With just nine days until the Cheltenham Festival kicks off the excitement and the betting activity is starting to ramp up. Now that the ratings for the handicaps have been released we are beginning to see some substantial moves in the market. We’ve picked out three interesting handicap prospects who have shortened in price in the last week.
This move was no doubt influenced by his trainer’s comments earlier on this week when he called this gelding his best handicapped horse of the week. Death Duty has always been very talented but hasn’t been the easiest to train with long injury lay-offs of 758, 229 and 393 days respectively. He’s been gradually working his way back to form this season culminating in a win last time out over 3m4f. The Ultima is likely to turn into enough of a stamina test to suit him as he would want a good test nowadays. A mark of 145 certainly wouldn’t stretch Death Duty at the peak of his form.
Winter Fog has been a huge talking horse around the Festival preview evenings that have been taking place in the build up to the big event. This chatter has seen his odds slashed in half in the last week. His performance last time out was the perfect trial for this race in his first start for 244 days. He was eye-catching when finishing second which was enough to qualify him and get himself a high enough rating to guarantee getting in. Having only had five starts over rules his unexposed profile is perfect for a race like this.
The Glancing Queen has improved massively for the switch to fences and there could be more to come from her. She has won two Listed mares’ novice events and looked impressive in doing so. Last time out she was a 10-length second to the very smart L’Homme Presse which was no disgrace at all since he went on to win a Grade 1 by 21 lengths next time out. 141 doesn’t look like a mark which will be beyond her capabilities and there’s every chance she’ll improve again.
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