Posted by Matt Bisogno on December 13, 2010 · 3 Comments
Racing at Cheltenham is rarely anything other than top class, dear reader, and the weekend just passed was like a ‘mini Festival’ with so many trainers keen to get a run into so many horses when they’d normally try to avoid meeting each other prior to the March meeting.
So what did the action tell us, aside from the fact – pointed out to me numerous times – that Faasel is not quite as reliable a stick as I’d envisaged. Trying to explain to people who simply want winners the concepts of value and the long term benefits of using trends can sometimes be pointless. So, to those who just want winners, sorry but you’ll not find any guarantees of that here on any given day.
But for the vast majority of you who understand that if you generally take 14/1 about horses that start at 11/1 (as Faasel did), you’ll come out in front.
Onwards. What did we learn at the Cheltenham December meeting? We learnt the following:
1. Spirit River is a hurdler. He hates fences, and has now fallen on both attempts in novice chase company. Anyone who takes the 20/1 with Betfred (or even the 33/1 best price with William Hill) wants their head examining. As it stands, he must be half those odds to even line up in this race, given his high class form over the smaller obstacles. And running in a 2m5f race is a curious preparation for a two mile championship contest, in any event.
