#A Plus Tard

Only once since 2010 has the Cheltenham Festival top trainer title been won by a British handler. Proof, as if needed, that the best horses are in Ireland was there for all to see last year. Willie Mullins heads Cheltenham top trainer odds once again with the bookies with what looks a top Festival team. These are our five best betting sites for…

7 February 2022 By Roger Kennedy [email protected] Starting on Tuesday, 15 March and continuing till Friday, 18 March, the Cheltenham Festival is almost upon us. If you want to get your ante post bets in, now is likely the best time to start picking your horses for each race. Of course, you will need some information on the favourites to win major…

Can Al Boum Photo join Golden Miller, Arkle, Best Mate and Cottage Rake to become only the fifth horse to win the Gold Cup on three occasions? It's the main event that everyone's talking about: the Gold Cup. Last year's winner, Al Boum Photo, will head to Cheltenham Festival on 19 March with just one start under his belt this season, having won the…

After a week of action, elation, tears and turmoil, the Cheltenham Festival concluded with the Gold Cup. The Gold Cup is one of the richest races in Britain, and this year's crown went to A Plus Tard as Rachael Blackmore created history. Blackmore had a dream 2021 though she made the decision to go with A Plus Tard last year when stablemate Minella…

Trainer Willie Mullins' nine-year-old returned to action with a win on New Year's Day at Tramore. He is one of 17 Irish entries for the Festival feature Dual winner Al Boum Photo heads 41 entries for this year's Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup. Willie Mullins' chaser could join Best Mate, Arkle and Cottage Rake as the fourth horse to record a hat-trick…

THE biggest week of the racing year is fast approaching - meaning time is running out to get real value on some fancied runners. Already we have seen the likes of Constitution Hill go long odds-on to win the Champion Hurdle. But there is still plenty of money to be made elsewhere from some the bookies may have missed. Here, Sun Racing's top tipster…

Grand National winner Noble Yeats is heading to Lingfield next weekend before taking aim at the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March. Emmet Mullins is committed to attempting an audacious spring double in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup and Randox Grand National with last year's Aintree hero Noble Yeats. The trainer drew comparisons between the…

All eyes were on the course as Day Three of Cheltenham Festival got underway. That wet course has had more rain overnight, and the going already described as tacky by some jockeys yesterday. After a fourth Coronavirus case was confirmed in Gloucestershire yesterday, racegoers can can expect increased hygiene measures, including extra hand sanitizer…

Honeysuckle is set to be an odds-on favourite for the Champion Hurdle. We are a week away from the Cheltenham Festival, and as final preparations begin to take place across the UK & Ireland, punters are beginning to finalise their ante-post positions ahead of the imminent entries.

Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore will aim to bounce back from her first defeat at Fairyhouse to win a fourth consecutive Irish Champion Hurdle This year's Dublin Racing Festival looks set to play host to a star-studded line-up after early entries for the two-day Irish calendar highlight at Leopardstown were revealed on Thursday. Eight Grade 1s…

Trainer Joe Tizzard is excited to see Eldorado Allen take on the Betfair Chase challenge at Haydock Park on Saturday. The 42-year-old handler, who officially took over the training licence from his father Colin at the start of the season, thinks his eight-year-old grey is fit and ready to take on chiefly last year's winner and Boodles Cheltenham…

Newcastle's Flat card features a conditions race over a mile and a quarter with some smart older performers entered up. They include the John & Thady Gosden pair Harrovian and Forest of Dean who finished third and fifth respectively in a listed race at Lingfield in November which has thrown up some winners since. This looks a bit less competitive,…

The week just gone over jumps was a welcome pause after the unrelenting Christmas and New Year action, but it has nevertheless thrown up several Festival clues in the last few years. The feature event at Sandown, the Unibet Tolworth Hurdle, has gone to subsequent Sky Bet Supreme winners Constitution Hill and Summerville Boy in recent seasons, while…

A town normally in carnival mode is eerily quiet. Where banners and marquees should herald the boisterous crowds to come, there is calm. For four days in March, the Cheltenham Festival usually welcomes thousands of visitors for its annual carnival. This year is different - no spectators or racehorse owners and a sport seeking a boost after negative…

The final preparations are in full swing for the Cheltenham Festival 2020 which runs from March 10th to 13th. Hopes are rising that the coronavirus outbreak will not force a late postponement for the best four days of National Hunt racing anywhere in the world. Trainer Paul Nicholls has not been the leading trainer at the meeting since 2009 and is…

1pt win Stattler in Cheltenham Gold Cup at 14/1 (General) I unashamedly find it quite hard to take the plunge when it comes to antepost bets on the Cheltenham Festival. If you believe what you read elsewhere then the real value is only on offer around September/October time the previous year and there is, of course, a modicum of truth in…

