Cheltenham Festival: Sizing John wins the Gold Cup in style

Sizing John beat off all comers to win the Gold Cup for Jessica Harrington under Robbie Power. Sent off at 15/2, the Irish Gold Cup winner added the Cheltenham version having been as big as 66/1 in the ante-post markets earlier this year.

Bookmakers will be happy that only 10.7% of bets today at Cheltenham were on Sizing John, but they will be counting the cost of shrewd ante-post bets. The winner was a massive price earlier in the year, and punters lapped it up. Even with the likes of Djakadam, Thistlecrack, Native River and Cue Card in the ante-post market, Sizing John still held 10.3% of ante-post bets. It was the third most popular choice with bettors.

The Harrington horse was very popular with punters from his homeland, the residents of Dublin accounted for 9% of bets placed on the horse. It was bad news for users from Birmingham however, with 15% of bets for the beaten third favourite Cue Card from the midlands.

A quick look at Oddschecker users results shows one bettor winning big after wagering £250 on Sizing John near the end of January at 33/1. A handful of punters got 33/1 again in February with bets of three figures. As for today, the biggest bet was £1500, placed in the early hours at 8/1.