By Bill Esdaile
TRAINER Willie Mullins has what looks a vice-like grip on this year’s Cheltenham Festival.
Bookmakers make the Closutton-handler a best-priced 1/10 to finish the week as top trainer and odds-on to end up with 10 or more winners.
That seems about right when you consider he is responsible for six of the seven favourites on the opening day alone.
The obvious alternative is to side with his stable jockey Paul Townend to pick-up top rider honours and if short prices are your bag, then you can get 1/3 with Star Sports.
However, the Mullins team tend to hunt in packs for every race and hoover up a fair few prizes with supposed second, third and fourth strings.
A more appealing market looks the top pilot gong without Townend and the betting is currently headed by Jack Kennedy who is stable jockey for Gordon Elliott.
He is as short as 6/4 with Betfred and its clear to see why with the likes of Firefox, Found A Fifty, The Goffer and Irish Point on the opening day alone.
When you consider he also has Delta Work, Teahupoo and Brighterdaysahead to come, he may just be clear second best.
I’m happy to take him on, though, as Mark Walsh has a really strong book of rides for owner JP McManus all week and can be backed at 3/1 with bet365.
He opens up with two favourites in Mystical Power and Meetingofthewaters on the opening day, before partnering a couple more on day two, including odds-on Fact To File in the Brown Advisory.
He’s likely to have plenty of decent rides in the handicaps throughout the week and finishes off with the odds-on Dinoblue on Friday.
POINTERS
Mark Walsh 3/1 Top Festival Jockey w/o Paul Townend
