Cheltenham Time Celestial Halo And Wine

Like a child on Christmas morning punters await the first race of this year’s Cheltenham Festival with baited breath. The famous Cheltenham roar will go up at around the 13:30 mark today as the Supreme Novice’s Hurdle gets things underway with a classic punter versus bookmaker race. Dunguib is the Even money favourite and his fate could really set the tone for the festival, if he wins then the punters are off to a flyer but if he loses then the bookmakers will be in buoyant mood. That is unless you place your bets with Paddy Power (Go to Paddy Power ») who have an outstanding offer to kick off the week; they will refund any losing win singles if Dunguib wins the race. You can’t say fairer than that.

There will be little time to catch your breath as the Arkle chase is set to go off at 14:05 where Captain Cee Bee is the clear 4/1 favourite then at 14:40 Bensalem heads a 24 strong field for the William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase a race in which Boyle Sports (Go to Boyle Sports ») are rather generously paying 1/4 the odds on places 1,2,3,4 & 5 to each-way punters.

15:20 is day one’s showpiece race and arguably one of the most closely contested of the festival. The Champion Hurdle has nine horses priced between 4/1 and 12/1 and finding the winner could turn out to be like finding a needle in a haystack, all be it a particularly small haystack. Last year’s first, second and third placed horses will all run again this year with Celestial Halo looking to reverse his narrow defeat to Punjabi. You get a little extra time to recuperate after the Champion Hurdle, 40 minutes to be precise, then it is on to the Cross Country Chase where Garde Champetre bids to make it a hat-trick of wins, and the day concludes with the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle in which the Willie Mullins trained Quevega is expected to go off as favourite.

Win, lose or draw it promises to be a nail-biting, exciting and probably at times gut wrenching day for both bookmakers and punters as the trials and tribulations of the Cheltenham Festival take grip.

Written By:- Francis (About our Authors)
Posted on:- 16/03/2010 - 09:00 AM
Filed in:- Cheltenham Betting 2010 News