Sire Du Berlais and Defi Du Seuil bring home the goods on Thursday with the title still wide open
It's a sorry state of affairs in some trading camps this evening with BlackType, Coral and Paddy Power still yet to get off the mark after three days of punting, and quite frankly heads must roll. In more positive news, day three started unbelievably for BetVictor, who landed a 10 point ante-post win on Defi Du Seuil in the JLT Novice Chase as well as a five point tip on the same outcome at 7/2 this morning. Shrewd.
Once the BetVictor celebrations had calmed down all eyes turned to the Pertemps with a number of big-price fancies across the board. This time it was Bet365's turn to be remarkably shrewd as they picked out Sire Du Berlais at 10/1 ante-post weeks ago and dedicated two points to the cause. William Hill fancied the SP fav on the morning at 5/1, so much so they lumped four points to his name.
Fans of the Cheltenham Traders Tipping League were left screaming at their TVs when Road To Respect, Footpad and Un De Sceaux all fell victim to Frodon's magic, with Bryony Frost leading Paul Nicholls' 7-year-old to a memorable victory. With nothing to write home about in the Stayers, it was time for Will Hill to make yet another charge towards their first CTTL title as Siruh Du Lac showed incredible resilience to win the Brown Advisory under Lizzie Kelly's stewardship.
A win for the BlackType crew in the Kim Muir would have catapulted them into the lead, with 10 points on It's All Guesswork but the Gordon Elliott horse came home in 15th. The story on the grapevine is that Gordon actually named the horse on the back of BlackType's tipping. It was Betfair's 3pt 7/1 shot Any Second Now that came home in first place to lift them to middle of the pile.
So, what do we have in store on Friday? Is history going to repeat itself on Gold Cup day following Tipstanbul in 2018, which saw Betway claim 111.25 points on the final day? There are so many unknowns but what I will tell you is that you'd be a fool to write anyone off. A few teams will be vying to avoid the wooden spoon, but at the other end of the table it's wide open. Keep your eyes peeled for huge ante-post plays from the majority of the field.
