What a strange season this has been.
Horse racing
Get ready for yet another top weekend of National Hunt racing.
Last Saturday belonged to the Tizzard team and the brilliant Cue Card, who is down to 8/1 with Sky Bet to win the Gold Cup.
Bobs Worth is out to 5/1 having been beaten out of sight but any regular reader of this column will know I think he's virtually unbeatable round Cheltenham. However, that performance on Saturday did concern me as I think the brutal nature of the 2013 Gold Cup may be taking its toll. Haydock was never going to be Bobs Worth's track but that was still a lacklustre performance.
Long Run was involved in the epic battle at Cheltenham and has looked a shadow of his former self in two runs this season. The Giant Bolster was fourth in the Gold Cup and never went a yard at Haydock. Sir Des Champs was out on his feet up the Cheltenham hill in March. He re-appears in the John Durkan next weekend and it will be fascinating to see if he has recovered his mojo. He could be one to oppose on the day.
Ed's backing Highland Lodge in the Hennessy Gold Cup. Bet now
This time last year Bobs Worth won the Hennessy Gold Cup in superb style. We have been so spoilt in the race in recent years, especially during the Denman years. There don't look to be any superstars in this year's field but it still looks a fiercely competitive renewal.
I fancy Emma Lavelle's Highland Lodge to run a big race at 10/1 with Sky Bet. This time last year Highland Lodge was one of the few Lavelle horses to be running well and looked like a top-class chaser in the making. However, like most of the yard's horses, the wheels came off from there. As a result lots of Lavelle horses are nicely handicapped this season and the yard is flying.
On his reappearance last month Highland Lodge had an impossible task trying to give Standing Ovation 26lbs round a speed track like Wincanton. The Hennessy test will be right up his street and if he gets in to a rhythm up front he'll be very hard to pass. Highland Lodge looks a rock solid each-way bet.
My other weekend wishes are that My Tent Or Yours and Jezki announce themselves as serious Champion Hurdle contenders. The former should be unbeatable round flat tracks this winter, while the latter is my fancy to win the big one in March.
Tipster
I also hope to go well in Sky Bet's
Hennessy Tipping Competition. For a football presenter it's just an honour to take part alongside racing luminaries like David Ord, the shock winner of the competition last year, Graham Cunningham, Lydia Hislop, Nick Luck et al.
When Sky Bet priced me up at 10/1 to win I assumed there was a zero missing. I was then even more surprised to learn I'd been backed in to 8/1 joint-favourite!
Like a trainer would say on learning about a gamble on their charge before a big handicap, I have no idea where that money came from. I just hope I don't come last like last year!
You can follow the competition here.
