To lazily rehash the metaphor we’ve been using for the last few weeks, it’s Christmas for adults today and we don’t mean it in the cheesy plot of a porno way. We’ll keep you up to date with the major events of the day on our fantabulous blog.
CURRENT “HELL OF A HORSE” COUNT: 3
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5:02pm So that’s it for day 1 at Cheltenham. The vital statistics are four wins for Ireland, two for the British, a rather disappointing three “hell of a horses” - a total we’ll hopefully surpass tomorrow with many more hell of a horses taking their chances - and Barry Geraghty has stormed to the top of the Leading Jockey table with two wins. Now we also know that Quevega doesn’t have any trouble handling Cheltenham, Binocular struggles to get up the hill and Steve (unemployed drug user, 21) isn’t the father of Sharon’s (local bike, 19) baby.
Much like Sharon, it’s back to the drawing board to find some potential candidates for tomorrow.
4:48pm: It’s a shame that Channel 4 weren’t showing the Mares’ Hurdle because it was hands down the most convincing performance of the day and quite possibly the showcasing of a serious contender for next year’s Champion Hurdle. Willie Mullins makes up for earlier disappointment with a trouncing of the field.
1st - Quevega
2nd - United
3rd - Aura About You
4:30pm: The top four in the market have all come in for support in the Mares’ Hurdle. willie Mullins may have started his Cheltenham day with disappointment, but he could finish it in style if the market is anything to go by as the money keeps coming for Quevega.
4:18pm: If you think the Cross Country Chase is something that strings things out for as long as possible only for the result to be pretty much what we knew was going to happen all along, then Deal Or No Deal is a million times worse. Channel 4’s coverage of Cheltenham has finished for the day and now it’s over to Racing UK for the Mares’ Hurdle. If you don’t have Racing UK, never fear because you can Bet And Watch online when you stake €/£5 or more. That was more corporate than I’m comfortable with so em … boobs.
4:11pm: It was one of the more sedate Cross Country Chases but I’m not too bothered because I’m just glad to get a winner on the board. Nina Carberry makes it three Cross Country Chases on the bounce with a superbly judged ride on and Enda Bolger maintains his stranglehold on the genre.
1st - Garde Champetre 7/2
2nd - L’Ami
3rd - Drombeag
4th - A New Story
3:55pm: L’Ami continues to be well backed and Headsontheground is the least popular of the Bolger runners in the Cross Country Chase. Dix Villez outsmarted them last time out and maybe people think he’ll do it again because there’s been a lot of support for him. Let the craziness begin.
3:50pm:
David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle
Right, I’ve been trying to put it off all day, but finally I’ve to try and find a winner in the Mares’ Hurdle. Quevega looks to be well in with the weights on account in comparison with a couple of her main rivals and a worthy favourite, but the lack of a run at Cheltenham is again a concern. Gaspara has run with great credit on several occasions it what looks to be a wide open race, she could be the value bet.
3:32pm: The fact that they all walked up the hill made for another superb finish but that won’t be much comfort for backers of Binocular who just found the finish line came too soon. Against the odds Barry Geraghty was the jockey to claim the quickfire double.
1st - Punjabi 22/1
2nd - Celestial Halo 17/2
3rd - Binocular 6/4
Non runner: No. 20 Sizing Europe
3:11pm: Tony McCoy will be hoping to land a quickfire double as he takes the ride on Binocular in the Champion Hurdle and it looks like plenty of people think he’ll do it because he’s now been backed in to 11/8. Meanwhile, I’ll be trying to shake off the habit of getting my selections beaten by a head on the line.
2:50pm: He was practically back in his horsebox half way around but from nowhere, Tony McCoy gave Wichita Lineman a stunning ride to lift him up the hill, which somewhat ruined my tip of Maljimar who finished second @ 14/1.
The result in full
1st - Wichita Lineman 5/1
2nd - Maljimar 14/1
3rd - Nenuphar Collonges 17/2
4th - Dear Villez 16/1
Extra Place Value 5th - The Sawyer 33/1
2:40pm: Some dreadful pronounciation from the Channel 4 team hasn’t stopped Cailin Alainn from tumbling in price. It’s pronounced “call ian, awl ian” and means beautiful girl in Irish
2:33pm: The support for Nenuphar Collonges is the main story in the betting for the William Hill Trophy - hey, we said it was the main story, not a particularly interesting story. Wichita Lineman has also been heavily backed all day with Golden Flight going the other way.
2:27pm: If you’ve already picked out your bets for the next race and you don’t have to pretend to look busy then you’re probably a Paddy Power employee why not have a go at our just for office pride game, Say It See It
2.11pm: What it lacked in quality it more than made up for in excitement. The favourite went early and Forpadydeplaster took advantage to make it two nil to the Irish capturing a thrillier of an Arkle by a head from Kalahari King.
The result in full
1st - Forpadydeplasterer 8/1
2nd - Kalahari King 8/1
3rd - Planet Of Sound 10/1
Non runner: No. 11 I’m So Lucky
1:55pm: No sooner than the muck has settled on the racetrack, but we’re looking for to the next race. It’s the Arkle and there has been sustained money for Kalahari King and whilst the top two in the market - Tatenen and Calgary Bay - are drifting more than the Littlest Hobo.
