These ante-post favourites have been gobbled up by punters...
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With exactly two weeks to go until the Cheltenham Festival gets underway, punters up and down the country wait with bated breath to see how their punts are going to turn out.
But, what horses do the bookmakers not want to win during the four-day festival? We looked at the five most backed horses since last year’s renewal finished.
All figures and percentage of bets are taken from March 16th, 2019, until today (February 25th, 2020).
Top five most backed Cheltenham Festival horses:
1. Envoi Allen: 6.3% (of all Cheltenham Festival bets)
The clear favourite to win the Ballymore Novices Hurdle, Envoi Allen is the most-backed horse by punters for the entire festival, through Oddschecker.
Accruing a whopping 58% of all bets on the Ballymore since the end of last year’s festival, odds have been cut accordingly on the Gordon Elliott-hope from 10/1 in June 2019, into just 11/8 now.
2. Paisley Park: 5.99%
Officially the biggest favourite at the festival, odds-on shot Paisley Park could cause serious problems in the trading floors if he hacks up in the Stayers Hurdle.
Accounting for a staggering 71% of all bets in the race, the Emma Lavelle-trained eight-year-old is the only show in town for the Stayers, and is priced at 8/11 to emerge victoriously.
3. Benie Des Dieux: 4.71%
Alongside Paisley Park, Benie Des Dieux is the only other odds-on shot at this year’s festival and punters are all over the Willie Mullins entrant.
Priced at 4/5 at the time of writing, Benie Des Dieux has accounted for 64% of all bets in the race over the last year.
4. Tiger Roll: 3.9%
Returning champion Tiger Roll caught the eye of the casual punter in last year’s Cross Country and Grand National – and he’s set to strike again.
Another short price favourite at 11/10, Tiger Roll is romping the ante-post punting. Since last year’s festival finished, a ridiculous 83% of all bets in the race have backed the 10-year-old.
5. Altior: 3.46%
Going for the Champion Chase, punters are all over Nico De Boinville’s mount, Altior, who is the most attractive price out of the most backed horses, currently 2/1.
That’s a backable price for punters, and they’ve followed suit, with 32% of all bets in the last year backing the Nicky Henderson entrant.
It’s a crowded field, however, and bookies will be cheering on the rest of the field, with Defi Du Seuil (9/4), Chacun Pour Soi (11/4) and Cilaos Emery (18/1) well placed to turn over the gelding.
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