Cheltenham Festival Betting Movers From The Weekend

This weekend saw some superb racing that altered the betting markets for some of the key events at the 2020 Cheltenham festival.

The highlight contest of the weekend was the Grade One Clarence House Chase at Ascot where the Philip Hobbs trained Defi Du Seuil stepped it up another notch to land the black type event.

The seven year old dominated the veteran Un De Sceaux being eased down towards the line to land the spoils and it backed up his credentials for how well he has dominated the two miles chase division this season.

Although Hobbs will make his decision closer to the festival as to which race his star will officially go in, it looks an obvious choice that the Champion Chase will be his next destination.

With his Grade One win at the weekend he is now 2/1 favourite to take the contest.

Over in Ireland on Sunday there were two grade One contests that were the feature contests on the Thurles card and in the first one of the day Willie Mullins dominated with a 1-2-3.

The winner of the event was his gelding Real Steel who although giving weight away to stablemate Footpad managed to win the contest convincingly by 14 lengths.

This has seen him well and truly throw his hat in the ring for the Ryanair Chase at Prestbury Park in March with the majority of high street bookmakers slashing his price.

Before the Grade Two he was 20/1 to land the black type event on the Thursday of the festival but he is now 10/1.

The final market mover for the festival that came at the weekend and by far the biggest one was Stolen Silver for the Nigel Twiston-Davies camp.

The five year old from out of nowhere managed to get up on the line and beat a strong field of runners in the Grade Two Supreme Trial at Haydock.

With two wins in his last three and stellar second behind a very smart Nicky Henderson horse it has seen him plummet in the Supreme Novices Hurdle market.

He is now a best price of 16/1 to land the first race of the festival but before Saturday you could have backed him at a huge 50/1.

With the five year olds win it has sparked a domino effect in the market for the horse who he finished second behind at Cheltenham in December, Chantry House.

The Nicky Henderson trained youngster has been niggled in the betting off the back of this weekends form boost and is now as short as 10/1 from 16s.