15 March 2023
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Sam Boswell from bookmakers BetVictor filled us in on how the punters conquered day one and how things look at the start of day two of the Cheltenham Festival.
“Day one of the Cheltenham Festival saw a significant win for punters, with four favourites obliging. This included the emotional win of Honeysuckle and the brilliance of Constitution Hill who was a nine-length winner of the Champion Hurdle.”
“Undoubtedly punters had a fantastic start to the week. The only real bright spot for us yesterday was Facile Vega being beaten in the Novices’ Hurdle having been a significant loser ante post across the length of the season.”
“As we enter day two it looks like a familiar picture with Irish horses dominating the betting. We kick off with the Ballymore Novices Hurdle with Impaire Et Passe, the 2/1 favourite and a popular pick with punters to give Willie Mullins yet another Cheltenham Festival winner.”
“Later on in the card, Gordon Elliott, a familiar name at Prestbury Park, has Gerri Colombe in the Brown Advisory Novice. He’s the 6/4 favourite and one we’d like to see beaten from a bookmaking perspective.”
“As well as some tricky handicaps, the feature race on the day is that the Queen Mother Champion Chase, which sees defending champion Energumene the 11/8 favourite. Edwardstone who won the Arkle last year comes in at 7/4 but it’s a fairly even balance between the pair and we could even see them go off joint favourites.”
“Elsewhere on the card, the Cross Country has Gordon Elliott leading the way with Delta Work, currently 6/4 to win back-to-back renewals of the race, having got the better of stablemate & dual Grand National winner Tiger Roll in this race 12 months ago.”
“Overall, it looks another day for the Irish and it will be a tricky recovery mission for bookmakers, with punters buoyant after the first day.”
Odds are correct at the time of writing.
