Best Backed Horses for Cheltenham Festival Day 4 – 15th March 2019

James Boyle

Published: March 15, 2019

Having developed an interest in racing whilst in college some years ago, James has worked in many areas of the industry, including a stint hiding his face on radio! From 2008 until 2017, he ran a successful tipping service and has had shares in numerous horses including the wonderful Fast Shot. Unsurprisingly given some of the horses he has bought shares in, his punting passions lie in sprint handicaps on both the turf and All-Weather surfaces!

We had two winners yesterday with the Best Backed runners, Defi Du Seuil doing the business in the opener before Paisley Park impressively followed suit in the Stayers’ Hurdle to also land the myracing NAP selection! Today’s NAP, Sir Erec, is also one of the most popular Cheltenham bets and the 4-year-old is bidding to give Joseph O’Brien a second winner on the week. Having been rated 109 on the level, it’s no surprise that he’s showing such high-class ability over hurdles and as long as everything goes to plan throughout this Grade 1 contest, the market support for him should be justified.

Whiskey Sour is another Irish horse who has attracted punters in the 2.10pm County Handicap Hurdle and this will be his first outing over obstacles since he proved somewhat disappointing in the Galway Hurdle last August. However, as we all know, Willie Mullins is a masterful trainer and the 6-year-old is only 3lbs higher than when finishing third in this race twelve months ago. Returning to tackle a big field handicap at this track could help to bring about the improvement needed to see him win and he’s sure to be there or thereabouts in the closing stages.

Our third Best Backed runner of the day is Clan Des Obeaux in the Gold Cup at 3.30pm and Paul Nicholls’ inmate definitely has recent form in favour having landed the King George at Kempton in December before following up impressively under a penalty at Ascot. Winning the Kempton showpiece doesn’t automatically scream “Gold Cup horse” given the different natures of the tests on offer but the son of Kapgarde should be fine over the distance on reasonable ground and the trainer knows exactly what it takes to win this. At present, the market certainly likes Nicholls’ charge.

Caid Du Berlais and Minds Eye are the last two runners for the column this week. The first mentioned runs in the Foxhunters Chase at 4.10pm and was a pretty smart performer a few years ago, peaking at a rating of 151 over fences. He isn’t the same horse nowadays but was fifth in this race twelve months ago before bolting up at Punchestown and easily won his prep race for this a couple of weeks ago. The second mentioned is a more upwardly mobile type who lines up in the Grand Annual at 4.50pm and caught the eye at Leopardstown last time. This stiffer track could help to bring about improvement.

Below we have compiled the most popular bets for Day 4 of the Cheltenham Festival so far.