Cheltenham Festival: Weekend runners that could affect the markets

There’s a number of horses scheduled to run at the weekend, in what could be one of the last chances for horses and jockeys alike to stake a claim for the festival in March.

Oddschecker, in partnership with Yahoo Sport UK, have handily picked out the possible Cheltenham runners from the weekend’s races and we’ve highlighted the ones most likely to move the markets below.

The meetings this weekend are held at Ascot, Haydock, Wincanton and Navan.

14.45 Wincanton

Second favourite for the Champion Hurdle, Yanworth will be a short price for the Kingwell Hurdle on Saturday. Alan King’s 7yo missed his last intended target after suffering a minor setback and connections will be hoping he shows no ill-effects from that absence with a commanding performance against inferior opposition in the field on Saturday.

15.35 Ascot

Cue Card is the most high profile runner this weekend; the top-rated chaser in the UK should account for Saturday’s rivals on his way to another assault on this year’s Gold Cup where he’s currently best-priced 8/1.

14.40 Navan

A field of just four runners look set to compete in the Grade 3 Novice Chase where Identify Thief is on a recovery mission after not finishing his last two races. The Grade 1 winning hurdler impressed in his first two attempts over fences but has since been pulled up at Leopardstown in December and was a first fence faller back at the same course at the end of last month. 14/1 for the Arkle Trophy he’ll need to be winning this race if he is to be considered any sort of threat to the imperious Altior in March.