Cheltenham Festival Wednesday best bets
2.50 – Brazil to win (each-way) @ 16/1
4.10 – Minella Indo to win @ 15/8
Bet on the latest Cheltenham Festival odds at Betzone
Expect Brazil to be brought to the boil on time for Coral Cup coup
Flat horse turned hurdler BRAZIL has a modest strike rate of five wins from 22 runs under rules but he has shown a remarkable ability to rise to the occasion when the time is right.
The six-year-old turned over red-hot favourite Gaelic Warrior to win the Boodles Handicap Hurdle at the 2022 Cheltenham Festival and more recently landed €58k flat handicap over 1m4f at the Galway Festival August 2023.
Gelded just over three months later, has raced just once since, when finishing well down the field in a handicap hurdle over 2m at the Dublin Racing Festival. As a result he returns to Cheltenham rated just 1lb higher than when winning at the Festival two years ago.
Trainer Padraig Roche has proven adept at getting his charge to concert pitch for the big occasion previously so it would be little surprise where he to find further improvement for racing beyond 2m1f for the first time in his career.
The impression that everything is in place for a big run is accentuated by the application of blinkers for the first time in Brazil’s jumps career. Their first-time presence on the flat coincided with him winning his maiden.
Tip: 2.50 – Brazil to win (each-way) @ 16/1
Former Gold Cup winner can make his class tell in Cross Country
There are plenty of very short favourites at Cheltenham this year but one that doesn’t seem destined to go off odds on is 2021 Gold Cup winner MINELLA INDO, despite his obvious claims.
Twice a Festival scorer either side of a Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase second to the mercurial Champ, he showed an aptitude for this discipline when fourth in the Cross Country at Prestbury Park’s December meeting.
That was a handicap in which he was giving more than a stone in weight to the three horses that finished ahead of him. Racing off level weights this time around he should be more than capable of making his class tell having been a better horse than Delta Work or Galvin at his peak.
Tip: 4.10 – Minella Indo to win @ 15/8
Unheralded yard no reason to overlook DRF scorer for Grand Annual glory
In a race featuring any number of shrewdly-campaign types, Sophie Leech’s MADARA looks a particularly interesting prospect and it’s undoubtedly true that Doctor Dino gelding would be a shorter price if he represented a better-known operation.
At just five years old punters could be forgiven for thinking he may lack the requisite chasing experience but he has already raced nine times over fences. Having already amassed five runs over the larger obstacles in France he’s continued to improve since joining Leech in October last year.
Madara has contested three handicap chases at Cheltenham, scoring in the most recent of those, then went on to run out an eased-down winner of a listed 2m1f handicap chase at the Dublin Racing Festival.
At his young age there’s undoubtedly more to come in terms of improvement and he should go off a decent price by virtue of his association with a trainer who while far from famous nonetheless pulled off the feat of winning a big handicap in Ireland – something few other UK yards even attempt.