1:37pm: It’s an Irish winner in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, but not the one everyone expected. Paul Carberry gave Go Native one of those signature cool and calm rides to claim victory for Noel Meade.
The result in full
1st - Go Native 12/1
2nd - Medermit 12/1
3rd - Somersby 40/1
Non runner: No.1 Aachen
1:22pm “Hell of a horse” #3. Again about Cousin Vinny.
1:14pm: Booby McCririck says that Cousin Vinny looks “grotty”.
1:10pm: With the Supreme Novices’ within touching distance, all Cousin Vinny’s troubles have been forgotten as he’s back into 5/2, around the price he’s been for much of the build up to Cheltenham. Torphichen and Kempes are on the drift.
1pm: If there was anymore hype needed for the Binocular bandwagon, then his jockey, Tony McCoy provided it by saying “he’s a better horse than last year.” Echoing the thoughts of a large part of the betting public, he says “the hardest part will be getting a clear run around. If he can get that, then hopefully he’ll be too hard to stop.”
12:20pm: There’s been a couple of interesting moves in the betting. In the Arkle, Planet of Sound has been backed in from 11/1 to 8/1 and although there are question marks about Cousin Vinny, there’s little worries about another one of Willlie Mullins’ leading fancies as Golden Silver has been backed in to 12/1 from 16/1. The afforementioned Cousin Vinny is currently 11/4 after earlier drifting as far out as 3/1.
12:10pm:
Cross Country Chase
To state the obvious, you can’t look beyond the Enda Bolger horses in the Cross Country Chase. It’s my personal highlight of day 1, mainly for the pure unadulterated craziness of it all. At some stage I reckon there was a conversation along the lines of:
“Why would we want to make the horses jump over a little fence and hedge?”
“Er … maybe one hot summer’s day they’ll really want a 99 and they’ll need to jump over the garden hedge just before the ice-cream van drives off.”
“I like it, let’s run with it.”
However it came about, it’s a fantastic spectacle and one that Bolger is simply impossible to ignore in. Four of the leading contenders in the betting are from his stable and Garde Champetre is the pick over L’Ami, simply by virtue of the fact that he’s done it all before. He’s got to carry more weight than his stablemate, but that will have less of an effect as long as the rain stays away. Davy Russell had the smarts to take the shortest route around at the Open Meeting on Dix Villez, but given that it was such an obvious advantage, you’d wonder if he can beat them without that ace up his sleeve.
11:35am: In the absence of some actual news, I’’ll just remind you that we’ve got some pretty snazzy Cheltenham Wallpaper that serves the dual purpose of pimping up your desktop and listing all the races at Cheltenham.
And after being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, Paddy Power is now a Twit. Oh, and he’s also on Twitter.
11:15am:
Champion Hurdle Preview
The name of Katchit has been ringing around my head for the last few days. Rather than reveal that to our loyal blog readers, I should probably seek some sort of psychiatric help, but as bad as his form has been this season, he’s such a Cheltenham horse that I can’t bring myself to discount him entirely. Some horses just love the place and as bad as they’ve been elsewhere for the rest of the season, something just clicks when they get to the hill. If Binocular doesn’t run his race, Katchit has the heart to defend his Champion Hurdle. I’d love if any of Hardy Eustace, Brave Inca or even Harchibald got in the frame and even allowing for the heart dictating over the head, I think Hardy is great value for a place, for similar reasons to Katchit.
Cat asks “anyone rate sentry duty today???” in our comment section and even allowing for the dubious punctuation, it’s a good question. For my money, Sentry Duty has flown under radar a bit and is certainly open to improvement, but the big concern is that he’s done most of his winning on flat tracks and hasn’t handled the undulations of either Cheltenham or Punchestown particularly well.
See what the experts have to say
10:52am: In a slight diversion from the racing, Sharon (local bike, 19) says that Steve (unemployed drug user, 21) is the father of her child on the Jeremy Kyle Show. We’d go a short price that he’s not, but the Paternity Stakes look wide open. Either way, it’s a dead cert that Jeremy will shout at both of them and make them feel a little worse about their already not especially fantastic lives.
Anyhoo, back to the racing and speaking of dead certs [see what I’ve done there] the money is coming for Binocular. Here are some of the market moves we’ve seen this morning.
Made In Taipan (Arkle) – was 25/1 backed in to 20/1
Wichita Lineman (William Hill Trophy) – was 7/1 backed in to 6/1
Binocular (Champion Hurdle) – was 15/8 backed in to 7/4
L’Ami (Cross Country Chase) – was 9/4 backed in to 2/1
Pass Me By (Cross Country Chase) – was 33/1 backed in to 20/1
10:40am:
William Hill Trophy
At the risk of undermining the very horses for courses theory I’ve espoused for the last few Cheltenhams, it doesn’t rule out a lot of contenders for the William Hill Trophy. Again, lots of the leading fancies have been there, won that, got the t-shirt. It’s hard to draw a line through a lot of the market leaders, but based on little more than a gut feeling that might have been caused by some dodgy cod last night and an aversion to backing favourites, I’d be looking towards Maljimar. His last run was in the Paddy Power Gold Cup in November and although that seventh placed finish wouldn’t fill you with confidence, it looks like he’s been put away with this race in mind. He runs off a nice weight and he looks a very big price.
