LET’S PUT STOP TO ANTE-POST GUESSING GAME
IF you still place ante-post bets on the Cheltenham Festival, you’re either a masochist or the best-connected person in horseracing.
Wagering in advance of the meeting, which since 2016 serves up 28 races, has never been more fraught with danger.
So many horses have alternative options over the four days and as a result punters frequently suffer the agony of backing the right horse — in the wrong race.
Take Vroum Vroum Mag. As of just 24 hours ago, Willie Mullins’ (right) mare had six — yes, SIX — entries, ranging from the Champion Hurdle to the Gold Cup.
While she could be backed at 33-1 for the Gold Cup and 14-1 for the Champion Chase, Vroum Vroum Mag was on offer at single-figure odds for her other four alternatives, meaning the layers didn’t have a clue, either.
Vroum Vroum Mag’s versatility in mixing hurdles and fences makes her an extreme example.
But the fact remains it’s rare to back a horse two months before Cheltenham and know that — unless injury intervenes — you’ll get a run for your money. If ante-post betting on Cheltenham isn’t to go the way of the dodo and the diplodocus, something needs to be done. How about placing a restriction on the number of entries that can be made for a single horse? If you are limited to two choices for a five-year-old male novice hurdler — he can’t run races for juveniles or females — you might choose to nominate the (two-mile) Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the (two-and-a-half-mile) Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle. If your charge discovers unforseen reserves of stamina in the interim — in other words, he gets passed by snails on the gallops — you can pay a premium to supplement for the (three-mile) Albert Bartlett closer to the time. This way, at least connections have to think in advance about where they plan to go rather than forcing those who bet on — and therefore fund — the sport to indulge in an interminable guessing game. Of course, a change would mean British racing would place punters’ interests on a par with those of racehorse owners. Given its track record, I’m not holding my breath.