Weekend Review: Favourites fumble at Cheltenham ahead of Geordie glory

With the Cheltenham Festival having come to a close on Friday, during a week complete with sun, snow and rain, the bookies came out on top after a host of favourites fell.

Kicking off on Tuesday, 4/6 favourite Kopek Des Bordes took the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, setting up fears of a blow for the layers with other odds-on runners due to race that day.

However, Majborough (1/2) failed to deliver in the Arkle, leaving 5/1 Jango Baie to storm through. And while 4/6 Lossiemouth won the Mares’ Hurdle comfortably, a fall from Constitution Hill (1/2) in the Champion Hurdle took thousands of accas with him.

Adding to that, with State Man (8/1) clear and seemingly romping home, he too fell, allowing Golden Ace (25/1) to take the win.

Wednesday’s Champion Chase saw favourite Jonbon (5/6) fail to light up proceedings, with Marine Nationale (5/1) emerging on top.

Fact To File (6/4) got the win as the favourite in the Ryanair Chase on Thursday, but Teahupoo (7/4) was upended by Bob Olinger (8/1) in the Stayers’ Hurdle to once again leave bookies beaming.

And on Friday, the opening Triumph Hurdle went the way of 100/1 shot Poniros before Galopin Des Champs (8/13) failed to win the Gold Cup, in what would have been an historic three-peat.

Instead, the Gavin Cromwell-trained Inothewayurthinkin (15/2) surged to win, eventually taking the victory by six lengths.

Betfred’s Alan Firkins said: “Cheltenham was beyond exciting last week, and with a succession of supposed ‘good things’ falling, often quite literally, by the wayside the layers certainly had the better of the exchanges with punters.

“Revenge perhaps in a few weeks’ time at Aintree? Crowds were down, but the action was as riveting as ever.

“Ireland took the spoils over Great Britain by 20 races to eight, while Willie Mullins took 10 of them himself. He’s absolutely exceptional; in a class of his own.”

Bet365’s Steve Freeth said the operator had finished the week “well”, but that positive momentum was hindered by football results going against the firm.

Newcastle (7/2) ended 70 years’ of hurt on Sunday as they beat 3/4 Liverpool 2-1 in the Carabao Cup final, with Dan Burn and Alexander Isak goals enough despite a late Federico Chiesa strike.

The cup final loss for Liverpool means the Reds only have the Premier League left to fight for, having been dumped out of the Champions League by PSG mid-week.

Freeth said: “It wasn’t that long ago we were fretting over our 1,500/1 Liverpool quadruple liabilities, but in the space of five weeks we’ve seen that dream whittled down to one remaining piece of silverware – and with Salah having an off day at Wembley, it was a final to remember for both bookmakers and Newcastle fans.”

In the Premier League, Manchester City’s (4/5) stuttering season continued with a 2-2 draw at home to Brighton (5/1), while Arsenal (3/4) won 1-0 against Chelsea (7/2) to close the gap on Liverpool to 12 points.

A 2-0 win for Fulham (29/20) at home to Spurs (9/5) kept the West London side’s European dream alive in what was another positive result for the layers.

Firkins said: “Newcastle deservedly won their first major domestic trophy since 1955, courtesy of a 2-1 Carabao Cup success at Wembley against a bitterly disappointing Liverpool.

“Arne Slot’s men are in danger of doing a mini-Manchester City, who themselves were rather hanging on to secure a point at home against Brighton in the Premier League – half-decent results for us overall.”

However, a routine 3-0 win for Manchester United (4/5) against Leicester (7/2) was flagged by Freeth as one of the less-than-positive results over the weekend.

He added: “Manchester City not winning isn’t the coupon-buster it used to be, the hosts going off at 4/5 against Brighton, but it was profitable, as were the low-scoring wins for Arsenal and Fulham.

“Losing games included wins for Wolves and Nottingham Forest against strugglers Southampton and Ipswich, with [Jørgen] Strand Larsen being particularly well-backed in the goalscorer market, but the Bruno Fernandes-inspired victory for Manchester United was where our customers benefitted the most in the Premier League.”

On the continent, Barcelona (6/5) came from 2-0 against Atlético Madrid (9/5) to win 4-2 to return to the top of La Liga after Real Madrid (6/5)had also come from behind to win 2-1 against Villarreal (21/10).

With the likes of Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski scoring for Barça and Kylian Mbappe getting on the scoresheet for Los Blancos, there was some pain from Spain for bet365.

Freeth said: “Europe was hit and miss. On one hand, we revelled in some surprise results in the Bundesliga with 3/10 Bayern Munich and 4/5 Mainz both drawing, while we laid 29/20 Dortmund in their 2-0 defeat at Leipzig but then gave it away with interest in La Liga, where we suffered our two worst results of the weekend.

“Three early goals with Kylian Mbappe getting two of them, 15 corners and numerous goalkeeper saves made it a good result for the hordes of bet builder-backers in Real Madrid’s 2-1 win at Villarreal, but the hardest one to take was Barcelona’s 4-2 win at Atletico Madrid having paid out on the hosts after 70 minutes.

“Barça’s big names came to the party after going 2-0 down – making it the second time in three weeks we’ve been stung by this fixture, having paid out on all three outcomes in the 4-4 draw at the end of February. You have to love our two goals ahead early payout offer.”