Impressive Baby Mix heads Cheltenham Triumph Hurdle Betting

Of all the races at the Cheltenham Festival, the Triumph Hurdle used to be one that the bookmakers could look forward to with some confidence. A huge field of relatively unexposed juvenile hurdlers setting off at a furious pace around Cheltenham and often throwing up some huge priced winners. In the early eighties, names like Baron Blakeney and Shiny Copper were the toast of the bookmakers as favourites were consistently turned over in the juvenile hurdling championship race.

That pattern gradually changed through the late 80’s as Nicky Henderson struck with well-supported First Bout (1985) and Alone Success (1987), followed by the classy Kribensis in 1988 for Sir Michael Stoute. Mysilv was one of the best-backed Triumph Hurdle winners in history having been supported through the winter from a price of 33-1 after her Chepstow win down to favourite. Alan King won with another hugely popular horse in Penzance (2005) for the Elite Racing Syndicate and two years later won with another well-fancied runner in Katchit. Henderson has continued to farm the race with Katarino (1999), Zaynar (2009) and Soldatino (2010) ensuring that all of his entries are worthy of a close scrutiny.

With ante-post betting on virtually every race at the Cheltenham Festival, there are plenty of opportunities to grab some early value and the markets are fascinating to watch. At Cheltenham’s December meeting, Paul Nicholls sent out Hinterland for the opening juvenile race and the opposition looked weak. Hinterland went off at 2-7 favourite, so it was a considerable surprise to see Baby Mix cantering easily upsides him as they turned for home. It soon became obvious that the grey was going better than the favourite and he was eased clear to win by 7 lengths.

Baby Mix had been sent off at 14-1 for this race but was immediately cut to 8-1 favourite for the Triumph in the Cheltenham ante-post betting market. His win was not a surprise to trainer Tom George who had only had the horse for eight weeks but had not had him off the bridle at home. A winner on the flat in France, he jumped superbly and quickened impressively off this slow pace. Of course he will have to show he can do this in a more competitive event but Hinterland is no slouch and Baby Mix has set the standard. The last two winners of the Triumph Hurdle, Soldatino (2010) and Zarkandar (2011) did not appear until February and a lot can change between now and the festival but Baby Mix has certainly ignited the Triumph Hurdle betting market.