Tag: Le Rocher

Get on Sky Bet Cheltenham Price Boost!

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

The bookmakers are really pushing the boat out with their Cheltenham offers this season. Not only do we have ante-post prices on all 27 races, several leading firms are already offering non-runner/no bet on the four championship races.

Sky Bet have added a further incentive to get stuck in to those ante-post Cheltenham wagers by offering a price boost on three tips provided by Racing UK experts Lydia Hislop, Mark Howard and Steve Mellish.

I have the greatest respect for Lydia and she is probably the only woman on the planet who could talk for longer about racing than I could without getting bored! I usually find her articles to be right on the money but I have to take issue with one comment she made about Big Buck’s on Saturday. She described the criticism of Sam Twiston-Davies for hitting the front too soon as “pants”. This is based on the fact that Ruby Walsh won on the horse by leading from a similar juncture in a previous World Hurdle.

That overlooks the 420 day lay-off, the heavy going and the fact that it was Twiston-Davies’s first ride on the horse. To my mind, all three contributed to the horse’s defeat but I’m sure we could discuss it if she has a few hours to spare! Although the jockey’s union does not allow criticism of their fellow riders, I think Mick Fitzgerald’s assessment was probably an accurate one and we’ll see Big Buck’s a little further back in the field on March 13th.

Lydia has selected King Palace, previously highlighted in this column, as the winner of the Albert Bartlett. Sky Bet are holding his price at 9-2 until midnight tonight. Mark Howard picked out Ted Walsh’s Foxrock, the winner of a grade 2 event at Naas last week, as his best bet in the National Hunt Chase (offered at 9-1). He is as low as 7-1 elsewhere and market rival Shotgun Paddy is not yet a certain starter.

Finally Steve Mellish weighed in with Le Rocher (also featured in this column on Monday) as his best bet in the Triumph Hurdle. I did not expect 12-1 to last for long but he is on offer at 14-1 until midnight. I am sure that he would be half those odds if he were trained by Nicholls or Henderson. If you haven’t played yet, grab the 14-1 while you can!

Sky Bet price boost

Kings Palace 9-2 Albert Bartlett

Foxrock 9-1 National Hunt Chase

Le Rocher 14-1 Triumph Hurdle

Le Rocher value at 12-1 for Triumph Hurdle

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

The weekend trials at Cheltenham and Doncaster did not exactly go to plan. I was looking for a big run from Rocky Creek in the Argento Chase but he went out very tamely when pressed by The Giant Bolster. Connections are apparently considering The Grand National instead of the Gold Cup after that display but I won’t be rushing to back him.

The biggest talking point of the weekend was the defeat of Big Buck’s in the Cleeve Hurdle. After a layoff of 420 days, it was surprising that Sam Twiston-Davies elected to have the horse so prominent from the start. Paul Nicholls has said that he told his jockey to be positive but most observers felt that he was in front far too early. Having said that, it was an encouraging run and he looks the one to beat in the World Hurdle.

The runner that impressed me most was the performance put up by Le Rocher in the Triumph Hurdle trial. There has hardly been a performance of note from the four-year-olds this season but Le Rocher looks the pick of the bunch on this evidence.

Vicenzo Mio was the first of several beaten favourites for the Nicholls team on the day but Le Rocher was backing up a Grade 1 win at Chepstow. Most impressively, he stretched a two and a half-length winning margin over Kentucky Hayden at the Welsh track to ten lengths here. Trainer Nick Williams has no doubt that the horse is capable of winning at the festival and I’m pretty confident that he will persuade the owners to go for the big one.

The going was very testing on Saturday so it would obviously be helpful if the going is soft in March but he also has form on a better surface in France. Ladbrokes have gone out on a limb by sticking to 12-1 and I feel that price cannot last long. He is around 8-1 generally and that is a far more realistic price.

Goodwood Mirage hardly lifted his feet over the last two hurdles when scraping home on his debut and he was little better here. I would imagine he would be heavily schooled and then given a confidence-booster before a trip to Aintree rather than Cheltenham. I cannot see him handling the hustle and bustle of a Triumph Hurdle.

Le Rocher (each-way) at 12-1 Ladbrokes