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We've asked Frankie for lessons on how to celebrate if our 900/1 shot comes off. ©INPHO/Action Images
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Five Steps to Heaven: Cheltenham Special

A five-horse accumulator at odds of nearly 900/1 – it couldn’t hurt to have a look, could it?

REGULAR VISITORS WILL be familiar with our Five Steps to Heaven column in which we try to guide you towards a healthy accumulator which you can use to put a down-payment on a Bugatti Veyron.

Seeing as everybody becomes a champion tipster at Cheltenham time, we figured it would be foolish to let the opportunity pass without having a stab ourselves. Welcome to the Five Steps to Heaven Cheltenham special …

1. The highlight of the first day of racing will be the Champion Hurdle (Today, 3:20). The race took an interesting turn over the weekend when defending champion Binocular was withdrawn, leaving this one wide open for any number of horses to win.

One of those with a genuine shout is the Donald McCain-trained Peddlers Cross. He’s unbeaten in seven starts, won the Neptune Hurdle at the Festival 12 months ago, and beat Binocular in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle earlier this year.

Those three stats give him an excellent chance in our book so we’ll take a punt on him at odds of 4/1.

2. Willie Mullins has a knack for training winners in the Neptune Hurdle (Tomorrow, 2:05), having won with Fiveforthree in 2008 and Mikael d’Haguenet in 2009.

So Young is one of at least three classy horses whom the Irish trainer is fielding this time around. The five-year-old has been pretty tasty on both of his starts this season, jumping excellently to win by a combined distance of 21 lengths.

It’s no surprise that he’s well backed but that won’t put us off including him at 11/4.

3. The RSA Chase (Tomorrow, 2:40) is one of the highlights of Wednesday’s card, but we reckon that there is one class act in the field and that’s Time for Rupert.

He was brilliant in finishing second to Big Buck’s in last year’s World Hurdle and he’s had two impressive wins since switching to fences earlier this season. His preparations haven’t exactly been ideal, but we’re sticking to our guns and including him at 9/4.

4. Ignore those who are telling you that Big Buck’s isn’t good enough to make it a hat-trick of wins in the World Hurdle (Thursday, 3:20). We think they’re wrong, to put it bluntly.

He may not have it all his own way, and he may not blow the field away – but this is a horse who is unbeaten in ten starts in 3m+ races over hurdles and who has shown nothing so far this season to suggest that he’s about to start losing any time soon.

His odds are as low as 11/10 for a reason. We’re in.

5. If by some amazing twist of luck, we manage to make it as far as the Triumph Hurdle (Friday, 1:30) with our bet still intact, we’re happy enough to let the whole lot fly or fall on Dermot Weld’s Unaccompanied.

Why? Well, we’re told she was good on the flat last year, and she’s certainly been impressive both times out this season – we caught her winning a Grade One very well at Leopardstown during the rearranged Gold Cup meeting.

On that basis (and the fact that we’re sure Weld will have a winner this week), we’re going with her at odds of 6/1.

Stake: €10

Returns: €8957.81

Once you’ve parted ways with your tenner, catch up with the rest of TheScore.ie’s Cheltenham coverage >