Tuesday of the Cheltenham Festival saw the Placepot pay a £91,000 dividend, and although the Friday wasn’t quite as big, Gold Cup day delivered another big Placepot payout.
Read on to find out how the likes of Minella Indo and Al Boum Photo helped 82 units scoop a £11,701.20 dividend on the Placepot.
Leg One
A trend of big Placepot payouts is one of the favourites going unplaced in the first three races, so when that happens in the opener, you know it could be a day for big dividend.
That’s exactly what happened in 2019 with the well fancied Sir Erec, carrying 56.34% of the pool, suffering a mid-race injury to put an end to his chances. The Paul Nicholls-trained Quel Destin was the next most popular pick, but also disappointed, finishing 5th, creating a torpedo leg in the opener.
Instead, Nicky Henderson’s Pentland Hills sprung as surprise at a Tote win dividend of £19.40, chased home by Coeur Sublime and Gardens Of Babylon leaving just 153,401 units still standing.
Leg Two
The County Hurdle is a race that tends to throw up an outsider and that’s exactly the way the 2019 renewal went with favourite Whisky Sour only managing to grab 4th for 15.15% of the pool.
Instead it was three outsiders that took centre stage with Ch’tibello continuing Dan Skelton’s good record in this race, beating off We Have A Dream and Countister. With all three returning double figure Tote dividends meaning over another 100,000 units were dumped out.
Leg Three
It seems daft to see it now, but Minella Indo and Allaho both played a part in a major upset for the Placepot in leg three. Now winners of the Gold Cup and the Ryanair respectively, Minella Indo was a surprise winner of the Albert Bartlett, returning a Tote win dividend of £129.50, which was more than double the SP odds with the bookies, while Allaho was back in third.
Favourite, Commander Of Fleet separated the two in second to leave 14,209 still standing.
Leg Four
Again it seems daft to see it now but with Presenting Percy sent off favourite for the 2019 Gold Cup, only to finish a well-beaten 8th, the Placepot was blown wide open once again.
Now a dual Gold Cup winner, Al Boum Photo clinched his first victory in the race returning at £14.60, beating a staying on Anibale Fly and multiple Betfair Chase winner Anible Fly, who were double figure prices themselves, leaving just 1,283 units in the Placepot.
Leg Five
The Foxhunters is a race that is often hard to predict, but unlikely the rest of the day’s action, the favourite actually delivered on this occasion. Hazel Hill, trained by Phillip Rowley was a convincing winner from Shantou Flyer and Top Wood.
Surprisingly only 13.38% of the pool were on the favourite and with even less on the placed horses, just 348 headed into the final leg
Leg Six
Just when you thought there couldn’t be any more twists and turns in the Placepot, the final leg threw up the biggest upset of the day.
The 12-year-old Croco Bay proved that age was no barrier, staying on up the hill to land the Grand Annual at a Tote dividend of £138.20. Bun Doran and Brelan D’As claimed second and third, meaning only 87 units picked up £11,701.20 each.
