Denman's Coming!
The weather has claimed many National Hunt cards this winter, but horse racing spread bettors will be praying that Newbury gets the go ahead for Totesport Trophy day. Not only is there one of the fiercest handicap hurdles of the entire season, there is also the tantalising prospect of both Master Minded and Denman finalising their Cheltenham Festival preparations.
When taking a first look at the Totesport Trophy any spread betting enthusiast worth his salt will automatically stop at Nicky Henderson's stable. The master of Lambourn has won four of the last ten runnings of this race, although you have to go back to 2004 and Geos for his last success. He looks set to rely on Spirit River this time around who was very impressive at Cheltenham pre-Christmas. The French-bred five-year-old is certainly progressive and will carry a nice racing weight. Spread bettors will be interested to learn that horses at the top of the handicap tend not to win this race - 15 of the last 23 winners have shouldered less than 11 stone and no top weight has won in that time.
The other trainer to follow in this 2 mile contest is Gary Moore who has taken the last two renewals - although last year's race was abandoned due to the weather. He always targets this race and has another leading chance with the unexposed Harry Tricker. The son of Hernando was impressive at Sandown in November but those who like a spread bet will have been even more impressed by his second to Khyber Kim at Cheltenham the following week. He had Medermit behind him that day and there will be plenty looking to be with him on the Sporting Index win index.
Those spread bettors who like to sell the SP market will be encouraged that two of the last seven favourites have won. However, they may not be as cheerful when they find out that four of the last five winners have been 14/1 or bigger, including the 2007 winner Heathcote, who returned at a monster 50/1.
There is a whole host of other fantastic races to whet the appetite and Denman will be looking to secure his sixth win from six starts at Newbury in the Aon Chase. SP buyers on the spreads will be hoping for a repeat of last year's race, though, when Madison Du Berlais beat 'The Tank' in the re-scheduled race at Kempton. It is worth bearing in mind that prior to that the previous two favourites - Kauto Star and Denman - were both successful in this race, although Kauto only held on by a neck. Winning distance spread bettors will take more encouragement from the last two runnings which have been settled by a combined distance of 43 lengths.
Master Minded will be looking to get his season back on track and similarly to Denman will be looking to continue his 100% record at the Berkshire Track. He has only run here once - in the Game Spirit in 2008, but was very impressive that day to beat Voy Por Ustedes by 5 lengths. The question that spread bettors all over the land will be asking is if he is the same horse following his setback. He will be high up on the win index and those looking to get him beat may also be interested in a buy of the meeting's SPs.
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