Raceolly's Cheltenham Handicap Tips Part 2: Check out his best bets for Thursday and Friday at the Festival

Our tipster Raceolly is back with more Cheltenham tips and have produced his Cheltenham handicap tips for days one and two of the festival, he's back with his selections for the last two days of the meeting. Check out some eye-catching handicap selections here...

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Pertemps Final - 16th March - Green Book

Previous winners and placed horses in this tend to come from all over, but one of the most common routes is from Chepstow and Leopardstown and they particularly stand out. Those that made their last start at Chepstow have a 30% place rate (six places from 20 runners) in this and Leopardstown has a 40% place rate (17 from 43) which is interesting when looking at which qualifiers are best to concentrate on. Bangor, Carlisle and Clonmel all have 100% place rates but are very rarely used as a prep run for this with the highest amount of runners coming from one of them tracks reading just two.

David Pipe's Thanksforthehelp hits near every trend and came from a qualifier in Chepstow and has a huge chance in this on that run. David Pipe has had two previous winners from 25 runners and has a 24% place rate with those runners. He is priced accordingly though and could well be a better price on the day. The current favourite is Shoot First for Charles Byrne who’s 0-2 in this and horses off the back of a break longer than 90 days before this are 0-41. Surprisingly a prep at Cheltenham before coming here is not ideal on stats and trends either so I’d be willing to take the favourite on despite that he’s clearly improving and from a very shrewd yard.

Young unexposed horses are usually the ones to follow in this with six-year-olds being the winning most age and five-year-olds having the best place strike rate despite only having one winner. So six-year-olds who’ve previously run at Chepstow or Leopardstown (Thanksforthehelp really is looking good ain’t he) is the most likely winner but what about trainers? Gordon Elliott has a great strike rate in this boasting a 44% place rate after seven places from 16 runners and has had the most winners in the last 25 years with three, joint with Jonjo O’Neill, Nigel Twiston Davies and David Pipe just behind with two winners. Venetia Williams has a good place strike rate in this (27%) and has a six-year-old entered who won a qualifier at Sandown. He finished 5th in last season's Albert Bartlett, made more remarkable by the fact he was found to have ataxia after the race and had lost both hind shoes.

Horses coming from Haydock to run in this is by far the most common route over the years and does have the most winners with four but 110 horses have run with 17 placing. While Thanksforthehelp is the best bet when it comes to a winner for this it’s well worth a bet on GREEN BOOK at a much bigger price at this point in time.

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Plate Handicap Chase - 16th March - Fil Dor & Frero Banbou

FIL DOR has entries all over the place and is a tricky one to judge giving he's entered over both fences and hurdles and many people indicating that he may go to the Coral Cup, but if he were to stick to his novice chasing campaign and step up in trip that he’s been crying out for and came here then he’d be very much of interest. He finished a good 2nd in last season's Truimph Hurdle behind Champion Hurdle fancy Vauban and he’s currently the only five-year-old with an entry in this and only seven in the last 25 years have run, but two of them placed with one winning. Gordon Elliott has had eight runners in this for for places and Irish horses have won four of the last seven renewals after a 30 year losing run.

Coole Cody was a proper trends buster last year but he did become the third 11-year-old winner, but returning at 12 is a tricky one with horses 12 years and older 0-15 for two places and he’s have to be a bigger trend breaker than last year to win again. Paul Nicholls is 0-32 for just three places in this and he has a few of the fancied runners this time around which would be ones to avoid for me especially at single figure prices.

There’s one that catches the eye from the Venetia Williams yard (again I know) and that’s FRERO BANBOU, the yard have a good record in this with three winners, nine places from 29 runners and so do eight-year-olds from a massive pool of 134 runners, 33 have placed and the horse ran a huge race in last season's Grand Annual having become detached early on, he flew home to finish a good 3rd behind one that led through out and the well fancied favourite. He’s another that’s been crying out for a step up in trip having raced no further than 2m 1f, one previous runner had a similar profile and placed.

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County Hurdle - 17th March - Monviel

The younger horses have a great win record in this winnings 18 of the last 25 renewals with five-year-olds winning 12 and having a 18% place rate from 163 runners. This is one race that Gordon Elliott does not have a good record in as he’s 0-22 with just two places and instead he lets Dan Skelton, Willie Mullins and Paul Nicholls do particularly well.

Philip Hobbs catches the eye from a place point of view also despite only having one winner he’s sent out 10 places from his 35 runners. Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins both have a few five-year-olds entered which will be worth a look but Hobbs has just the one entry at a big price who comes from the proven route of Betfair Hurdle to this and that’s MONVIEL. Horses that came from Newbury before running in this have a 20% place rate and horses rated between 128 and 132 have placed 19 times from 96 runners, a 20% place rate also. Monviel easily won at Ascot on seasonal debut after a 251-day break before finishing 5th in the ultra competitive Betfair Hurdle which wasn’t run to suit and a mistake three out didn’t help his cause. He hits a lot of the trends being a second season novice and looks a good each way option with this is only festival entry.

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Gigginstown have a particularly eye-catching record in this with nine at least placing from 16 runners and whilst it’s always been a thought to check the David Pipe runners in his father's race he’s actually 0-23 for just one place so nothing there sadly. Of those that have regularly runners in this Gordon Elliott has a good record with 33% of his 27 runners placing and Nicholls has 25% of his 24 runners placing but the stand out eye catcher is Joseph O’Brien in recent years who’s had seven runners with four placing, two of those winning. He has two entered for this in Bella Scintilla and San Salvador both at big prices although none for Gigginstown sadly but still worth a look in to with his record here.

This is the 15th running of the race and from the previous 14 runnings four five-year-olds and eight six-year-olds have won. No horse older than seven has won and only two of the 60 runners have even placed so it's worth looking at seven and younger which both of Joseph O’Brien's horses qualify in that. Bella Scintilla has ran well here before finishing 3rd in October behind Pied Piper but he went to Punchestown for his last run before coming here just like San Salvador, but none of the previous 10 horses to come from Punchestown here have won and only one placed.

From the other trainers to watch in this Paul Nicholls will be without Hacker Des Places and instead relies on two five-year-olds in Irish Hill and Iceo but Irish Hill coming from Ascot is a big negative with horses coming from that route 0-19 for just one place but Sandown is a better place to come here from with 26% of them placing which favours Iceo. He went off 15/8 for last season's Triumph Hurdle Trial here and made his handicap debut after a 315 day break and only gets a 1lb raise up the handicap for that 2nd place finish. Had a little break since that run and horses running off the back of a break between 61-90 days have a 20% place rate although only one has won, a 2% win rate.

Ideally we’re looking for a six-year-old, on the back of a 31-60 day break, owned by Gigginstown and trained by Gordon Elliott which leaves COOL SURVIVOR, he’s coming from a run at Leopardstown where 38% of runners who done so have placed. This is his handicap debut after running in a Grade 1 last time and coming from a Graded hurdle race before winning this has been a regular trend with only one of the last nine not coming from a Graded hurdle before winning this.