We Mark Your Card For Day One Of The Cheltenham Festival

I don’t normally start these articles with a brag, but I hope you read last week about my tips for the Players Championship and backed my tip, as if you had then you would have been celebrating an 18/1 winner as Justin Thomas duly romped to victory as I had predicted in that article last week.

This week, the focus for me is on the four days of fantastic racing action at the Cheltenham Festival, which begins today with Champions Day. We then have Ladies Day tomorrow, St Patrick’s Day on Thursday and lastly we finish with Gold Cup Day when the biggest race of the meeting, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is contested.

With that in mind and with this being one of the biggest horse racing meets of the season, I am going to go through Day One’s full race card and give you my tips for each of the seven races being contested today.

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Let’s now take a look through the card of Day One of the Cheltenham Festival giving you our tips for each of the seven races set to take place on what is designated as Champions Day.

Cheltenham Festival Day One Tips

There’s no such thing as a quiet start at Cheltenham, even with no crowds in attendance! The action comes thick and fast on the very first day of action starting with the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, followed by the Arkle Challenge. The big race of the day is the Champion. Hurdle and with three more quality races to round off Champions Day, it looks a fantastic day of racing lies ahead.

Let’s now take a look at the horses running and the ones we are going to back in each of the races taking place today.

1.20pm – Supreme Novices’ Hurdle

Although there are a smaller than usual number of runners in the Supreme Novices’ this year, it is still a very competitive race. Willie Mullins could be set to land his first winner of the festival with the unbeaten Appreciate It starting as the clear favourite in the race, although Metier is also unbeaten over the jumps too. They are the two class acts in the field with Ballyadam, Blue Lord and Soaring Glory perhaps the horses likely to be contesting the minor places.

Our Pick – A great race to start the festival off and I think Willie Mullins will bag his first winner’s trophy with Appreciate It here (4/5 with bet365).

1.55pm – Arkle Challenge Trophy

This was shaping up to be the race of the entire festival, but unfortunately one of the genuine contenders for this title, Energumene was not able to race. As such, this does leave us with a race that does look rather one sided with the quality horse of the field, Nicky Henderson’s Shishkin likely to dominate the race and land the victory. Expect Allmankind to make the running early but Shishkin’s quality will shine through by the end.

Our Pick – The absence of Energumene makes this one of the easiest races to tip of the festival. Shishkin should land the win here at 4/9 with bet365.

2.30pm – Festival Handicap Chase

There sixteen runners in this race, the first larger field of the meeting and it looks to be a very open race. There are few notable runners in this, Milan Native runs in this race after winning the Kim Muir last year and they should be a consideration, as should Harriet Graham’s Aye Right who is a tough competitor and has solid form, although hasn’t won this season. HappyGoLucky will likely start the race as the favourite for Kim Bailey after having won a race here in December and coming fourth in the Martin Pipe here last season. However, something tells me that this will be the race where the bookies are celebrating as we land a slightly longer odds winner.

Our Pick – Dan Skelton’s Alnadam is an intriguing option at 9/1 with bet365 Sport with two wins this season including last time out in February at Sandown.

3.05pm – Champion Hurdle

The big race of the day sees ten runners for the race but for me, there is one class act in the field and that is Henry De Bromhead’s Honeysuckle. Unbeaten over the jumps in its last nine races, the seven-year-old should stand a great chance of making it ten out of ten here. Epatante and Goshen will likely be the most likely to contend with Honeysuckle and Abracadabras could also run well, but in truth this does look like being one of the easier picks of the meeting.

Our Pick – This a nice easy one this. Goshen and Epatante have their merits, but unbeaten Honeysuckle is the horse to beat here and I would be hugely surprised if the seven-year-old doesn’t extend their winning record here at 11/8 with bet365.

3.40pm – David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle

A very competitive 11-horse field hits the starting post fr the David Nicholson this year including Roksana, the winner of this race in 2019 and fourth last year, but back in very good form over the last few months. However, it is likely that Dan Skelton’s runner will start as second favourite behind Willie Mullins Concertista who has impressed on its two outings this season winning both, as well as the final race of last season too. Dame De Compagnie cannot be ruled out and Black Tears looks an appealing each way bet but I think it is a showdown between the two favourites to decide this one.

Our Pick – This could well be a close one with Roksana really putting in some good performances this season, but Concertista is a quality option here and at 11/8 is the smart pick for me.

4.15pm – Boodles Juvenile Hurdle

With 22 runners, this looks like being one of the most open races of the festival. The field of four-year-olds has a number of exciting prospects including Cabot Cliffs, Busselton, Nssaalam, Rivier D’etel and Coltor. Homme Public and the somewhat appropriately named Sage Advice are another two that could well run well while Paul Nicholl’s runner Houx Gris will likely start favourite, especially given Nicholls fine record in this race over the years.

Our Pick – For me, this is the most open race of the opening day of Cheltenham this year and while Houx Gris seems to be the pick for many, I do fancy a longer odds winner with the excellent form of Nassalam at 18/1 making this a very good each way pick.

4.50pm – National Hunt Chase

There’s a dozen runners to finish the first day of action at Cheltenham in the National Hunt Chase. Paul Nicholls Next Destination seems to be the popular pick with punters after the horse has displayed excellent form over last season and also into this, winning its last two races. Snow Leopardesss, Remastered, Galvin, Lord Royal and Escaria Ten will likely provide the sternest test to the favourite in what should be a fine race to end the first day of action.

Our Pick – The smart money may be on Next Destination but Galvin’s four winning race form is hard to overlook here and at 10/3, I think this may be the pick here.