How To Bet £20 ante-post on the 2024 Ryanair Chase

By Andy Stephens
Last Updated: Wed 3 Jan 2024
The first three big-race entries for the Festival were revealed on Tuesday afternoon and the common theme was Willie Mullins having the short-priced ante-post favourite for each of them. 
Galopin Des Champs is a best-priced 11/10 for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup after his demolition job in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas, while El Fabiolo, the outstanding two-mile novice chaser last season, is no bigger than 10/11 to land the Betway Champion Chase. And then there is Allaho, a standout 5/2 with Coral to become the first three-time winner of the Ryanair Chase. 
I’m in no hurry to take on the first pair, at least at this stage, but it’s a different story in the Ryanair as looks a bad favourite at such short odds. 
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That’s perhaps a strange thing to say about a horse who has trounced the opposition in the race on two previous occasions, winning by 12 lengths in 2021 and 14 lengths a year later. However, he’s not convinced me in his two races this term after returning from 18 months on the sidelines and looks priced up on his exploits in the past, rather than the present. 
Allaho didn’t have to be anywhere near his best when making all against two rivals on his belated slow-motion return at Clonmel in November and then folded late on when third in the King George VI Chase at Kempton after Shishkin’s dramatic exit between the final two fences seemed to have handed him the spoils. 
I can’t have lack of stamina being to blame for his late capitulation because the race wasn’t a severe test and, in any case, he’s got plenty of high-class 3m form in the book, with Exhibit A being his runaway Punchestown Gold Cup triumph in the spring of last year. 
Overall, the King George form looks shaky, and that’s without considering that Il Est Francais and Hermes Allen both recorded quicker times than the winner, Hewick, in the novices’ chase run over the same distance earlier in the afternoon. 
Hewick is an admirable staying chaser who has climbed the ranks in fairytale fashion, but a peak form Allaho would surely have turned him away, while Bravemansgame, who split the pair, had run a stone below his best form in his previous two races this term. 
makes appeal at 14/1 
The handicapper has lowered Allaho’s rating from 176 to 173, but I’m not sure that goes far enough. It could just be that his issues away from the track, not to mention 11 Grade One assignments, including when beaten in the Albert Bartlett and Brown Advisory at Cheltenham early in his career, have left a chink in his armour. 
Cheveley Park, the owners of Allaho, also have the defending champ, , in their Ryanair team, along with Sir Gerhard and Classic Getaway (33/1)
Sir Gerhard (50/1) has the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle as his long-term objective and, given that Cheveley Park usually like to split their horses up, there must also be a chance that three-time Festival winner Envoi Allen, a best-priced 10/1 to retain his crown, will be pointed towards the Gold Cup, assuming Allaho does not hit any bumps in the road between now and March 14. 
Touched off by Gerri Colombe in the 3m Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal on his latest run, he would have run in the Savills Chase over Christmas but for the ground turning heavy and I’d imagine his next assignment will be the Irish Gold Cup. Cheveley Park have no other horses engaged in the Gold Cup, with brilliant 2022 winner A Plus Tard not entered after his latest below-par run. 
At 10 years of age, it’s a case of now or never regards Envoi Allen taking his chance in chasing’s blue riband, the race he was bought in mind with six years ago for £400,000. 
One horse who seems sure to run in the Ryanair Chase, and who looks underestimated in the betting, is EDWARDSTONE, who makes plenty of appeal at the 14/1 offered by Unibet and Ladbrokes. 
The 2022 Arkle winner enhanced his reputation when running away with the Tingle Creek Chase later in the year and was unlucky not to land the Clarence House Chase, run at Cheltenham, early in 2023. 
He was clearly not right when trailing home fifth in last year’s Champion Chase but has got back on track this term by chasing home Jonbon in both the Shloer Chase and the latest running of the Tingle Creek, even if those defeats show he is now vulnerable against younger rivals over 2m. 
Alan King, his trainer, had already been entertaining the notion of upping him in trip before his latest Sandown reverse, but let him defend his crown when the Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon (scheduled to be staged 24 hours after the Tingle Creek) looked like it might be lost to the elements, which it eventually was. 
Edwardstone would still be capable of running well in the Champion Chase, for which he’s also entered, but it’s clear that Jonbon, three years his junior, has his measure, and then there’s another formidable younger foe in El Fabiolo to overcome. It makes sense to explore new opportunities. 
He has long hinted he will be effective over further, in keeping with his pedigree and early career when he was fully effective over two-and-a-half miles over hurdles, and moving up in trip looks the obvious way to go. King, who landed the 2015 Ryanair with Uxizandre, even had him entered in the King George until the five-day stage, which shows his thought process. 
Edwardstone certainly wouldn’t be the first “two-miler” to excel when given the opportunity to express himself over further. 
In the past decade, Cue Card, Vautour, Uxizandre, Un De Sceaux, Min and Envoi Allen had all shown top-class form over 2m before taking the Ryanair crown. The echoes with Un De Sceaux and Min, in particular, are striking. 
Edwardstone has slipped from a rating of 170 to 164 in the past 12 months, but it would be no surprise if he found longer trips liberating. Envoi Allen had a rating of 163 before his victory last year. 
He’s pencilled in for the Coral Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton on Saturday week and, should he impress there, you can expect his Ryanair odds to tumble. 
How To £20 ante-post on the Ryanair Chase 
£10 win on Edwardstone at 14/1 with Unibet and Ladbrokes, plus £5 each-way with the same firms (a fifth of the odds, three places). William Hill go 10/1 non-runner-no-bet if you want a safety blanket. 
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