10:22am: Edward O’Grady runs Bringbackthebiff in the Arkle. Rather unusually, he’s a horse from New Zealand who’s trying to make it big in the northern hemisphere - so he’s a bit like Flight Of the Conchords. A touch unfairly, that would make Edward O’Grady the Murray Hewitt of this analogy. Anyway, O’Grady says he’s a “lovely horse and a nice jumper” and reckons he could get into the frame at a big price (currently 33/1). Is it business time for Bringbackthebiff?
9:51am:
Arkle Preview
The course and distance form that I look for at Cheltenham doesn’t make it much easier to pick a winner in the Arkle. Most of the main contenders have won at Prestbury Park so we’re right back at square one – that’s if we ever left square one. Of the main contenders, Calgary Bay looks to be a better value bet than Tatenen. Kalahari King wasn’t a million miles behind some good horses in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle last year and although he hasn’t got that course win in the bank, he seems to handle Cheltenham well. He hasn’t done much wrong since and is open to improve.
Read the experts’ opinions on the Arkle here
9:24am: John McCririck drooling over Ellen Martin briefly sparks fears that our cornflakes will make a reappearance, but thankfully they don’t. In a shameless bit of Sex Sells marketing that we wish we thought of first, Ellen’s lay of the day is Binocular in the Champion Hurdle. She’s not basing this decision on form or logic, just that he’s a short price and needs to be taken on, which in itself is a type of logic.
The Morning Line NAPs of Day 1
Jim McGrath - Planet Of Sound in the Arkle
John Francome - Binocular in the Champion Hurdle
Ted Walsh - L’Ami in the Cross Country Chase
Colm Murphy - Cousin Vinny
Thommo - Torphichen in the Supreme Novices
9:13am: Willie Mullins tried to clear up the Cousin Vinny mystery. Speaking to the Morning Line, he revealed that the horse travelled fine, but hasn’t eaten or drank well since arriving at the course. The horse rode out “alright” this morning and there was never any question of pulling the horse out of the race. There you have it straight from the trainer’s mouth. The doubts haven’t done much to dissuade the panel as they put up their selections for the Supreme Novices‘.
Supreme Novices’ Hurdle selections from Morning Line Team
Jim McGrath - Cousin Vinny
John Francome - Cousin Vinny, but Red Moloney is the best jumper in the race
Ted Walsh - Cousin Vinny will “eat them”
Colm Murphy - Cousin Vinny
Thommo - Torphichen
9:06am: Our second “hell of a horse” of the day from Ted. This time it’s for Cousin Vinny
9:05am: Ruby wasn’t exactly effusive when assessing Celestial Halo’s chances of upsetting Binocular in the Champion Hurdle. “He’s in good form. He wants it a bit slower to take the speed out of Binocular.”
Right so, we don’t need the Da Vinci Code to work out he’s not all that confident of winning the Champion Hurdle, but he does say that he had a very tough choice to make about which horse to ride in Arkle. Ruby rides Tantenen, but cites Golden Silver as a “huge price” whilst Ted and Jon Francome both pick out Original as the value bet.
8:50am: The Morning Line Brains’ Trust are debating the Champion Hurdle and the consensus is that Binocular can’t be beaten. Colm Murphy goes as far as to say that if he wins this year’s Champion Hurdle he can win it “for the next couple of years.” Murphy saddles Brave Inca for the race and the 2006 winner “comes alive at Cheltenham” so he can’t be ruled out at a big price despite his advancing years. Ted Walsh also gives us his first “hell of a horse”, using it to describe Captain Cee Bee, the horse that beat Binocular at last year’s Festival.
Champion Hurdle selections from Morning Line Team
Jim McGrath - Binocular, Brave Inca great E/W value
John Francome - Ashkazar
Ted Walsh - Binocular, Brave Inca great E/W value
Colm Murphy - Binocular
Thommo - Osana
8:45am:
Supreme Novices’ Hurdle Preview
There were reports that Cousin Vinny didn’t travel across the Irish Sea particularly well and hasn’t settled at Cheltenham. The fact that Willie Mullins gave these reports tends to make you believe them. With the races he’s won and the winning course form that’s about the only doubt you could have about him in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. He’s still the most obvious winner, but if you’re looking for a touch more by way of value, you do worse than having a small bet on Golan Way. He’s won over course and distance and should handle the ground. Some of the other leading contenders haven’t had a run at Cheltenham and you’re never quite sure how they’ll handle it.
8:20am: In possibly the most relevant and least rambling piece of information you’ll find on this blog for most of the day, the going at Cheltenham for Day 1 is officially good to soft, soft in places.
8:10am: It says a lot about modern technology that the money can come flooding in from punters as they merrily munch on their cornflakes. Already there’s been a lot of money for Wichita Lineman in the William Hill Trophy.
Posted in Cheltenham 2009, Racing, Sportsbook | 4 Comments »
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