Henry de Bromhead's charge was a brilliant winner of the Prestbury Park blue riband last season, but little has gone right for him since. The nine-year-old was found to be under the weather after being pulled up when bidding for back-to-back wins in the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November and was withdrawn on the morning of last month's Savills…

By Andrew Asquith, Friday 06 January 2023 Posted in: Cheltenham Festival Tips Andrew Asquith looks ahead to the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup and picks out his best ante-post bet. A quick glance at the ante-post betting market for the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup shows what a cracking renewal this year's race could be with the first seven or eight in the…

By Andrew Asquith, Friday 06 January 2023 Posted in: Cheltenham Festival Tips Andrew Asquith looks ahead to the 2023 Ryanair Chase and picks out his best ante-post bet. Willie Mullins has won five of the last seven renewals of the Ryanair Chase and Allaho has won the last two renewals, so there is only really one place to start. He hasn't been seen…

IT might surprise you, but in general terms the 2022 Cheltenham bumper form has been absolutely pants. Of course, the obvious exception has been the brilliant winner, Facile Vega, who simply looks well, errr, brilliant! But outside of Willie Mullins's star most of those who went on the level at Prestbury Park have disappointed. There's still hope,…

A THOROUGHBRED racehorse who drinks Guinness and rocks up at his local is being backed to win the most prestigious jumps race of all. Superstar Hewick has what it takes to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, according to trainer John'Shark' Hanlon. Hewick, an eight-year-old gelding, was bought for just £750 in October 2017. Since then he has gone on to…

The treats are going to come thick and fast for racing fans over the Christmas week. They include Leopardstown's four-day Christmas Festival, which begins on St Stephen's Day (December 26). This is a superb meeting with a wide array of Graded contests, competitive handicaps and informative bumpers for punters to enjoy. Danny Archer looks ahead to…

It's the final day of the 2022 Cheltenham Festival and there's seven more races taking place. The Gold Cup is the feature contest at 3.30pm and Rachael Blackmore is bidding to become the first female jockey to win it. On her chances, she said: "The Gold Cup is what the whole week of Cheltenham builds around. It's the pinnacle of the racing year and…

What a week it has been! The racing has been phenomenal, the weather largely clear and most crucially of all, fans were back where they belong on the terraces. Cheltenham felt like it was truly back this week as a result. See you in 2023! It's the seventh Irish-trained winner from seven races on Friday! Mark McDonagh did an excellent job steering…

Clan Des Obeaux will face eight rivals as he goes for back-to-back victories in the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup, the highlight on day two of the Festival meeting. Paul Nicholls' charge kept on strongly to outgun Al Boum Photo in the hands of Sam Twiston-Davies 12 months ago, but it is Harry Cobden who rides the 10-year-old time around. Having…

As of 3pm on Tuesday 3 January, bet365 have gone live with their Non Runner No Bet market for the 2023 Cheltenham Festival. For the Champion Hurdle, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the Ryanair Chase, the Stayers' Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup, customers now have the option of taking a slightly shorter price from the NRNB market with the security…

The entries for the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup have this week been announced, with A Plus Tard in the mix to defend his crown for Henry De Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore. Last year, Blackmore and the then seven year old were favourites going into the race and won in stunning fashion with 2021 winner Minella Indo second and Protektorat third. The duo…

Picking up from my last column to cover the remainder of the holiday program (December 28 to January 1) in what was the busiest post-Boxing Day period for some time, the narrative seemed to me more of the same - some horses enhanced their reputations, a bigger number diminished theirs, and a standout performance to breathe new life into some…

Hot favourite Galopin Des Champs headed another bumper entry from Ireland for the Boodles Cheltenham Cup on Tuesday. He is a best-priced 7-4 for the festival highlight on March 17, having won all his four completed chases. The Willie Mullins-trained seven-year-old was among 13 entries from Ireland in a potential field of 27, for a race that country…

Willie Mullins has farmed the New Year's Day feature in winning eight of the last 10 runnings, but Minella Indo's battling display in the hands of Rachael Blackmore ended the Closutton handler's five-year stranglehold on the Grade Three contest and gave Henry de Bromhead his second win in the race after Champagne West's success in 2017. Winner of…

Though still in its relative infancy, the two-day Dublin Racing Festival on Saturday and Sunday has become a huge part of the Irish jump-racing scene already. The Leopardstown meeting takes place in early February and has fast become an all-guns-blazing dress rehearsal for the Cheltenham Festival for some of Ireland's leading National Hunt…

Emerging forces and established stars of the Irish National Hunt scene are set to come out and play at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival. The four-day racing bonanza takes place between Monday, December 26 and Thursday, December 29 and it is set to offer plenty of clues ahead of the big spring meetings. We're sponsoring all seven races on the…

Ruby Walsh has offered his expert insight into the upcoming Cheltenham Festival with the legendary jockey expecting another thrilling week of action in England. Walsh is no stranger to Cheltenham having been the leading jockey 11 times at the Festival, nabbing 59 winners and twice racing to Gold Cup glory. And previewing the races, Walsh is backing…

