Cheltenham to Aintree…..

I had a fairly average Cheltenham this year with the odd nice winner here and there covering the losses on the more frequent loser here, there and (nearly) everywhere. My ante-post bets did show a decent profit though with Cinders And Ashes and Teaforthree winning well and Smad Place nicking a place in the World Hurdle to reward my 50/1 ante-post voucher. If For Non Stop had won the Jewson it would have been a different story entirely but he was no match for the classy Sir Des Champs and for once there were no hard luck stories. The Tuesday was a break even day (started well but finished badly), Wednesday was a winning one (Teaforthree made sure of that), Thursday was a small winner (thanks to Gary’s Cape tribulation) while Friday was a small loser with the damage being limited thanks to Hisaabaat, Grand Vision and The Giant Bolster all making the frame.

The undoubted highlight of the week though was Gary’s incredible tipping at Cheltenham (again!) and without him I think my Cheltenham would have been well and truly sunk. I sent out his much anticipated email on Sunday 4th March with his 4 tips for the week and anyone who decided not to follow him, in his happiest hunting ground, will probably still be kicking themselves now.

His 4 runners only produced the one winner but when that winner is 33/1 who cares? Certainly not me and the many readers who emailed me to pass on their thanks to Gary. This is tipping of the highest order and shows last years 40/1 winner was certainly no fluke! And boy how close were we to having two winners as A New Story looked all over the winner running up the hill. And if a 33/1 winner and 20/1 second weren’t enough he also tipped Une Artiste at 40/1 in one of his daily blog comments.

In fact if you had placed 1pt ew on all his selections at Best Odds Guaranteed with bet365 you would have made

Tues -6pts
Wed +62.87pts
Thurs +22pts
Fri +7.25pts giving an overall total on the week of +86.12pts

Add in Cape Tribulation at 33/1 ante-post and you have another +42.25pt

Absolutely amazing. How does he do it?

Anyway, with his pockets bulging he’s now turned his attention to the Grand National and these two beauties……

Both of my tips are Irish trained horses who have a lot of Graded Chase form (including Grade 1 and 2 wins) to their names but have never quite made it to the top of the chasing tree.

The first is a former Grade 1 winner at the Punchestown Festival who won the Champion Novice Chase just over 2 weeks after running a creditable 4th in the Irish Grand National. Not a bad run for a novice considering he was trying to give the winner Niche Market 7lb! RARE BOB  has spent the last 3 years trying to recapture that sort of form but despite running well on occasions he has only been able to score once more when winning a handicap at Leopardstown. He did do that from top-weight though off a rating of 145 which is just 1lb less than the one he has been assigned to run off in the National. He ran at the Aintree Festival last year where he was set to at least make the frame until unseating 2 out and returned to the track last December to run over the National fences in desparate conditions. He finished a poor 5th that day but at least showed he could handle the fences if not the ground. His last run was in the Leinster National where he finished 3rd to a couple of lightly weighted chasers and that should have left him spot on for this. With the ground no problem and a career that shows a 50% top 3 record the 50/1 looks an interesting Each Way bet at this stage.

The other horse I fancy for the race is the ex-Howard Johnson horse KILLYGLEN who won the Grade 2 Mildmay Novice Chase at Aintree in 2009. He then found life as a 150+ rated handicapper too much and began to look a little disappointing until running an absolute cracker in the National last year. From a rating of 146 he was with the leaders for most of the race and had just begun to stay on nicely in 3rd when coming down at the third last. It was a real shame because he had jumped well for most of the race until tiredness had started to creep in over the last few fences. The trainer has obviously had this as his target all year and has kept the horse mainly over hurdles with a couple of chase races thrown in for good measure. His win last time out was a welcome return to form and he looks nailed on to run another great race in the National. From a rating of 5lb less than last year the 25/1 is my idea of a great each way bet.

RARE BOB 50/1 (Stan James / Betvictor)
KILLYGLEN 25/1 (Betfred, Totesport, Coral)

Good luck,
Gavin.

I have a small number of Trends books left over that weren’t sold before Cheltenham. Only 2 of the 30 races covered in the book were at the Festival so there are still 28 races left to go this year.

STOP PRESS: 10/1 Supreme Novice Hurdle winner Cinders and Ashes fitted all the trends contained in the book.

Everything you need to help find the winners of those 30 races is here. For each and every race you get;

- The race history including the distance, race conditions, race class and the date of this years race.
- Previous winners dating back to 1999 and including the winners form when they ran in the race, their weight, winners odds, rating and trainer.
- Information on the record of the favourite in the previous races and how fancied the winner was in the betting
- The all important race trends listed from strongest to weakest
- Interesting facts about previous winners
- Tables showing the last 5 winners and how they fitted the main race trends
- The win and place figures for the ages of the horses that have run in the previous12 years
- The win and place figures for the handicap ratings of the horses that have run in the previous 12 years
- An average profile of the previous 12 winners
- The range of winners ages, form, weight, ratings and odds from the last 12 years
- Trainer records for the last 12 years. Number of runners, winners, placed runners and how their horses got on in last years race

and after listing all this we give you a summary of the type of runner you should be looking for when analysing the race.

If you want a copy they are now half price at just £7.50 (including P&P). The book will be sent out straight away.

There’s now no need to join the Festival Trends service it’s a one click payment using the button below……