantage.

OLBDG has taken over the sponsorship of the race formerly known as the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle and Quevega will be looking to make it four wins in a row in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle. Quevega is the shortest priced favourite for Tuesday but simply looks unopposable having won the race by a total of almost thirty lengths in the past three years. Another favourite that could be unopposable is Sprinter Sacre in the Arkle. Cheltenham Betting has been a big fan of this horse all year and flagged up the horses’ chance in this race at 7/1 earlier in the season and, having gone all season unbeaten, he is now just 10/11 with most bookies at the time of writing. Even that price could look big for this very talented horse and he still looks worth a bet ahead of the race.

The big betting handicap on the first day of the Cheltenham Festival is the JLT Specialty Handicap and stats and trends often throw up the winner of this chase. One horse who fits the bill as a potential winner this year is Tullamore Dew and at 12/1 he could be a good bet to further enhance his Cheltenham record whilst in the opening race of the 2012 Cheltenham Festival, Tetlami is the each-way shout in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.