Dan Birkinshaw provides his weekly reaction from the Sky Bet trading floor with the Cheltenham Festival in mind.
Festival market movers
To the disappointment of every fan of the sport, Sir Gino has been ruled out for the season by Nicky Henderson. This leaves the door firmly ajar for Majborough, who is 4/7 from 5/4 NRNB for the Arkle.
Karoline Banbou landed skinny odds to win the mares maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse last Wednesday and she is 8/1 from 14/1 NRNB in what looks a wide-open Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival next month.
Djelo is 12/1 from 16/1 NRNB for the Ryanair after running out an impressive winner of the Denman Chase on Saturday, having been very well backed to do so, while Joyeuse was a facile winner of the William Hill Hurdle on the same card, but looks an unlikely runner at Cheltenham given she would need to run over hurdles again between now and February 23.
In what looks a weak enough renewal at this stage, the Champion Bumper found a live one in the shape of Copacabana, who quickened up well in the closing bumper at Navan on Sunday. He is 8/1 NRNB for that race and looks a definite player despite a lack of experience.
The Pertemps qualifier at Exeter on Sunday has thrown up a new favourite for the final next month with Sky Bet in Jeriko Du Reponet, who was eye-catching running on into third place. He has been backed at all prices from 10/1 down to 5/1 and is thoroughly unexposed over staying trips.
Favourites we're looking to take on
From an antepost perspective, we are still looking to get after Final Demand at 7/4 for the Turners Novices’ Hurdle. We still maintain the view that he may get caught out for speed in that sort of contest and you should have plenty of runners for you against him on the day.
Ballyburn also remains one we are happy to be against at 2/1 for the Brown Advisory antepost given his jumping needs to improve, though we are not as confident as in previous weeks on that position given his competition seems to be thinning out all the time.
We are happy to lay Jonbon at a top price 5/6 NRNB (10/11 antepost) for the Champion Chase purely from a price perspective. Should the likes of Il Est Francais, Gaelic Warrior and El Fabiolo turn up for this race, he is surely no odds-on shot to win next month. There is the possibility some of those turn up elsewhere but even a couple of those rivalling Jonbon on the day would leave us happy enough with our position.
Festival Favourites
Sky Bet’s popular Festival Favourites series runs each week in the lead up to the Cheltenham Festival.
It consists of a multiple which will be top-price across the industry and goes live every Monday for a limited time. A non-runner will result in bets being settled as an enhanced single.
Click here to back Final Demand to win the Turners Novices' Hurdle and Teahupoo to win the Stayers' Hurdle at 6/1
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
