Denman Holding at 4/1 in Hennessy Gold Cup Betting

Denman’s price is still yet to take the dramatic drop that many punters predicted as the 2010 Hennessy Gold Cup is set to run at Newbury this Saturday.

Expect plenty of volume on this one as the weekend’s other main feature, the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, will be rescheduled due to snow at Newcastle.

The Tank comes in, top-weighted as usual, carrying a 4/1 price which still offers up a fair amount of value for a horse with so much proven ability. The real issue that some punters are having is that he hasn’t actually won a race in a while but you seldom get to back a contender of this quality at this type of a price. With Weird Al predicted to provide some serious competition for Paul Nicholls’ charge, it seems to be giving Denman backers the opportunity to lock in bets at a very enticing price.

Weird Al deserves respect but is looking strongly like an underlay by the bookies. He has only won a single graded contest and that was a tame Grade 2 at Wetherby against a forgettable field of four when he was sent off as the 5/4 co-favourite. He finished in a dead-heat to Little Josh last time out at Carlisle and it really just comes down to the fact that he hasn’t tangled with any horse near Denman’s level. At 10/1 you’d say he’d be worth a bash, but certainly not at this 5/1 price.

Finishing fourth in the Grand National is nothing to sneeze at and that’s one of the main references for Ferdy Murphy’s Big Fella Thanks. He was just beaten last time out at Carlisle to Hey Big Spender on his seasonal debut and he likely needed the race.

He took the Grade 3 Greatwood Gold Cup Handicap over the Newbury surface earlier this year and has demonstrated plenty of acumen at several distances so his versatility brings a little extra into the reckoning. 14/1 looks decent but if there’s anything resembling a drift, you’d do well to be on board this one as a possible spoiler.

Speaking of possible spoilers, the likes of Madison Du Berlais and Carruthers could really prove to be the main options if you’re looking for an outside bet. Both have won at this level but will likely need to dig very deep to get it. If there’s any errors from the top contenders then you could definitely see these two capitalizing.

The real mystery in the Hennessy appears to be Pandorama, who has been laid off since a win at Leopardstown just under a year ago. At 8/1 you can see that he’s taking some money and it will be very interesting to see what type of price he goes off at for this one.