Back or Lay: Expert Reviews 5 Trending Cheltenham Festival Bets

Steve Ryder reviews whether punters should be backing or laying the five most popular Cheltenham Festival bets through oddschecker last week. These are as follows:

Old Park Star- Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
Lossiemouth- Champion Hurdle
Fact To File- Ryanair Chase
Kateira- BetMGM Hurdle
Koktail Divin- Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase

Old Park Star (Supreme Novices’ Hurdle)

The Supreme Novices' Hurdle has resulted in relatively small fields recently with 8 (2021), 9 (2022) and 11 for the previous two years but this year’s renewal looks one of the most open and competitive in recent memory.

Old Park Star is a worthy favourite having won all three of his starts this season over hurdles including an impressive 18 length victory in a Grade 2 at Haydock last time. He could face Grade 1 winners Talk The Talk and Idaho Sun as well as impressive maiden winners Mighty Park and El Cairos. Willie Mullins and Paul Townend always have to be respected at the festival and they could combine with Leader d’Allier. They could also be joined by Mydaddypaddy for the Dan and Harry Skelton and Sober Glory who is expected to be ridden by Harry Cobden.

With all of those potential rivals, it looks worth taking on Old Park Star at current odds.

Verdict: LAY at 9/4.

Lossiemouth (Champion Hurdle)

Although connections of Lossiemouth have opted to win the Mares’ Hurdle rather than contest the Champion Hurdle for the previous two seasons, punters appear to believe that the eight-time Grade 1 winner will run in the highlight of the opening day this year.

Although Lossiemouth was beaten by Brighterdaysahead in the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival last time, she boasts three victories at Cheltenham whereas her rival has been beaten on her two starts at the festival. With doubts surrounding the majority of the leading contenders in the race this year, Lossiemouth looks worth backing back at a track which brings out her best.

Verdict: BACK at 7/2 NRNB

Fact To File (Ryanair Chase)

All three leading Willie Mullins trained horses have alternative options with Il Etait Temps appearing more likely to run in the Champion Chase and both Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File having the option of the Gold Cup, although the latter would have to be supplemented for that contest. With positive reports coming from Gavin Cromwell about the well being of last year’s Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin, punters have been backing Fact To File to win the Ryanair Chase for owner JP McManus which is the race he won impressively by 9 lengths last season.

Fact To File was only narrowly beaten by stablemate Gaelic Warrior in the John Durkan Chase on his reappearance and bounced back from a disappointing run in the King George VI Chase to win the Irish Gold Cup by five lengths from Gaelic Warrior. He has been awarded a rating of 174 following that impressive success and would no doubt go off shorter than the odds of 4/5 that are available antepost (not NRNB) for the race if he were to run in it.

Verdict: BACK at 4/5 antepost

Kateira (BetMGM Hurdle)

Kateira has shortened significantly for the newly sponsored BetMGM Cup from 50/1 into 10/1 having been put up as a “dark horse” for the festival in a stable tour by trainer Dan Skelton. The stable won the race in 2023 and 2024 with Langer Dan and it is worth remembering that she beat the reigning Champion Hurdler Golden Ace by 28 lengths on her reappearance.

Since then, Kateira has slightly disappointed but as a result has dropped from a mark of 145 down to a mark of 141. She won a valuable handicap hurdle at Aintree in April 2024 off a mark of 136 but a slight concern is that she has never raced at Cheltenham previously. She was probably overpriced at around 50/1 but at current odds she doesn’t seem value and can be opposed.

Verdict: LAY at 10/1.

Koktail Divin (Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase)

The Henry De Bromhead trained Koktail Divin still holds an entry for the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase but with the UK handicapper only giving him an extra 1lb in comparison to his Irish mark, punters are backing him to go down the handicap route over his preferred distance instead.

Koktail Divin won over 2m4f over hurdles last season at Leopardstown before finishing 4th in the Grade 1 Mersey Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree on his final start of the campaign. He appeared a non stayer at the 3-mile trip behind Oscars Brother at Punchestown in the Grade 2 Florida Pearl Novice Chase in November but was an impressive 21 length winner over 2m5½f in a beginners chase last time at Leopardstown and a rating of 150 could underestimate him. As is the nature of a novice handicap chase at the festival, there are lots of unexposed rivals in the contest and at his current odds I could see better priced selections.

Verdict: LAY at 5/1.

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