Cheltenham Festival Market Movers From The Weekend

The biggest mover to come out of the three day meeting came on the Sunday in the Arkle Trial where it was such a good story for the connections of the winner Lalor who is now trained by Kayley Wollacott but was previously trained by her husband Richard Woollacott who sadly took his own life.

This horse is the small yards superstar performer and on Sunday he beat some really good horses in the race at odds of 11/2 and went on to take the race by a near 10 lengths.

The trainer was in tears and it was an emotional day all round for the connections but looking ahead to the festival he has been smashed into for the Arkle at the festival and is now 6/1 from a previous 33/1.

The Friday of the three day meeting saw the feature race being the Cross Country Handicap Chase where the horse that everyone came to watch was last seasons Grand National winner Tiger Roll.

However with this being his seasonal return and according to his trainer not being as fit as he thought he was he could only finish a staying on fourth.

The horse that was worth taking some not off was the eventual winner Josie's Order who went on to take the long distance contest and land the odds on the day.

This saw her being slightly dropped in the market from 10/1 to 8/1 for the Cross Country Renewal at the festival. However, the favourite to defend his title is still Tiger Roll who's odds stayed a level 3/1 after his run.

The JCB Truimph Hurdle was the first race of the day on the Saturday at it showed off a lot of the juveniles that will be heading to the festival in March.

Quel Destin for trainer Paul Nicholls made a brilliant start to the day for the trainer and really showed what a serious contender he could be for the Triumph Hurdle.

He stayed on up the hill going on to win the race by just over a length from the Alan King trained Cracker Factory. This now has seen his odds slashed for the first race on the Friday at the festival, starting at 25/1 before that race and now best price of 16/1.

The Willie Mullins trained Faugheen who is one of the most iconic horses at his yard and is before his injury was one of the most feared jumps horses of a generation but since coming back from a 22 month lay off with setback after setback he does not look the same horse.

Sunday saw the 10 year olds seasonal debut at Punchestown in the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle where he went off as 2/5 favourite and was thoroughly disappointing in his performance finishing second five lengths behind the winner Sharjah who is his stablemate.

Faugheen will now be tried over a longer trip according to his trainer and it won't be a surprise to see him go over fences at some point of this season as this could be his last of being a race horse.

This is why the odds have shifted for him in the Champion Hurdle, a race he won back in 2015 in great style, but now he has gone from odds of 33/1 out to 40/1 and it will be a shock to see him entered at all.