Gold Cup Betting Tips: Conflated can do it

The biggest race of the 2023 Cheltenham Festival is almost upon us. With now less than two days until the tape goes up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, we look at the race from a betting perspective and give you our best Gold Cup betting tips.

This year’s renewal looks a cracker. Normally, defending champions come in well fancied. However, the 2022 winner A Plus Tard is only rated as an 8/1 shot in the early betting, which suggests that there’s some strong new blood this time around. Let’s go through the race and see what we can find.

Cheltenham Gold Cup Betting Tips

This is where we’ll sift through the runners and provide out Gold Cup betting tips:

First things first, A Plus Tard returns to defend his crown. The nine-year-old won this race last season, despite not running for nearly three months before hand. However, this time around, his preparation seems to have been even worse. He was pulled up at Haydock in November and hasn’t been seen since. That makes winning this high-class race for the second year running seem like a very big ask indeed. Then again, he is the defending champion and he is trained by the imperious Willie Mullins, so we should still respect him.

Mullins could strike with another

Willie Mullins also trains the likely favourite, who is expected to be a very warm favourite indeed. Galopin Des Champs, unlike his stable mate, has had an ideal season preparation wise. He won comfortably at Punchestown in December, before powering clear in the Irish Gold Cup when upped to three miles. The extra two furlongs here shouldn’t worry him. Plus, we know he can handle this venue, despite his fall when clear at the last in the Turners last year. He’s an excellent chaser and a worthy favourite.

If you’re somebody who likes to take on the short ones in highly competitive races of this nature, then there are several to choose from. Bravemansgame for Paul Nicholls is another horse who has been well prepped for this contest. He looked in fine shape when winning the Charlie Hall Chase back in October. He followed that success up with an even stronger performance when bolting up in the King George on Boxing Day. That form is among the strongest in the race. However, he’s never won at Cheltenham and didn’t look all at home here back in 2021. He now needs to prove he can repeat that Kempton form on an undulating track.

Minella Indo returns for another crack at a race that he’s won and finished second in. Henry De Bromhead’s ten-year-old probably isn’t the same horse that he was when he ground out a win in this race under a great ride from Jack Kennedy back in 2021, but he did return to action with a win at Tramore in January and should still give his running.

The real eye-catcher for each-way backers might just be Conflated. The Gordon Elliott runner fell two from the finish when making what looked to be a sizable effort in the Ryanair last season. We’ll never know if we would’ve reeled in Allaho on that occasion, and even if he hadn’t, it was a solid effort.

Up in trip this season, the lightly raced chaser has produced some strong pieces of form. He impressed when he beat Kemboy at Leopardstown last time out. That was a comfortable win against a strong field, including not only Kemboy, but Galvin and Fury Road, who he seemingly made an easier job of beating than Galopin de Champs did last time out. That form in particular is interesting.

It’s 78 days since we last saw Conflated, but that probably speaks to Elliott’s belief that this horse is ready for a tilt at the biggest chasing prize of all. At odds of 14/1, he’s very easy to back each way.

Cheltenham Gold Cup Tip: Conflated each-way at 14/1