The cold weather over the last few days has meant that there hasn’t been too many Cheltenham Festival clues, but Cork did get the go ahead on Sunday and we saw the return of last season’s Champion Chase winner Energumene in the Hilly Way Chase. Willie Mullins’ charge was sent off a 1/9 favourite and he won just as easy as those odds suggested he would. After the win bookies were very quick to cut his price and he is now odds on with all bookies apart from William Hill who are still going evens about him winning the race for the second time. The best betting sites already have it has a two horse race with last weeks Tingle Creek winner Edwardstone the only other horse in single figures.
The Grade 2 Mares’ Chase on the card has been won by some big names in the past, including Mount Ida a couple of years ago on her way to winning the Kim Muir at the Cheltenham Festival. This year’s renewal was won in impressive fashion by Impervious and she is now 7/1 2nd favourite for the Mares Chase on the final day of The Festival with Paddy Power and Betfair.
Hiddenvalley Lake is also 2nd favourite for a race at Cheltenham after landing the Grade 3 Novice Hurdle by 8L. The race in question is the Albert Bartlett also on the final day and you can get 8/1 in the Cheltenham odds with Bet365.
Another option for star mare
He is trained by Henry De Bromhead and after the race when he was asked about Honeysuckle he mentioned that if he felt her best chance of winning would be the Mares Hurdle then that is the race she would run in. Not surprisingly punters and bookies reacted to that news and she is no bigger than 2/1 (Bet365) for that contest.
