Might Bite is the 7/2 favourite with the bookmakers to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and that is unlikely to change over the next couple of months as last year’s RSA Chase winner has shown the best form this season to merit going off as the market leader for the Blue Riband event of the Cheltenham Festival.
Nicky Henderson’s runner ended last season as the champion novice as not only was he successful in the RSA Chase, but he also had wins in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase at the Grand National meeting and a couple of other victories to his name in a solid campaign.
The BHA Handicappers Blog for the festive period has landed 🎄
Find out what they made of last week’s performances,including Might Bite’s @32Red King George VI Chase win @kemptonparkrace & Maria’s Benefit’s win by 30 lengths @TauntonRacing on Saturday
👉 https://t.co/fZ5TQxdnYr pic.twitter.com/q1t0l2qzel
— BHA Press Office (@BHAPressOffice) 2 January 2018
Might Bite looks to have stepped up to the next level pretty comfortably this season as he proved on his reappearance at Sandown where he prevailed by eight lengths. It was after his win in the Grade One King George Novices’ Chase that punters really did start to get behind him, though. The nine-year-old proved he is one of the leading horses in this division with the biggest prize of his career.
In his last seven races, the Gold Cup favourite has just one defeat to his name and that came after an error at the last fence at Kempton in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase. Might Bite had the race wrapped up approaching the final obstacle, however, he went through it and as result gave the race away.
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Last Year’s Winner Sizing John Leads Challenge Against Might Bite
Sadly the Gold Cup this year won’t feature Thistlecrack once again as the 2016 King George winner has been ruled out for the rest of the season. It now means that last year’s winner Sizing John is second best in the horse racing betting for the race at 6/1 despite the fact the horse has not looked as impressive this season.
Jessica Harrington’s runner had an incredible run across three months in 2017 as he won the Irish Gold Cup, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Punchestown Gold Cup to take the undisputed crown as the best horse across the UK and Ireland in the 3m chase division.
The Irish horse started his 2017/18 campaign well with victory in his seasonal reappearance at Punchestown. On his next appearance in the Grade One Christmas Chase at Leopardstown though, he was very flat as he could only come home seventh of the 12 runners, 32 lengths behind the winner Road To Riches.
Sizing John will need to bounce back from that disappointing effort during the festive period and he could run one more time before the Cheltenham Festival in a bid to try and rekindle his old form.
Our Duke Likely To Join Stablemate For Gold Cup Bid
Our Duke & Robbie Power over the last in the Irish Grand National at @Fairyhouse pic.twitter.com/SmSC1zw1ax
— Susie Cahill (@GirloftheSummer) April 20, 2017
Last year’s Irish Grand National winner Our Duke is likely to join his stablemate Sizing John for the trip across to Cheltenham in March. The staying chaser currently tops the betting for the Irish Gold Cup where Harrington will be hoping he can follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner.
Our Duke is a former Grade One novice chase winner but has yet to run outside of Ireland, therefore, it is likely to be unknown territory for the eight-year-old in the most prestigious race in national hunt racing on March 16.
