2010 CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL BANKERS ARE KAUTO STAR, BIG BUCK’S, MASTER MINDED AND DUNGUIB

We’re less than two weeks away from the biggest jumps festival of the year as the best of the best from the National Hunt come together at Cheltenham to put on an incredible show. We all expect the Cheltenham roar to be bigger and better this year as plenty of fantastic money-making opportunities are available out there. Today, we’ll be examining some of the big favourites and putting together a few multiplier bets to see us through to the final day.

Currently, the four 2010 Cheltenham bankers are Big Buck’s (World Hurdle), Dunguib (Supreme Novices Hurdle), Master Minded (Queen Mother) and the legendary Kauto Star (Cheltenham Gold Cup). You can take all four of them together at William Hill for a price of 8/1, which works out to be a slightly better price than backing them all individually. Each of these selections are currently trading at odds-on prices.
You can also take Kauto Star, Big Bucks and Master Minded to all win at a 9/2 price tag- basically backing a treble for Paul Nicholls charges to all defend their titles.
If you’re really looking to get some betting action going with these top four bankers, you can try to predict who is going to have the biggest winning distance between them. Master Minded is the current betting favourite at a 7/4 price and he looks a step above his Queen Mother Champion Chase competition. His closest competition are Kalahari King and Twist Magic- both talented jumpers but if Master Minded has an error-free run it will be difficult to top him. Kauto Star trades at 5/2 to win his race by the biggest distance of the top four bankers, but his win-by-a-nose victory over Imperial Commander sort of puts me off this one a bit- although you have to admit he more than redeemed himself with that 36 length victory in the King George. Dunguib is 11/4 to win by the biggest distance while Big Bucks trades at 5/1.
You can also back all four of them to be beaten at a 20/1 price.
There is also an aggregate winning distance market for the whole festival with 95-120 lengths being the favoured outcome at 6/4. Under 95 lengths, effectively backing a number of close races, pays out at 13/8 while over 120 lengths rewards at 15/8.
If you want to get into the specifics on Kauto Star’s potential victory margin at Cheltenham, he seems favoured to win by over four lengths. You’ll find him to win by between 4-10 lengths or over 10 lengths at 4/1 apiece. If he wins by between 2 and 3.75 lengths you’re looking at 10/1 while 1-1.75 lengths is at 12/1 and under 1 length is 14/1.