Cheltenham Festival 2024 Tips: Week 6 Road to Cheltenham Preview

Although Cheltenham Trials day and the Dublin Racing Festival have now passed and many punters will be looking solely ahead to March, Newbury’s Betfair Hurdle day stands alone as one of the highlights of the season.

Coupled with Tuesday's Grand National entries, there is a host of action to look forward to before the Cheltenham Festival starts. In 2018 Kalashnikov won the Betfair Hurdle before finishing a very close second in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and this year I'm hoping that exciting novice Lookaway can do something similar for Neil king. 

Currently available at 9/1, he featured in Week 4 of this series as a tip for the Baring Bingham. With proven handicap form in November’s Greatwood Hurdle, I’m expecting him to advertise his credentials for the race on Saturday. 

Elsewhere on the card, the ever so nearly King George winner, Shishkin, looks set to run in the Grade 2 Denman Chase before contesting the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March in what looks a fantastic card. 

What did we learn from the Dublin Racing Festival?

Saturday’s biggest lesson from the DRF was the flop of Arkle Chase favourite Marine Nationale who drifted from an odds on shot out to a best price 11/4 on Unibet. 

Sunday saw both Ballyburn and El Fabiolo advertise their Cheltenham credentials with the former now available at a best price 2/1 for the Supreme on Coral whilst El Fabiolo is as short as 2/5 with bet365 for the Queen Mother Champion Chase after his win. 

Slade Steel, who was second behind Ballyburn in the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle, has also been cut in to a best price 7/1 for the Baring Bingham. He was the very first tip on this series when selected at a best price 16/1 on the 1st January. 

Sunday also saw Gaelic Warrior’s bubble burst somewhat as he drifted out to 7/1 from evens for Thursday’s Turners Novices’ Chase on Betfair. Conversely, Fact to File - who beat the Rich Ricci horse - is now as short as 5/2 for the Turners and 7/2 for the Brown Advisory.

Which Cheltenham Festival entries will we get this week? 

This is the second week in succession without any new Cheltenham Festival entries with Aintree’s Grand National entries scheduled to appear on Tuesday. However the following week will see those for the Mares’ Chase and Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle.

Cheltenham Festival 2024 Tips

Although I would ideally like to tip Fact to File after his impressive display on Sunday, I do not feel confident enough to know which race the Mullins camp will go for. Therefore, this week's tips comes from a separate but equally impressive performance at Leopardstown. 

Indeed, before unseating Jack Kennedy after the final flight, Conflated was running an incredibly honourable race in the Irish Gold Cup. The plan for him now is to contest the Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham in which the owners have had such great success in recent years. With trainer Gordon Elliott reporting him to have taken extremely well to the banks, I expect the Gold Cup third to go extremely close (7/2 on Coral). 

Indeed, this season alone he has been beaten narrowly by Gerri Colombe and Envoi Allen as well as his admirable display on Saturday. This level of form surpasses that of any of his rivals for the race and I expect him to go very close.

This is the sixth of 10 Road to Cheltenham round-ups running each Monday from 1st January until 4th March, featuring ante-post tips every week! 

See below for Jamie’s ante-post tips so far in the series, as well as Architect Tips’ ante-post previews for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Stayers’ Hurdle, Arkle Chase, Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

This Week’s Cheltenham Ante-Post Tips 

Conflated @ 7/2 (1pt Win) for the Cross Country Chase