Punters already reeling from 3 days of beaten favourites were knocked to the floor on a day with only a joint favourite winning, well backed horses beaten, huge price horses winning and placed and the big 2 beaten in the Gold Cup.
In the fiercely competitive County Hurdle, Katie Walsh had her second winner of the meeting with Thousand Stars at 20/1. The horses following her home were 33/1, 20/1, and 50/1. In the Albert Bartlett they came home at 33/1, 25/1, 66/1 and 28/1 with Berties Dream taking the spoils.
In the Gold Cup, the hope and expectation was that Kauto Star and Denman would be battling it out up the hill but it was the Denman and Imperial Commander duelling over the final fences with the latter taking charge in the climb towards the line. The winner returned at 7/1.
In the Foxhunters, Baby Run landed a quick double for the Twiston-Davies stable which became a treble in the last with Pigeon Island. Pause And Clause took the Martin Pipe at 14/1 with the placed horses the same price.
There was no sort of run from JP Festival tip Enterprise Park in the Albert Bartlett who was pulled up before the 4th hurdle. I imagine he must have suffered some sort of injury. In the Gold Cup Imperial Commander did the business at 7/1 having been recommended at 12/1 on Christmas Day and again on 22 February. Well done to all backers.
The final points tally for the JP Festival tips for Cheltenham Festival 2010 is a 7 point profit following 8.75 points profit last year and 11.25 points profit in 2008.
Photo courtesy of Randy Rann
