Where would you rather be over the next four days, Benidorm in the sunshine with temperatures hitting 18C and a bottle of cheap beer or the Cotswolds where a jacket and trousers, rather than polo shirts and shorts, will be required and it will cost around £8 for a pint of Guinness?
Apparently plenty of racegoers are flying to the Spanish resort rather than spending a day at the Cheltenham Festival because they can still place their bets and watch the racing at Prestbury Park in numerous bars.
It’s true that tickets are expensive at Cheltenham, it can be difficult to get there and a decent day’s drinking will not come cheap but watching England at Wembley, the tennis at Wimbledon and just about any other high-quality sporting event is about the same and the really expensive part of attending the greatest show on turf is the accommodation, which is out of the Festival’s control.
It’s fair to say the majority of races will be won by horses from the other side of the Irish Sea with no bookmakers offering better odds than the 1/9 chalked up by William Hill for the Prestbury Cup to be won by Ireland.
Willie Mullins has sent out 103 winners at the Festival since 1995 and he’s just 1/5 with Coral to be the top trainer for a seventh year in a row so it’s no surprise Paul Townend, who is in the saddle for most of his better horses, is just 2/5 with Sky Bet and Betfair to be the top jockey.
The best way to go is back Gordon Elliott to be the top trainer without Mullins in the market at 13/8 with bet365 and Bet Victor while Jack Kennedy, back in action after breaking a leg in November, is worth a dabble at 5/1 with the Sky Bet to be the top jockey without Townend, even though he will split rides with Sam Ewing.
Betfair also go 15/8 the biggest starting price for a winner will be between 40/1 and 50/1 and Sky Bet offer 11/4 Mullins sends out more than nine winners.
Isak can fire Newcastle to victory at West Ham
Newcastle have hit a blip in form at just the wrong time and will be desperate to steady the ship at West Ham when they play for the last time before taking on Liverpool at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final.
A 4-0 defeat at Manchester City and a 2-0 loss at Liverpool along with an FA Cup exit at home to Brighton have caused alarm on Tyneside and even the 4-3 win against Nottingham Forest at St James’ Park was not the celebration it should have been as the Magpies were leading 4-1 at the break before a fraught second half.
The Hammers are buoyant after successive victories, a splendid 1-0 win at Arsenal and a 2-0 stroll at home to Leicester City and they won the reverse fixture at Newcastle 2-0 in November.
Eddie Howe will want his players to put that record straight, however, and the Magpies have enough talent to fly home with maximum points at 6/5 with William Hill, Coral, bet365 and others while Alexander Isak, who has scored three goals in his last two games, is 9/2 to hit his 23rd goal of the season with the opener and 6/4 to find the net at any time, both with bet365.
• British star Jack Draper is 10/11 with bet365 to beat American Jenson Brooksby in straight sets at Indian Wells.
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