Cheltenham goes into the ‘Guinness’ book of records

The four-day jumps festival at Cheltenham is the busiest week of the year for British bookies – yes, turnover even surpasses Royal Ascot – and this year they are even taking bets on how many pints of Guinness will be drunk, with 220,000-plus the most popular option.

Guinness is the favourite tipple of the Irish contingent, who will converge on those picturesque Cotswold Hills tomorrow in droves – daily crowds of 65,000 are estimated – and the Irish are as much a part of Cheltenham as the Pope is of the Vatican.

Willie Mullins, Ireland’s ninetimes champion trainer who has finished top-dog here in five of the last six years, has experienced a roller-coaster winter, losing 60 horses when Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary threw his toys out of the pram early on and then, having found Vautour, one of his stars of 2016, dead on the gallops one morning after a freak accident, injuries robbed him of past former Champion Hurdlers Faugheen and Annie Power as well as the exciting novice chaser Min.

But, while the Irish may struggle to replicate last year’s feat of winning 15 of the 28 races, Mullins and his arch-rival Gordon Elliott have enough ammunition to ensure the layers will be treating the raiders from across the water with respect again.

Bookmaker turned punter JP McManus, the most powerful owner in jump racing, has the first two in the betting for the Champion Hurdle, feature on tomorrow’s opening day.

A predominately dry week is forecast, but rain on Saturday night will ensure the mud-loving BUVEUR D’OR should get the right underfoot conditions for McManus to lift the crown for a sixth time. For me, Nicky Henderson’s horse is a much slicker jumper than ante-post favourite Yanworth.

Henderson, the all-time leading trainer at the Festival with 55 winners since 1985, is the one to follow on day one as I also fancy him to win the Arkle Chase with his unbeaten novice ALTIOR, whom he compares favourably with his retired superstar Sprinter Sacre, though we’ll get better odds about stablemate BEWARE THE BEAR in the meeting’s marathon, the 6400m NH Chase.

Mullins has a pair of aces in his hand for the Mares Hurdle, and while the bookies can’t split them, I like reigning title holder LIMINI better than stablemate Vroum Vroum Mag. She has the better finishing kick.

Melon is another Mullins market-leader in the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, but she lacks experience for this street fight, and better value lies with MOVEWITHTHETIMES, who Britain’s champion trainer Paul Nicholls rates “one of my best chances of the week”.

The handicaps at Cheltenham are so open that maybe they  carry a health warning, but jockey Noel Fehily, who ridesBuveur d’Air, is also sweet on THE DRUIDS NEPHEW for the Ultima Handicap Chase, while if we happen to have our backs to the wall come the closing novice chase I suggest we risk a small investment on ITS’AFREEBEE.