You need a huge slice of luck to win the totesport & Racing Post Ten to Follow competition, but following these key strategies could boost your chances of scooping the massive pot:-
1. Do load your entry with chasers. The points system is stacked in favour of chasers; I would go 7:3.
2. Leave out those horses who aren't going to be seen out until well into the New Year - remember, you have two free transfers in February. At this stage, you can also add one for the Grand National.
3. Avoid novice hurdlers. Only four of the 15 bonus races are for hurdlers, and none of these are for novices.
4. There are no prizes for imagination, so don't ignore the bleedin' obvious.
Talking of which, it's hard to see past Kauto Star for the King George. The 2007 Gold Cup winner might not have beaten much on his reappearance at Down Royal, but he jumped sweetly and looked to have all his old enthusiasm back. He will be hard to beat at Kempton (4/5 favourite with bet365) and he will not go down without a fight when attempting to regain his crown in March.
His stablemate Master Minded is another no brainer after his demolition job at the Festival - is there any horse you'd rather be on for this season's Champion Chase? I don't think so. Scarily, his trainer Paul Nicholls reckons he could be even better this season, and I wouldn't be surprised if he went through the season unbeaten, kicking off in the Tingle Creek in December.
Tidal Bay could end up in either the Gold Cup or Champion Chase, but his best distance may turn out to be 2m4f, in which case he's in pole position for the Ryanair. As a novice, he racked up 104 points last season, so there's plenty of merit in including a young chaser in the hope they can run up a sequence, and Tatenen could easily do just that. He was hugely impressive on his debut at Aintree, and considering he has raced only three times in Britain so far, there should be plenty more improvement to come. I see he's already 13/2 favourite with Chandler for the Arkle.
Saturday's Paddy Power Gold Cup is the first bonus race but it looks too tricky to solve, so I'm going to take more of a long term view and pick out a couple of staying chasers with a view to finding the winner of the Hennessy. Character Building looks the type to plunder a big handicap and, now a general 7/1 shot (15/2 Paddy Power), he's a point shorter than his SP in last year's Hennessy when he came third, beaten 19 lengths by Denman. Island Flyer (16/1 William Hill) may have lost his unbeaten chase record when going down a short head at Wincanton on Saturday, but he's getting better and better and his superb jumping will win him plenty more races.
David Pipe's Very Cool is a little bit of a wildcard, but he looks one to follow over fences and his shrewd handler should be able to exploit his favourable chase mark, which is 2st lower than his chase rating. He's effective between 2m and 3m, so there'll be plenty of opportunities for him.
On to the hurdlers, and I have no hesitation in including Pipe's Imperial Cup winner Ashkazar, who could prove a prolific points scorer in the top 2m hurdles. Certainly, if he can win the Greatwood Hurdle this weekend, which I expect him to, his current odds of 20/1 (Ladbrokes) for the Champion Hurdle will come crashing down.
This year's 2m division looks wide open, but I'm more than hopeful that the high-class five-year-old Punjabi can better his third in last year's Champion Hurdle, in which he was ridden to get the trip. He should rack up plenty of points on the way and looks an ideal candidate for the Christmas Hurdle. Betting-wise, he looks a cracking each way bet for Cheltenham at 16/1 with Coral.
The staying division has been dominated by Inglis Drever, but he can't go on forever and there are a host of young pretenders to take him on. Kasbah Bliss is the obvious one, having finished just a length behind the champ in March, but I just prefer the progressive Pettifour, who is unbeaten in four hurdles and is likely to run in all the top long distance hurdle races this winter. I doubt he'll be 16/1 (totesport) for the World Hurdle come March.
Click here to enter the competition.
Good luck!
