Posts Tagged ‘inglis drever’

Big Bucks

It’s Hennessy Gold Cup weekend and we have a feast of quality jumps action and we have a feast of quality jumps racing to get our teeth into. At Newbury, as well as the Hennessy itself, there is also the Long Distance Hurdle and over at Newcastle there should be some Champion Hurdle clues from the Fighting Fifth.

Saturday’s action comes from Fairyhouse, Kempton, Newbury, Newcastle, Towcester, Wexford and there is an evening meeting at Wolverhampton.

There are 7 live races on Channel 4, the 2.05, 2.40, 3.15 and 3.45 from Newbury, the 3.00 and 3.30 from Newcastle, and the 4.00 from Kempton.

If you back the winner of a live Channel 4 race at 4/1 or bigger, Bet365 will give you a free bet of up to £50 on the following Channel 4 race. This is a great offer for all you Saturday armchair punters.

The Hennessy Gold Cup is obviously the highlight of the day with Old Roan Chase winner Knowhere taking on the likes of Air Force One and Big Bucks. It looks a very wide open contest but I’ll be siding with Tom George’s Island Flyer getting lumps of weight from most of the fancied runners.

Just as interesting a contest is the Long Distance Hurdle which sees Cheltenham hero Inglis Drever make his seasonal reappearance. He faces old rival Blazing Bailey as well as the unbeaten Pettifour. I’d struggle to split the 3 of them, Inglis could find it hard to dominated the way he has in previous years, Blazing Bailey is difficult to get a handle on and throws in the odd poor performance for no apparent reason and Pettifour has a bit to find but is open to improvement. Probably a race to sit back and enjoy unless you have a strong opinion.

Scoop 6 News

The Scoop 6 was finally won last week by a syndicate headed by racing pundit Peter Naughton. There were 8 winning tickets in total and this week the winners go for the £1,529,525 bonus fund. It’s back to a regular pool this week but it may be bigger than normal off the back of the publicty gained over the last few weeks.

The Scoop 6 races are as follows;
2.05 Newbury
2.25 Newcastle
2.40 Newbury
3.00 Newcastle
3.15 Newbury
3.45 Newbury

You can normally get 10% cashback on your Scoop 6 bets with both Skybet and BlueSq. Both bookmakers also offer new clients a free bet. The Tote are offering 5% cashback.

Weekend Bookmaker Offers
VC Bet
Applies to the Hennessy Gold Cup, 2.40pm Saturday at Newbury

If your selection FALLS , VCbet will refund your losing stake as a free bet on Sunday’s racing!

Sportingbet
If your horse falls in any C4 televised race -
We’ll refund your stake!

Weekend Horse Racing Resources
Horse Racing Tips - Get all the hottest tips on the Hennessy and the Long Distance Hurdle from our horse racing tips forum.

Scoop 6 - Use our Scoop 6 guide to win a life changing amount of money!

Hennessy Gold Cup Free Bet - Get a £25 free bet on the Hennessy Gold Cup from Ladbrokes

Good luck and Happy Punting,

Mabbs

The World Hurdle has been dominated by Inglis Drever for the last few years. He’s won 3 of the last 4 renewals and would probably have made it a clean sweep with the 2006 race had he taken part!

2008 was a Cheltenham of trend busting and Inglis Drever continued this…trend! In winning he became the first horse to land three World Hurdles and cement his place as a Cheltenham Festival legend.

The 2009 World Hurdle could see Inglis Drever make it four victories in the race. There was talk of retirement after win number three but trainer Howard Johnson feels his charge is as good as ever. Currently a 3/1 chance in the ante post market, bookmakers obviously don’t think the horse’s age is catching up with him.

This year’s race saw the very classy Kasbah Bliss make Inglis fight all the way to the line. A Group 3 winner on the flat, Kasbah Bliss holds every chance in the 2009 renewal. He showed a lot of improvement from his 5th place in the 2007 race and is for me the horse to beat at next years festival, especially if he gets a bit better ground. Tranier Francois Doumen certainly knows how to win a World Hurdle, having guided Baracouda to victories in 2002 and 2003. If Inglis dosen’t take part, 3/1 might look big come race day.

It seems like Blazing Bailey has been around forever but he is still only a six year old. He’s just come up short in the race the last couple of years, finishing 3rd in 2007 and 4th in 2008. He is a very frustrating horse because he is capable of winning a World Hurdle as his win in both long distance hurdle races at Aintree and Punchestown, after the Cheltenham Festival, demonstrate. He also beaten Inglis Drever on more than one occasion. I’m sure he’ll win at least one of the big stayer’s hurdle races this season but I doubt it will be the World Hurdle if I’m honest. His quote of 6/1 probably won’t be much different come the Festival.

Kazal put up a career best performance to finish 3rd in this year’s race. While I backed him ante post at big odds last time, I couldn’t recommend him at 12/1 or thereabouts for next year’s race. He just doesn’t look quite up to winning a top quality Grade 1 race for me and that 3rd place World Hurdle finish is likely to be the pinnacle of his career.

While Elusive Dream won five times for Paul Nicholls last season, I never really took to him. His best performance was beating Whiteoak in the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree but I don’t think he’s up to winning a World Hurdle. The 12/1 on offer holds no interest for me at all.

Out of last season’s novices possibly having a crack at the World Hurdle, the one I like best is the Nigel Twiston Davies trained Pettifour. He’s won his three starts over hurdles to date and finshed the season in style with victory in the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree. Pettifour is currently a 16/1 shot which looks a decent price to me and worth an e/w bet.

2009 World Hurdle Betting - Odds on the 2009 World Hurdle.

2009 World Hurdle Trends - World Hurdle statistics and trends.

2009 World Hurdle Tips - Tips for the 2009 World Hurdle at Cheltenham.