The Cheltenham Festival, similar to Aintree’s Grand National meeting, is often a graveyard for favourite backers, with punters choosing to put their faith in the lower prices usually operating at a loss. Big returns go hand-in-hand with the magic of it all.
There’s certainly no lack of hot picks in the antepost betting, including Buveur D’Air, Apples Jade and Samcro, currently all available at odds-on, priced like losing wasn’t an option. But where are the attractions for those looking to play small and win big? Yanworth could be the best of them.
The Alan King-trained eight-year-old gelding, a product of Norse Dancer and Yota, looks to have a couple of options ahead of him as we near the business end of our Prestbury Park preparations, the standout a choice between the RSA Chase on Wednesday and Stayers Hurdle 24 hours later. Dedicated followers of the great horse will be delighted to see him trade at double-figure odds in each.
Source: Wincanton Racecourse via Twitter
Yanworth started the year having run at Cheltenham racecourse five times, his stats there showing two wins and a runner-up. He finished fourth on his track debut in the Champion Bumper three years ago in a battle won by Moon Racer, who was favourite that day.
He bettered than when finding only one too good in the Neptune Investment Novices Hurdle 12 months later. Going off as jolly, he finished behind the impressive Yorkhill over 2m 5f, less than two lengths the difference. Close, but no festival prize pot there.
The experienced campaigner, currently boasting a dozen wins and three seconds from 18 goes, enjoyed the perfect start to 2018 when winning the Dipper Novices Chase at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day. Decided over the 2m 4f trip, Yanworth edged Sizing Tennessee by a neck in a thrilling finish, despite encountering plenty of problems.
Source: JPFestival.com via Twitter
Never one to do things the easy way, the JP McManus-owned talent made a couple of mistakes in running before finally getting his head down and breaking to the front when it mattered. Opening a comfortable lead, he then appeared to get bored out in front, needing pilot Barry Geraghty to keep his mind on the job. He responded, thankfully for backers, eventually winning a 15/8 joint-favourite with Willoughby Court, who finished third.
Looking through the early betting for the RSA Chase and Williamhill have Yanworth priced third-favourite at a chunky 10/1 at the time of writing. The two currently better off in that list are Presenting Percy and Monalee. The former has limited experience of this venue, running at Cheltenham only once before.
It was a winning effort, however, taking the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle last year. Henry de Bromhead’s Monalee has also dropped by only once, second in the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle in 2016, beaten by Penhill.
