Cheltenham Festival Day One Betting Tips Part 2

The Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy is a Grade 1 contest with only seven in the mix this time around. Simonsig looks to be the prohibitive favourite here and he is easily one of the key festival bankers.

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Barry Geraghty will be in the irons again for the seven-year-old who has only lost once and that was a second place finish at Sandown back in 2011 in his first grade 2 novice hurdle effort. 

Simonsig is odds-on at 8/13 and looks fairly sharp to get the result here with Overturn really looking like the only genuine spoiler. For punters here, they’re just hoping that Simonsig retains the same form he’s shown in the past and Overturn doesn’t really improve that much. It could be a bit of a battle at the end but, with Simonsig’s price holding, it doesn’t look like the weather will put anyone off of him. 

It’s not a huge surprise that Our Mick gets some preferential treatment from punters in the JLT Specialty Handicap Chase, which is a Grade 3 effort. He is up there in the weights but is still looking like he’s in a comfort zone - expect a good performance from Donald McCain’s charge. He is currently ahead in the market at 5/1 and looks like he could get the job done. 

He unseated his rider in his only real recent effort and had been running well in past races at a level around this one. 

However, with a big field like this one it can always be a bit interesting. A number of talented handicap contenders are lining up here and are taking steps up in class. Pete The Feat has done well at lower levels, as has Mick Channon’s Loch Ba, but some seeking a real flyer would do alright to back long-shot Tullamore Dew - who hasn’t won in a while but really hasn’t been running that bad either. He gets miles of weight and will stay the trip. He looks sharp at 40/1 but will be even higher on the exchanges.