Ben’s Cheltenham Festival Preview Week 3

After previewing the highlights of day 1 during the last couple of weeks this week’s betting blog will be looking forward to the highlight of day 2 which is the Queen Mother Champion Chase. This race is run over 2 miles and is always a great spectacle to see the fastest 2 mile chasers both sides of the Irish Sea doing battle.

Even though this year’s race features the last two winners of the race in Big Zeb and Sizing Europe, to me it appears to be a sub-standard renewal with no real strength in depth. Currently these two aforementioned horses head the ante-post market with Sizing Europe trading at around the 2/1 mark and Big Zeb at 4/1. It’s 6/1 bar which brings in Finians Rainbow but the horses immediately behind these three in the betting all have other targets at the festival and it is very hard to envisage any other horse bustling up the front three.

This year both the front two have returned in fine fettle with Sizing Europe winning the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown in fine style and Big Zeb winning over Christmas at the big Leopardstown meeting. This form is head and shoulders above anything else in the race and, as good a horse that he is, I cannot see Finians Rainbow being able to bustle the front two.

The two Irish superstars have both taken it in turns to beat each other over the last couple of years and at the current prices I would be eager to have a major E.W. bet on Big Zeb at 4/1 as I can’t see it being out of the frame and has an excellent chance of winning the race.

Ben’s Big Bet

5pts Each Way Big Zeb at 4/1