Our Tote Tipster has mapped out how he plans to play in our Betting Tournament's this week and you can take him on just by opting in to our Cheltenham Festival Betting Tournaments here.
DAY FOUR - Friday 17th March
Welcome to the final day of the 2023 Cheltenham festival. I hope you’re having a good week. Mark N certainly is – he won the Tote Betting tournament on Tuesday with a total profit of £4,070 and landed the £1,000 first prize on top, nice work if you can get it. Jamie Benson, the Tote’s resident tipster came home in 141st place with a profit of £22.27, so all those who finished in front of him won an equal share of the £5,000 ‘beat Benson’ pot. I fared slightly worse – are there any prizes for 2480th? For those of you not familiar with the Tote tournament format, simply opt in via the app or website, place three Tote bets totalling at least £10 over the course of the day and any winnings will count towards your tournament total. There are daily prizes for the top three players, the top ten qualify for the end-of-season £25k finale and there’s also the aforementioned ‘beat Benson’ £5,000 pot. You don’t need to bet big to have a chance of winning – one Tote punter walked off with first prize at Royal Ascot after copping £27,000 for an £8 Scoop6 perm.
After my day one performance I asked Mark N to step in with tactical advice but he was too busy making summer holiday plans, so you’re stuck with me. Willie Mullins looks to have the Triumph Hurdle (1.30) sewn up, probably with Blood Destiny, one of the three runners he trains who were trading at 4-1 or shorter at the time of writing. I can’t find an edge with Tote exotic bets and my only interest in the race will come via the Placepot, which has another whopping £1m guarantee today.
The County Hurdle (2.10) is much more by cup of tea and the angle in recent years has been to side with the yards of Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton, who have taken eight of the last 11 renewals. This system produced the runner-up in two of the three blank years, so it’s certainly a good method for getting through the Placepot. Backing all 54 qualifiers would have returned a profit of £70.25 to a £1 level stake at SP. I like the claims of the Skelton-trained Pembroke, though will be perming all runners from the two yards in Tote Exactas and Trifectas.
The Albert Bartlett (2.50) has produced its share of shock results in recent years, with winners at 50-1, 33-1 (twice), 18-1, 16-1, 14-1 (twice), 11-1 and 5-1 since At Fishers Cross justified 11-8 favouritism back in 2013. Hiddenvalley Lake is my main fancy, though I’ll be throwing an outsider or three into my exotic bets.
The Gold Cup looks an absolute belter and while Galopin Des Champs is a solid favourite he’s yet to contest a chase of more than eight runners and did fall at last year’s festival. Being creative with Exacta/Trifecta perms could be the best tournament tactic and I’ll be looking for a big run from 100-1 shot Eldorado Allen, placed at 33-1 and 14-1 at the last two festivals. Ahoy Senor has form figures in the spring of 1121 (3-4) and is also on my radar.
The hunters’ chase (4.10) is not my area of expertise, though it’s obvious interesting to see leading amateur rider Jamie Codd on Bob And Co. He’ll do for me.
I’m very keen on Impervious in the mares’ chase (4.50) – she beat the boys in Grade 3 company at Punchestown last time and her record below Grade 1 level now reads 1116111 (6-7). Pink Legend and Zambella have both run well in this race before and could be value Exacta inclusions.
Hopefully, by the time of the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle (4.50) I won’t require snookers to win the Tote Betting Tournament but if I need to dig out a winning Trifecta in one of the trickiest races of the week I’ll be building it around Gordon Elliott’s Cool Survivor. Horses who ran in Graded company last time out have a good record and he was only beaten by a little over four lengths when fourth to Good Land in a Grade 1 at the Dublin Racing Festival. Whatever your plan of punting attack on Friday, best of luck and don’t forget to opt in to the Tote Betting Tournament.
