How To Bet £20 at Cheltenham on Friday

Good ground is on the cards for Cheltenham’s first fixture of the season on Friday and one who will relish such conditions is Calico in the £100,000 squareintheair.com Handicap Chase (2.25).

The Dan Skelton-trained eight-year-old had a couple of good tussles with Jonbon as a novice chaser the season before last – he memorably traded 1-3 in-running against him after a game of cat and mouse in the Kingmaker at Warwick – and it was a little surprising that he didn’t exploit what looked a fair rating switched to handicaps last season.

However, soft going was no use to him in half of his six races, while there were mitigating circumstances for his other defeats.

He certainly shaped like a horse ahead of his mark on a couple of occasions, including on his return at Cheltenham’s November meeting when he looked sure to win a competitive 2m handicap chase off the home turn only for the race fit Triple Trade to wear him down in the closing stages. He gets a 6lb pull with that rival on this occasion, plus meets him on better ground and on equal terms, as both will be having their first runs of the season this time.

Calico’s second over an extended 2m at Doncaster in late January, off a mark of 142, also needs marking up as he got hooked up in a speed duel at the head of affairs and easily fared best of those up with the pace. Perhaps predictably, the winner that day ended up coming from way off the pace.

You can put a line through his subsequent runs in the mud at Cheltenham and Chepstow in the spring, and he was probably feeling the effects of those contests when below-par at Kempton in May.

Calico is 4lb lower than at Doncaster and represents a yard firing home plenty of winners. I can’t imagine he will be short of peak fitness given the value of the race, and the likelihood he would have conditions in his favour, and he would not be winning out of turn at Cheltenham, having also been runner-up over hurdles on his reappearance at the Showcase meeting two years ago. The general 6-1 looks more than fair.

Matata and Dancing On My own are ahead of him in the market, but the former looks high enough in the weights after failing to make an impression at the big Festival meetings in the spring, while the latter is 3lb higher than when perhaps fortunate to spring a surprise in this race 12 months ago and has not exactly set the world alight in the interim.

The 19-runner Glenfarclas Amateur Jockeys' Handicap Chase (3.35) is the most competitive race on the card and I’m going to split my stakes on Strictlyadancer and Ceanndana.

Strictlyadancer won this race two years ago before following up at the November Meeting, plus was a close fourth in this contest 12 months ago when he did best of those trying to pounce from off the pace. He caught the eye when last off the bridle on his return at Chepstow, and he has used that meeting as a prep for this for the past two years.

Ceanndana is among the Irish raiders and has thrived on his racing over a variety of trips this term. His only defeat in his past four starts was inflicted by Hand Over Fist at Kilbeggan in August, and that horse has since won at Cork and is now rated 16lb higher.

Lee Shanahan has been attached to the yard of Ross O’Sullivan for six years and I’d imagine he has had a sit or two on Ceanndana. This will be his first ride at Cheltenham, but he’s looked tidy enough and takes 7lb off his back.

I’ve put the first race in the “too difficult” tray and am swerving the novices’ hurdle, while the other three races on the card feature favourites who look rock solid.

Path D’Oroux has easily the best form in the William Hill Top Price Guarantee Novices' Chase and is favoured by the weights, while the prolific Gale Mahler sets a very high standard for others to aim at in the Sky Bet Novices' Hurdle.

Ben Pauling has his team in good order and his Fiercely Proud should also take plenty of stopping in the Abu Dhabi Digital Markets Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle (4.45).

His form in graded hurdles last season, when he twice bumped into Lump Sum, suggests his mark of 129 is lenient, and that was even before Lump Sum (now rated 141) won the Welsh Champion Hurdle on his return this campaign.

Fiercely Proud didn’t fare badly in a hot handicap at Sandown in late April after a two-month break and this looks an easier assignment. In addition to being open to more improvement, he’s got Callum Pritchard easing his burden by 10lb.

It’s been a year since Pritchard had his sole success in the saddle but he went close on a 33-1 chance trained by Pauling at Kempton last weekend, plus was second on another of the stable’s runners at Southwell on Wednesday. He did little wrong on either occasion and is unlikely to be lacking in confidence. 

2.25 Cheltenham: Calico £2 win and £2.50 each-way at 6-1 with William Hill 

3.35 Cheltenham: Ceanndanna £2 each-way at a general 6-1 (all bookmakers going five places) 

3.35 Cheltenham: Strictlyadancer £2 each-way at a general 15-2 (all bookmakers going five places) 

4.45 Cheltenham: Fiercely Proud £5 win at 3-1 with William Hill 

£1.80 Win Yankee and a 20p win fourfold 

(general prices in brackets as a guide) 

1.50 Cheltenham: Path D’Oroux (11/10) 

2.25 Cheltenham: Calico (6/1) 

3.00 Cheltenham: Gale Mahler (8/11) 

4.45 Cheltenham: Fiercely Proud (3/1)