Cheltenham Festival Acca should be avoided

The ‘Cheltenham Tuesday Acca’ is not a new phenomenon. Not by any means.

It’s 10 years ago now but the Douvan, Un De Sceaux, Faugheen and Annie Power multi that paid 12/1 to SP but was widely available at 16s-plus in the lead-up to the 2015 Sky Bet Supreme still trips off the tongue for so many punters. Some firms were even dangling 20/1 in the hunt for extra custom.

Quite how much Annie Power’s fall saved the bookmaking industry that day will remain a mystery but safe to say it was tens of millions - you might hear hundreds of millions, anecdotally - and six years later a similar story was developing after Appreciate It (8/11, Supreme), Shishkin (4/9, Arkle) and Honeysuckle (11/10, Champion Hurdle) all delivered, seeing the liabilities rack up on Concertista, who had won the mares’ novice event at the previous year’s Festival and eventually went off 10/11 favourite.

Once again it was the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle that spared the layers from an absolute hiding on day one, Concertista beaten a head by 11/1 chance Black Tears, but after a change to the Tuesday programme it could all be down to Constitution Hill to bring home the good stuff in the Unibet Champion Hurdle this year, providing Kopek Des Bordes, Sir Gino and Brighterdaysahead have all done what’s expected of them earlier on March 11.

They’re 10/11, 8/11, and 4/7 respectively with most of the bookies already offering Non Runner No Bet, while Constitution Hill is already 4/7. How short could he get?

Of course, liabilities are these days very closely managed whenever there's so much as a sniff of a widescale multiple on the cards, whether that’s Cheltenham or Chelmsford on a Thursday night, and we’re currently only looking at a 9/1 four-fold with Betfair Sportsbook under the traditional antepost rules, 13/2 if playing in Sky Bet’s NRNB markets.

But Sunday’s news that Sir Gino hasn’t bounced back from his leg wound quite as quickly as hoped is a stark reminder for anyone even contemplating getting involved at single-figure odds at this stage of the game.

The Arkle favourite has missed a prep race, is currently being treated for an infection and there are reasons to believe he’s in against another outstanding five-year-old, who has already won at the Festival and had the two starts over fences. We've yet to mention L’eau Du Sud, whose jumping impressed Ben Linfoot in Saturday’s Kingmaker, and yet Sir Gino remains odds-on.

Throw in the fact that Romeo Coolio, Salvator Mundi and Workahead are three pretty live ones in against KDB in the Supreme, and that we’ve not exactly seen the old brilliance in Constitution Hill yet this season, and I think you’re beginning to get the picture.

February can be a slow and painful month for connections as well as punters sitting on tidy long-term positions, but it’s an exciting time too with all the pre-Festival stable tours starting to filter through over the next couple of weeks.

Cheltenham may have become something of a paradise for the ‘good thing’ merchants in recent seasons, but it still never fails to throw up several opportunities to back very good horses at big prices. Nailing down precisely which horses they are isn’t as simple as one, two, three, four.

We now have a month to complete the 2025 Festival homework – and remember, you’re only cheating yourself by copying everyone else…

Life's a beach

On the subject of homework, Copacabana clearly hadn't been doing anything too flashy on the Closutton gallops prior to Sunday's debut at Navan, Patrick Mullins describing him as "a four-by-four" of a horse and in need of a proper test.

Well, you can get some pretty sexy four-wheeled-drives these days and you only had to listen to Ruby Walsh's immediate reaction on Racing TV following this particular land cruiser's five-length victory to get an idea of just how impressive he was.

A huge son of Blue Bresil, he absolutely powered through the line and appeared to beat 'the right ones' in Burrows Drive, who had been a promising third to Sixandahalf at Punchestown last April, and Gordon Elliott's Coyoye Spirit, who was a bit of a drifter on the day but brought solid form to the table from Punchestown and Navan.

Expect to hear a lot more about Copacabana over the coming months - he looks quite the discovery.

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