In this year’s Ryanair Chase at the upcoming Cheltenham Festival, there is only one horse to back for the win according to the Racing Post’s Upping the Ante team – Allaho.
Using odds provided by one of the outlet’s bookmaker partners, bet365, Upping the Ante’s Gavin Lynch and David Jennings highlighted Allaho, which has consistnetly placed in most fixtures.
“It’s very hard to see him beat,” Lynch asserted. “Last year for me he was the performance of the week, he won by 12 lengths and his time was incredible. To me 7/4 is very fair.”
However, Lynch did highlight some potential each way bets which could deal a blow to the bookmakers, potiing in partiuclar to Saint Calvados as a runner who the operaotrs should keep an eye on.
“If you wanted an each way alternative, I’d say Saint Calvados,” Lynch continued. “He only joined Paul Nichols this season, had one run for Paul – he was a bit upset by the ride it got in the King George to say the least.”
He added: The other thing you have to keep in mind about Saint Calvados is that in 2020 he was second in the Ryanair, and A Plus Tard was third in that race.
“He’s nine years old, he’s rated at 162, Allaho is rated at 174, so he’s got 12 pounds to catch up on, but I think Saint Calavados at 9.1 each way is value.”
Although agreeing with his co-host’s assessment of Allaho’s prospects as a potential bookie buster – albeit with the requirement that punters place some large wagers on the favourite on account of the current odds of 7/4 – Jennings put his faith in a different contender for each way payouts.
He explained: “If you’re having a bet now, there’s only one bet you can have – back Fakir D’Oudairies each way. He’s not entering the Gold Cup, he’s going to run in this race, he’s solid – I thought he was very good at Clonmel back in November.
“To me, he was second in the race last year when I don’t think he was at his best either. I think last year was a better race than this year is going to be, but when you look at him, how is he going to finish in the first three? He’s 8/1 on bet365, no runner no bet.”
This year’s Cheltenham Festival will be broadcast to local betting operators by the Racecourse Media Group (RMG), after the company secured five-year agreements with a number of major racecourses last year.
Although remaining a four-day event this year, the notion of expanding Cheltenham to five days has been proposed by some, and is apparently being considered by the Jockey Club – which detailed last year that it would ‘explore every option’ with regards to going ahead lengthening the festival by 2023.
