Cheltenham 2023: The five most backed for next year’s Festival

Facile Vega

Having oozed class in winning the Champion Bumper, Facile Vega is the most backed horse for Cheltenham 2023 across the first weekend since the end of this year's Festival. 

Ridden by Patrick Mullins, the son of Quevega powered clear to finish three and three-quarter lengths clear of American Mike last Wednesday. 

Over 10% of all the ante-post bets on Cheltenham have been on Facile Vega (4/1), with the bulk of those for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle - a race he has taken 78.9% of the bets for. 

Constitution Hill

The second most backed horse this weekend for Cheltenham 2023 is, unsurprisingly, Constitution Hill – so impressive in landing the opener at this year’s Festival. 

His owner Michael Buckley has revealed that he will likely stay over hurdles next season and might even take on three-time Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle as early as Punchestown.

However, it is next year’s Champion Hurdle we are interested in for this article, for which the superstar novice – trained by Nicky Henderson – has been backed into a best price 5/2. He has taken 67.6% of bets for the race over the weekend, with Honeysuckle only backed by 16.7%.

Allaho

Many of the supposed bankers for the week (think Shishkin, Galopin Des Champs) might have fallen short, but Allaho certainly did the business in the Ryanair Chase. 

An untidy leap at the last aside, no-one really threatened his successful defence of the day three race. He has taken 5.6% of the bets on Cheltenham 2023 over the weekend, and 79.3% of those on next year’s Ryanair (best price 5/2).

Shishkin

The aforementioned Shishkin, whose head-to-head with Energumene never really materialised in the Champion Chase, has still been backed to turn his fortunes around at Cheltenham 2023. 

Trainer Nicky Henderson said this weekend that Sandown, rather than Aintree, could be the next port of call for him after his disappointing showing at Cheltenham.

However, many of you can evidently see past that disappointment, as he accounted for 54.0% of the bets for the Champion Chase 2023 through oddschecker this weekend. 

Interestingly, this year’s winner Energumene has pulled in just 16.8% of the bets despite assuming favouritism for next year’s race at best price 7/2 (Shishkin is 5/1).

Galopin Des Champs

And sticking with the theme of horses who failed to win this year, we find Galopin Des Champs as the fifth most backed horse for Cheltenham 2023 over the weekend.

He is a slightly different case to Shishkin in that he was well poised for an emphatic defeat of Bob Olinger in the Turners Novices’ Chase before a dramatic fall at the last.

The Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old has already been the subject of bets across various races for next year but is attracting the most attention for next year’s Gold Cup (best price 5/1).

In fact, only this year’s winner A Plus Tard and Brown Advisory winner L’Homme Presse have taken more bets for the blue riband race in 2023.