It’s the big one today - the Cheltenham Gold Cup - and the much-loved Kauto Star is being tipped to generate record industry turnover of £40m on the race.
The legendary 2007 and 2009 Gold Cup winner turns 12 years old on Monday, and bookies are expecting a surge in bets from punters willing Kauto Star to turn back the clock and overhaul defending champion and favourite Long Run, in what could be his last appearance at the Festival.
William Hill’s head of racing Kate Miller said “His legions of purple, green and yellow fans who have supported him over the years will turn out in their droves to bid the racing legend what could be a final farewell”.
Momentum in the annual tussle between the bookies and the punters at Cheltenham swung firmly back in the latter’s favour yesterday when 5/6 shot Big Bucks won the Ladbrokes World Hurdle for a record fourth time, with favourite Riverside Theatre and heavily backed Sir Des Champs also coming home ahead of their respective fields in the Ryanair Chase and Jewson Novices Chase.
But while the bookies may have been signing the praises of trainer Nicky Henderson’s stable on Wednesday, after his four winners managed between them to beat two firm favourites in the form of Grand Crus and Sizing Europe, one online sportsbook was not so happy to learn yesterday that one of Henderson’s stable hands had managed to turn a £50 accumulator bet on five Henderson-trained horses into £1m, when Barry Geraghty brought Riverside Theatre home in the Ryanair Chase. Bet365 has so far refused to confirm press reports that it was the bookie that is having to pay out to 31-year-old Conor Murphy.
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Image by CharlesFred used under a Creative Commons licence.
