Tuesday Late Line: Cheltenham Tips For The Last 2 Races On Day 1
Two bets for the races at Cheltenham on Tuesday which take place after the terrestrial cameras stop rolling.
The last two races on each day of the Cheltenham Festival will not be shown on terrestrial television, but they include some of the best betting races of the whole week. Here is how to play the last two races on Tuesday, the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle and the National Hunt Challenge Cup.
4.50 Cheltenham - Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
Only the most precocious need apply in this juvenile handicap, and normally that means turning attention to France where horses are sent jumping at a younger age.
It is rare to have an actual French-trained horse in the race, though, which makes Milan Tino a bit of a curiosity. He was third in a Grade 2 at Auteuil in October from which the first, second, fourth and fifth finished first, second, third and fourth in the same order in a Grade 1 next time.
Meanwhile, Milan Tino came across to Britain to contest Grade 2s at Cheltenham. He has been third both times, the first time running into Burdett Road and the second behind that same horse and Sir Gino, the latter now being the favourite for the Triumph Hurdle.
Milan Tino now enters handicap company, a much easier task in general and certainly so when your rating is 126 (Sir Gino is rated 19lb higher). He is surely better than that and may be able to prove it in a bigger field which provides an end-to-end gallop.
Also worth considering in the race are Liari, a useful horse on the Flat in France who is three from three since joining Paul Nicholls, and at huge odds An Bradan Feasa who finished ahead of Milan Tino in November and has done his bit for the form since.
5.30 Cheltenham - National Hunt Challenge Cup
This race has become a bit of a shadow of its former self in terms of field size. Runner counts in the mid-to-high teens were standard until the start of this decade, but the last three runnings have come to six, ten and now seven runners.
Smaller fields bring different opportunities to punters. In this race, both the first and second favourites will wear hoods. Normally, hoods are deployed to help horses to settle and not waste too much energy early on. Embassy Gardens and Corbetts Cross wearing the headgear likely speaks of connections’ doubts over their stamina.
There will be no such concerns about Mr Vango, who won a handicap over this distance last time by 60 lengths. That was in deep ground, so the prospective softer conditions here will pose him no problems but he does need to improve.
He is therefore second choice behind Kilbeg King, who shapes like he will thrive for a test of stamina. His last two runs among top novices have not provided that. He was set plenty to do behind the impressive Il Est Francais at speedy Kempton on Boxing Day and then in the Reynoldstown at Ascot last time they finished faster than typical for the track.
Kilbeg King would still have won the Reynoldstown but for fiddling the last fence. He has the profile of an old-school winner of this race, the sort of horse who would go on to run well in a Scottish Grand National or similar later in the spring.
