This time next week we're sure to be on the downer of all downers! It won't matter if you had the Cheltenham of your life or the Festival from hell, we will all be feeling the burn by next week! (unless the beer virus has finished us all off! 😷😱)
Whatever state I'm in come a week today I'm sure I'll have enjoyed the ride (despite my brain almost certainly being in the fried to hell stage!) and as always I'm excited to find out what the four days hold for me...
I've been burning the midnight oil like a good 'un over the past couple of weeks and today I'm sharing the last bit of free analysis with you guys, in the form of some trends digging for my nemesis that is the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle! (formerly Fred Winter).
I've done something very similar for you guys the last couple of years, just missing out on ultimate glory last year when my 33-1 shot COKO BEACH was gunned down after the last by BAND OF OUTLAWS.
The race is now one that appears on my 22 race schedule for full NTF Members but I still want to share the early analysis with you guy, it's becoming somewhat of a tradition 😁
In fairness it's probably one of the trickiest races to master over the 4 days, with six of the last eight winners returning at 25/1 (x2), 33/1 (x3) & 40/1.
In fact nine of the 15 winners have gone off at an SP of 14/1 or bigger.
No denying that when it comes to tricky Cheltenham Festival puzzles this one is bang up there!
I don't mind that though, in fact I relish it, especially when it's a race that is starting to look strong on the trends front.
The final decs for the race are through and the max field of 22 will go to post, so to cut that down to a manageable shortlist I used the following trends...
1 15/15 yet to run at track (0/67 those that had run at track)
2 15/15 didn't run in a maiden race LTO
3 14/15 DSLR 37 or less
4 14/15 top 2 finish 1 of last 3 starts
5 14/15 ran in a Non-Handicap Hurdle LTO
6 14/15 were rated OR 134 or less (1/66 rated OR 135+)
7 14/15 didn't wear a Tongue-Tie
8 13/15 no more than 3 hurdle starts