Two 66/1 shots with sound Cheltenham Festival each-way claims
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Backing some monster prices each-way proved a profitable strategy for some at the last Cheltenham Festival, with Henryville and Following Dreams finishing among the places at 50/1 in the Pertemps Final and Foxhunter Chase respectively.
There were five other horses that filled the frame at 33/1 too.
With this in mind, here are two horses currently valued at 66/1 that look to have better prospects than their odds suggest for an each-way finish in their Cheltenham Festival engagements:
No doubt his price is based on finishing fifth in the Neptune trial at Cheltenham in January, when 33 lengths adrift of impressive winner and current odds-on Festival favourite Yanworth.
However, upon watching the race back, Baden appears to be travelling second best as the field swing into the straight, only really giving way before the final obstacle and then doing little more than trotting up the run in.
Stamina shouldn’t be a major stumbling block on the assumption that the horse won a point to point over 3m in Ireland before moving to the yard of Nicky Henderson.
It is possible that it was the heavy ground at Cheltenham that wore him down late on and a firmer surface at the Festival will be more to his liking.
Reversing form with Yanworth looks a tad optimistic, but he is certainly capable of getting closer to the runner-up Shantou Village, who is only a quarter of Baden’s odds at 16/1 in the Neptune betting.
Baden has only had three career runs too, so is generally open to greater improvement through being more lightly raced than the majority of those in opposition.
The Ryanair remains a tough race to call on the basis that a number of the probable favourites also hold entries in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and it remains unclear which of the two contests they will eventually line up in.
This isn’t true of Royal Regatta, who has strung together three solid performances since being fitted with the combination of blinkers and a tongue tie.
She dominated to win a fair graduation chase over Christmas and has since been second off top weight in the competitive Bet365 handicap chase at Ascot and then most recently third behind Silviniaco Conti in the Grade 1 Ascot Chase.
It is worth noting that conditions were softer than ideal on that occasion, but he still had everything barring the winner in trouble prior to the final two fences, including the likes of Dynaste and Triolo D’Alene.
Expected better ground at Cheltenham will help, as will a front-running ride if he is allowed to dictate the early pace.
Dynaste is currently 16/1 in the Ryanair betting and the margin between him and Royal Regatta is certainly not as large as the odds suggest.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
