EACH YEAR, CERTAIN occurrences are inevitable at the Cheltenham Festival.
The Irish trainers will annihilate their English counterparts, massively fancied favourites will let everyone down and some punters will end up getting one over the bookies by clicking the most unlikely of multiples.
This edition was no different, with Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, et al racking up the winners ahead of Nicky Henderson and his compatriots.
Meanwhile, the likes of Apple’s Jade and Un De Sceaux failed to live up to their backing, and dockets were duly torn up in disgust in the stands at Prestbury Park.
And yet, for one Dublin-based punter, the latter’s under-performance was nothing short of a blessing….
The Good
Every time the festival rolls around, much attention is paid to the ongoing tussle between Irish and English trainers.
In truth, in recent years it hasn’t been much of a contest, with Ireland taking 19 of 28 winners in 2017 and 15 of 28 in 2016.
And in 2018, the pattern very much continued, with the Hibernian trainers winning the Prestbury Cup before day three was even done-and-dusted.
Fittingly, on St Patrick’s Thursday, ‘them across the water’ were left with just a single win from seven – with the fabled Elliott stable picking up three wins.
The Bad
It would be tempting to simply lump Henderson, Paul Nicholls and co into the ‘Bad’ category, but in fact the two biggest let-downs of the Festival – at least from a punter’s viewpoint – were Irish mounts.
Apple’s Jade was widely and strongly tipped to stroll to victory in the Mares’ Hurdle on Tuesday. Sadly for the thousands who backed her, young star Jack Kennedy couldn’t coax a win out of her, and she ended up a fairly limp third.
In the Ryanair Chase, punters’ favourite Un De Sceaux was outrun rather comprehensively by Balko Des Flos, albeit in mitigating circumstances with Ruby Walsh being unavailable to take the reins.
The failure of these two to win spared many a bookmaker’s blushes – and balance-sheets! – but left many bettors ruing their faith in the favourites.
The Lucky
Not so for one Dublin punter, however, who took home a cool €105,000 from a Trixie on Thursday.
This long-standing Paddy Power customer was rendered joyous after Willie Mullins’ 12/1 shot Penhill romped home in the Stayers Hurdle with Paul Townend on board.
Given that the bet had also required Balko Des Flos to pip Un De Sceaux to the post, there was certainly no disappointment that Townend hadn’t managed to ride to victory in the Ryanair.
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