The Cheltenham Festival is now less than a month away and Day 3 of the event, the Thursday, is looking like the ideal day for the each-way punters.
It’s billed as St Patrick’s Thursday at Cheltenham Festival every year with the Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle often being the highlight.
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Cheltenham Festival has undergone a couple of small changes to the schedule and it means instead of the Turners Novices’ Chase kicking things off it’s the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 2).
The Turners has now changed to a handicap chase called The Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase, which is often wide open until the entries come out.
The Grade 1’s on Thursday are firmly the feature races – the Ryanair Steeple Chase (Grade 1) over 2m4f and then straight after it’s the race that never disappoints the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle.
Sire Du Berlais won at 33/1 in 2023 in an incredible finish that also saw a massive price of 40/1 to Dashel Drasher in second who finished just ahead of favourite Teahupoo.
Teahupoo went on to win the Stayers’ Hurdle a year later though and is a very popular favourite in the ante-post to win two years in a row – having won so well at 5/4 in 2024.
Cheltenham Festival Thursday ante-post tips
- RYANAIR CHASE
3.20: Djelo 14/1 each-way - STAYERS’ HURDLE
4.00: The Wallpark 14/1 each-way
Djelo
The Ryanair Chase sees Fact To File as the big favourite, but the JP McManus-owned horse is drifting.
He was tipped to be a future Gold Cup winner and is still around 7/1 to win that race.
Placing well behind Galopin Des Champs over 3m in his last two contests suggests 3m may well be the aim for this horse again, as there’s clear hope from connections and a step back to 2m4f may not be worth the change.
Willie Mullins trains both those horses and clearly know show to win this race, winning five of the last ten renewals.
However, Djelo is stepping up to be the one to beat now at a huge price.
Despite winning ahead of last year’s Ryanair Chase winner Protektorat, at Huntingdon in December, before beating Hitman nicely over a step up in trip to close to 3m.
The Wallpark
Flooring Porter is the only horse in recent years to win two Stayers’ Hurdles in a row in 2021 and 2022.
He was never favourite though, just as it turned out, the horses he was up against really appealed in the betting but the Gavin Cromwell-trained horse really rewarded those re-backing him.
Teahupoo is odds-on in almost all ante-post markets which just doesn’t appeal in a race that often sees each-way prices like 33/1, 12/1, 50/1, 12/1, 10/1 and 14/1 in just the last ten renewals alone.
Flooring Porter won when both six and seven which seems to be a theme – six winners in the last ten renewals have won when seven-years-old with two other winners even younger at six.
There’s only three seven-year-olds still in the running this year – Jetara, Minella Missile and The Wallpark.
However, one six-year-old Lucky Place, at 10/1 is looking like a very interesting punt.
There’s no guarantee 3m is the right trip for this horse though, which is pretty needed in this race as 9/10 previous winners have won a graded hurdle over at least 3m before.
The Wallpark has gone close and with course form, winning ahead of Gowel Road, in October over 3m in the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle.
He then went well behind Crambo in December at Ascot finishing 4th of ten and though he hasn’t won a graded race, he fits the bill well.
Tom Lunn’s Horse Racing P/L
- From November ’24: +41.93pts
- From May ’24: +195.88pts
- From July ’23: +335.35pts
All odds correct at time of writing
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