Minella Indo and A Plus Tard, last year's first and second, top 30 entries for the Cheltenham Gold Cup - the highlight of the Festival meeting in March. Trained by Henry de Bromhead, the duo were separated by just a length and a quarter in 2021, but it is A Plus Tard who is the ante-post favourite at this stage after winning the Betfair Chase…

Conflated put himself firmly in the Cheltenham Gold Cup picture with a dominant success in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown. The Gordon Elliott-trained eight-year-old was a surprise winner of the Irish Gold Cup over the course and distance last season and went on to run well before falling two from home in Cheltenham's Ryanair Chase before pushing…

Home By The Lee proved his surprise victory at Navan last month was no fluke with a battling success in the Jack de Bromhead Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown. Joseph O'Brien's charge was a widely unconsidered 28-1 shot for the Grade Two Lismullen Hurdle in mid-November, but knuckled down to see off the strong-travelling Bob Olinger, with Ashdale…

The third day of the Leopardstown Christmas festival belonged to Gordon Elliott and Jack Kennedy, who landed a 101-1 treble courtesy of Sam's Choice, Maxxum and Conflated. Maxxum was cut to 4-1 (from 16) with Paddy Power for the Pertemps Final at Cheltenham after easily overcoming his rivals in the Pertemps qualifier. The five-year-old defied a…

Conflated put himself firmly in the Cheltenham Gold Cup picture with a dominant success in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown. The Gordon Elliott-trained eight-year-old was a surprise winner of the Irish Gold Cup over the course and distance last season and went on to run well before falling two from home in Cheltenham's Ryanair Chase before pushing…

Winner of the Irish Gold Cup here last season, the 2/1 favourite was always travelling sweetly towards the head of affairs and was in front two out. Jack Kennedy's mount was last off the bridle and he had this won some way out, drawing five lengths clear of Kemboy (18/5). His task was made easier when favourite A Plus Tard was withdrawn at…

2022-12-28Conflated in the Cheltenham Gold Cup picture after dominant win at Leopardstown The Gordon Elliott-trained eight-year-old was a surprise winner of the Irish Gold Cup over the course and distance last season and went on to run well before falling two from home in Cheltenham's Ryanair Chase before pushing Clan Des Obeaux close in the Bowl…

See below the latest Cheltenham Gold Cup 2023 betting odds after Bravemansgame wins the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, with his trainer Paul Nicholls saying he'll head straight to Cheltenham now. Plus, we've a stack of horse racing free bets you can claim to use on the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup, while the latest Gold Cup betting odds are…

Another busy afternoon of festive racing lies ahead on Wednesday, with five meetings taking place across the UK and Ireland. ITV Racing turns its attention to Ireland with four races from Leopardstown, including two Grade 1 contests, while there are also a couple of races from Leicester The broadcast on ITV4 is on air from 12.40-3.30pm and our…

There's another action-packed day of top quality National Hunt racing in front of the ITV Racing cameras and our in-house tipster Steve Chambers picks out his best bets from Leopardstown and Leicester on Wednesday afternoon... Reigning dual Stayers' Hurdle hero Flooring Porter will be a warm order for the Grade 1 Jack De Bromhead Christmas Hurdle,…

Get the most interesting trends and statistics from today's horse racing with the free Stat Selector. Smart Stat: 31% - W. P. Mullins's strike rate at LIMERICK since the start of the 2018/19 season Seabank Bistro overcame inexperience to make a winning debut in a bumper last season and was only nine lengths behind Facile Vega in the Champion Bumper…

Friday: Cheltenham Gold Cup, Cheltenham On a gleeful sun-kissed Cotswolds afternoon, Rachael Blackmore executed one of the most daring Gold Cup rides imaginable to avenge last year's narrow defeat and scale the sport's ultimate summit with an utterly mesmerising triumph on A Plus Tard. By the time they crossed the line, they had soared 15 lengths…

2022-12-28Wednesday Leopardstown top racing tip: Kemboy set to lead from the front in Savills Chase The market revolves around the short-priced favourite, A Plus Tard, who is rated 180, but who is able to race on level terms with opposition rated 151-168. However, he comes here under a cloud after pulling up as the odds-on favourite for last…

Racing tips for Wednesday come from Catterick, Leicester and Limerick, with the Christmas festival continuing at Leopardstown. talkSPORT have gone through the race cards and form so you don't have to, with betting tips on some of the biggest meetings in the UK. There's a story behind the Christmas Hurdle that will make it all the more special if…

Rachael Blackmore will be hoping to write another chapter in her incredible racing career as she gears up for this year's Grand National. The 32-year-old made history last year, becoming the first female to win the world's most notorious steeplechase with Minella Times and the duo are back this year to retain their crown. Fresh from her Cheltenham…