The Festival Aftermath

The Show must go on……
It’s taken me the best part of a week to face up to the heartache that the festival brought us this year with so many hard luck stories, but at Superhero Bets, we never hide behind bad results. With Coronavirus taking up every story and thread we read at the moment we take time to reflect on the highs and lows of another spectacular Cheltenham Festival…
After much uncertainty we finally got to hear the famous roar as a competitive looking field lined up for the Supreme Novice hurdle. The race was full of drama and our selection was at the heart of it. As always we always look for value in the race and we opted for 20-1 shot ELIXIR D’AINAY to get us of to a flyer. Our selection travelled strongly throughout the race and looked certain to mount a strong challenge turning for home only to be brought down by the wayward jumping of Asterion Forlonge. The race concluded with the easy to back, Shishkin getting the better of the strong travelling Abracadabras. It’s impossible to say if ELIXIR D’AINAY would have won the race, but he certainly would have been involved in the run in.
Our poor start continued with BREWINUPASTORM unseating Richard Johnson early in the race and the riderless horse actually went on to cross the line in front of eventual winner, ‘Put The Kettle On.’ The feature race of the day was the highly anticipated Champion Hurdle which the very impressive favourite, Epitante romped with a confident ride from Barry Gerraghty. Our selection Petite Mouchoir (25/1) ran very credibly in 5th place, unfortunately just out of the place money with most bookmakers.
Honeysuckle upset the odds by outclassing Benie des Dieux under a great ride for Rachael Blackmore in the mares hurdle, which was a ‘no bet’ race for us, and got the bookies out of jail, as Benie was highly considered the Irish Banker of the week.
We entered day 2 with high hopes despite our poor 1st day and we had a festival banker running in the RSA, which we were very keen on. Firstly we watched as the classy, Envoi Allen put his rivals to the sword to win the Ballymore with ease before our anticipated big race.
It was a tactically battle throughout as the Irish pair, Allaho and our selection MINELLA INDO locked horns at the head of the field. They pretty much went stride for stride the whole way around before kicking clear on the final bend. After a lengthy battle up front and a slow jump at the last fence our selection appeared to be waring down his rival, when from absolutely nowhere ‘Champ’ came to spoil our party by getting up close home. The extent of the ride by Gerraghty wasn’t clear at the time as ITV only concentrated on the 1st two horses coming home, but watching it back, it was one of the best rides I have witnessed at a festival, reminiscent of the aptly nicknamed, ‘Champ’-Tony McCoy. It’s fair to say if Champ could improve his jumping he could be a serious contender for a Gold Cup with the engine he has.
The highly anticipated Champion Chase turned out to be an anti climax with Altior pulling out lame and the late withdrawal of Chacun Pour Soi with an abcess. The race looked to be set up for Defi Du Seuil for a procession, but it hardly went a yard and the race was dominated from the front by Politologue who deservedly got a big win after spending a lot of its races behind the mighty Altior.
Tiger Roll failed to get close to Easysland in the Cross Country as the bookies rubbed their hands and we looked towards another dreadful day at the races. Our luck was overturned by FERNY HOLLOW getting the better of the well fancied, Appreciate It, in the Champion Bumper at 14-1, which softened the hard blow dealt to us by Champ earlier in the day. At least we finished the day with ammunition and we had confidence restored going into day 3.
Day 3 started like much of the rest of the festival so far for us, as again our luck took a hammering. Again, looking for value in the race, we opted for Melon at 16/1 and it gave us a great run for our money. Travelling strongly and jumping well throughout the race, Melon really took the race to its opponents and but for a slower, safer jump at the last fence would clearly have won the race. Unfortunately the momentum was lost at the last fence allowing Samcro to get it’s head infront and despite a late rally, our selection lost on the nod with the photo finish favouring Samcro. Faugheen ran an absolute blinder in 3 place at the ripe old age of 12, as the Irish dominated the placings.
Reluctantly we ploughed on and took a chance on 25/1 shot, ‘Ronald Pump’ to get a place in the Stayers Hurdle which was expected to be won by hot favourite, Paisley Park. As it went Paisley Park didn’t show up and our eyes lit up as Paisley looked beat a long way out. Unfortunately, Lisnegard Oscar took the race at a huge price of 50/1, with our selection taking 2nd place, which was kind of what we were expecting although we felt a little hard done by that his victor wasn’t the hot favourite.
Our form followed in the next race with Happy Diva (28/1) taking the silver medal again behind favourite, Simply The Betts. Fortunately a member of our private group tipped up Milan Native in the last at 14/1 after listening to Gordon Elliott declare it as his best bet of the festival, which was music to our ears and salvaged us some late money after a day of 2nd places.
On to Gold Cup day we went with mixed emotions, but our run of bad luck was confirmed in the very first race. Yes, you’ve guessed it, we tipped up ‘Goshen’ who absolutely drained the life out of me after unseating the very unfortunate Jamie Moore at the final fence, when a full 25 lengths clear of the field. It was a really hard pill to swallow and it pains me now, even writing about it. The horse, however looks like an absolute machine and watch this space for next years Champion Hurdle winner. The luck continued with our to selections ARAMON (8/1) and EMBITTERED (20/1) taking 2nd and 3rd respectively in the very next race and LATEST EXHIBITION (9/2) going down a neck in the Albert Bartlett.
The Gold Cup turned into a very good race with last years winner Al Boum Photo retaining his crown with Lost in Translation and Santini filling the spaces. Our selection MONALEE (22/1) ran a blinder to be close up in 4th and returned place money with a few bookmakers.
The highs and lows of the festival is what makes us love the meeting more than any other. Unfortunately this year, we experienced more lows and highs, but it wasn’t without drama and excitement. Close up 2nd places, fallers, last fence mistakes are all part of the game and despite our wallets and pride taken a battering we would do it all again tomorrow.
There really is no greater show on earth!
As we enter a period of uncertainty in the world with Coronavirus we urge you all to stay safe and look after each other as we eagerly await our sporting calendar to return to normality.
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