It’s that time of year again when horse racing fans from both sides of the British Isles make their preparations for the most prestigious race meeting in the National Hunt calendar; the Cheltenham Festival. It’s also the time of year when the gamblers amongst us start making their Cheltenham Festival predictions for 2014.
This year’s Festival will be held from Tuesday 11th March to Friday 14th March, inclusive. It brings together the best of all jumpers and hurdlers from around the world competing over different races depending on age, type of event, and distance etc. But there’s no doubting that the blue ribbon event of the meeting, indeed, the entire National Hunt season, is the Cheltenham Gold Cup. This will be run on the Friday and is the single most prestigious race in the National Hunt calendar. It is run over three miles, two and a half furlongs.
As things stand, last year’s winner Bobs Worth is the 2-1 favourite and clearly has a great chance. But few horses win this race back-to-back. Even the great Kauto Star couldn’t manage consecutive victories. The legendary Best Mate managed an incredible three Gold Cups in a row between 2002 and 32004, but before that, we have to go all the way back to L’Escargot in 1970 & 71.
So history is very much against Bobs Worth and the odds aren’t that generous either. So which others represent good value?
Well one very lively outside contender may be another “Bob” in the shape of Boston Bob. The horse fell in last year’s RSA novice chase at the Festival (the same race won by Bobs Worth in 2012). But he’d looked like the winner last year, when he fell at the last, and had previously beaten the eventual winner, Lord Windermere.
Boston Bob won a warm-up hurdle over Christmas, is clearly a class horse and, given that trainer Willie Mullins’ other potential Gold Cup contender Sir des Champs is now out of the race, it seems likely that he’ll take a crack at the big one. And if he does – the current best odds of 33-1 could look very generous indeed.
