Cheltenham Festival is a matter of days away and ever since racing bettors and fans saw in the New Year, they have been scouring news reports and the columns of online betting tipsters to decipher which horses will have the best chance of taking down race wins, from the 15th till the 18th of March. Of course, things can change in the blink of an eye in racing, with an adverse weather report or a horse health update being enough to spook tipsters and oddsmakers alike.
Here are some of the most heavily backed horses at Cheltenham 2022, with some being backed due to punters thinking with their heads and others because the racing public have a soft spot for them.
Honeysuckle is fancied to romp to victory in the Champion Hurdle
Honeysuckle – Champion Hurdle
It’s tough to find any sort of value out there with odds providers or betting exchanges when it comes to Honeysuckle, because the horse is unbeaten in 14 starts.
The standout horse from Henry De Bromhead’s stable has a special relationship with jockey Rachael Blackmore and it is hard to see many people looking beyond the duo for the Champion Hurdle win.
Rachael Blackmore will once again be flying the flag for women jockeys everywhere as she looks to retain the Cheltenham lead jockey title that she won in 2021
Shishkin – Champion Chase
Shishkin is by no means a banker for betting punters, in the way that Novak Djokovic or PSG are in their respective sports, but the Nicky Henderson standout certainly does have the winning pedigree to go all the way in the Champion Chase. The 8-year-old has only ever been beaten twice, on his debut and once when he fell at Newbury back in 2019.
Since then, he has been flawless, which is the reason he will probably be odds-on to pip his main rival Energumene. The two horses last faced off at Ascot in January, with Shishkin winning by the one solitary length.
Tiger Roll – Cross Country Chase
This Gordon Elliott horse is a legend, having won the Aintree Grand National back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. The horse also has excellent form at Cheltenham, having won plenty of cross-country races there.
However, lots of punters may be plumping for the 12-year-old out of sheer nostalgia rather than evidence shown in recent results. This is because he has been missing in action, first at Aintree in December, and then at Navan in late January. It remains to be seen if this grand old horse has much left to give, but that won’t stop people piling money on him to roll back the years.