Cheltenham Festival - Days 3-4
Spread buyers of Paul Nicholls' trainer index will be hoping for a big day for Team Ditcheat as both Big Buck's and Poquelin are likely to go off favourite in the two big races. The World Hurdle has been won by some tremendous horses in the last decade, notably Baracouda and Inglis Drever. Andy Stewart's Big Buck's is the third dual winner in that time and supporters of him on the spreads will be hoping he can become the first ever to win it three years in a row. He will be a short price, but the emergence of Grands Crus means he won't be quite as high up the Sporting Index win index as he normally would.
Plenty of spread bettors would have sided with Poquelin in last year's Ryanair Chase, but he wasn't good enough on the day to beat Albertas Run. However, he came back to win the Vote AP Gold Cup for the second year running in December and both that race and the Paddy Power Gold Cup have been strong trials for the Ryanair in its six-year history. Spread punters who fancy Edward O'Grady's Tranquil Sea will be concerned that no Irish horse has ever won this race, but followers of Kalahari King will take encouragement from the fact that five of the six winners had been beaten in their prep run.
The Triumph Hurdle kicks off the final day's action and spread bettors will be keeping a close eye on Nicky Henderson's runners. The Master of Seven Barrows has won the last two renewals and has two leading chances this time with Grandouet and A Media Luz. This race used to be a benefit for spread buyers of meeting SP's, but the introduction of the Fred Winter means this is a genuinely top class race now. The last five winners have been 6/1 or shorter, although only one of those has been a favourite, while supporters of Sam Winner and Smad Place will be worried that 14 of the last 16 winners won their prep race.
It was the Kauto Star and Denman show in the Gold Cup last year, only for Nigel Twiston-Davies' Imperial Commander to come along and spoil the party. These three 'old timers' will be back again and spread punters looking to get with any of them will have to ignore the stat that only one 10-year-old has won this race since 1993. Kauto and Denman are both 11-year-olds and the last horse older than 10 to win National Hunt's Blue Riband event was What A Myth way back in 1969.Nicky Henderson has never won this race, but with Long Run he feels he has easily his best chance of ending the drought. Robert Waley-Cohen's six-year-old was a hugely impressive winner of the King George, but spread bettors looking to be against him will point to the fact his best performances have come at Kempton. He is yet to win at Prestbury Park and another worry for his spread followers is that Mill House was the last six-year-old to win the race in 1963.
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