Focus On The ‘Other' Favourites

Alex Peperell looks at the market leaders for Cheltenham’s ‘lesser’ races

- Alex Peperell

Already we are seeing some very short priced favourites in the Cheltenham ante-post markets. I’m sure the Altior, Douvan and Thistlecrack treble will be extremely popular, albeit for not much return on investment. We are going to take a look at a few races with market leaders at slightly better prices and assess their chances.

CROSS COUNTRY CHASE

This is always a great race to watch as it is something a bit different. Josies Orders is unfortunately injured for the season so we won’t be seeing him. His trainer, Enda Bolger, is a genius with these cross country horses though, and he has another bullet in the chamber with Cantlow. He won a similar race at Cheltenham in December, which was a mightily impressive performance. Currently 4/1, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from backing him now as he’ll definitely be going for this race. Providing he doesn’t pick up an injury, you can at least count on getting a run for your money. However it is still quite a skinny price for what is generally a competitive contest, it doesn’t look like being any different this year with the remainder of the field being 8/1 or bigger.

RSA CHASE