13:20
Cheltenham
Odds correct as of 9:03am 09th Mar
The day is finally nearly here, day one of the Cheltenham Festival, and Adrian Wall has picked out three horses who may be overpriced, including a 20/1 contender in the Champion Hurdle!
This year’s Supreme is shaping up to be the race of the Festival. Our fancy Old Park Star has been rock-steady in the betting for a long time now and looks set to go off favourite, while Irish hopes will largely rest on Talk The Talk, El Cairos and Mighty Park. It would be folly to dismiss Leader d’Allier (14/1) though with Paul Townend aboard for Willie Mullins and he might be the forgotten horse. He looked very smart on his second Irish start and the form has been franked! He might go off a lot shorter than 14/1.
Townend sits out the Fred Winter and second in line is Danny Mullins, who has opted to ride Madness d’Elle (16/1). The French import was behind Kilmeaden on his Irish stable debut at Punchestown in January but he made easy work of things next time at Gowran and it looks like he has swerved the Triumph for this. His mark is more than fair here and given the yard, you could only expect further improvement.
Our Nap of the Day Lossiemouth is going to be hard to beat if at her best but there should be some each-way value elsewhere in the field. Brighterdaysahead has run two stinkers at the Festival in the past, there’s question marks surrounding The New Lion’s jumping over this trip and Golden Ace is a cracking mare but was a fortunate winner of this race last year. Perhaps the each-way bet could be Alexei (20/1), a strong traveller who bolted up in the Greatwood here earlier in the season and he should come home strongly from off the pace.