The National Hunt sphere is all about the Cheltenham Festival these days. The top trainers are prepping their best horses for one of the meeting’s prestigious 28 races from the very start of the season.
As a result, punters follow the Cheltenham ante-post markets very closely—waiting for the best time to strike like a Wall Street Broker on the New York stock exchange. Sometimes, it works, and they end up with very good value, while other times, it flops.
The ante-post market for this season’s Festival is already red-hot, with horses fluctuating like crazy as trainers give hints about their campaign plans or if one sells for a lot at the sales, and it’s only going to get crazier as form begins to come into the equations.
With so much set to unravel over the coming months, the Cheltenham Festival is never short of drama. That said, let’s take a look at some of the talking points that are making the headlines before the season has even started.
Record-buy Palladium Slashed for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
Just eight months after Sir Alex Ferguson and his fellow group of owners splashed out an eye-watering record fee of £633,000 for Group 1-winning novice Caldwell Potter, billionaire Lady Bamford has doubled down.
The businessperson recently forked out a gigantic £1.2 million on German-bred Palladium, who won his homeland’s version of the Derby under the guidance of Henk Grewe and is a half-brother to the late hurdle winner Panjari for Paul Nicholls.
The three-year-old will join Bamford’s old ally Nicky Henderson, who has worked wonders with Constitution Hill in recent years, and punters have reacted quickly by backing him for the Triumph Hurdle before Henderson has even confirmed any plans.
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Cheltenham Changes
The jockey club has made several changes to the Cheltenham Festival ahead of the new season, which has split the opinion of the racing community.
They range from things like six changes to the race programme, including stripping the Golden Miller of Group 1 status, to enhancing the experience and value for racegoers by freezing ticket prices and offering discounts.
The Return of Constitution Hill
One of the biggest storylines in the buildup to Cheltenham this year will be the return of the indomitable Constitution Hill, who contracted life-threatening colic just a week out from last year’s Festival and subsequently missed the defence of his Champion Hurdle title.
There were concerns that the seven-year-old may never race again, but he appears to be on the mend, and Henderson has already said that the plan is for his star hurdler to reappear in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle next month.
Some are still on the fence regarding whether he will still be the same animal after his illness, and the bookmakers are certainly holding fire as Constitution Hill is as big as 7/4 to regain his crown if you’re looking for a bet on UK horse racing.
Galopin Des Champs to Land a Hat-Trick of Gold Cups?
There’s history everywhere you look at Prestbury Park, with enclosures named after Best Mate and bars named after Hurricane Fly, and Galopin Des Champs could be the latest legend written in folklore as he guns for a third-straight Gold Cup success.
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The Willie Mullins-trained horse has seen off Bravemansgame and Gerri Colombe with relative ease in the last two renewals of the iconic contest and is the 7/2 favourite to become just the fifth horse in the race’s rich history to win the contest three times in a row.
