Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle

A 2m 5f affair, this is always a huge race at the Festival, and Coral have pushed the boat out and offered SEVEN places this year. Sky Bet, Boyles, Paddy Power and Betway go SIX. If you take four places anywhere, you should stop betting as it's clearly not for you.

Trends

- 10 of the last 13 winners were second season hurdlers

- 7 of the last 9 winners came from within the top 8 highest weighted horses.

- 12 of the last 15 winners had won no more than 1 previous handicap race.

- 7 of the last 13 winners won their previous races

- Only one of the last 24 winners was rated higher than 148

- 18 of the last 23 winners won earlier in the season

- 11 of the last 12 came from within the top 7 in the betting market.

- 8 of the last 16 winners have been French-bred

- Horses aged 10 or more generally don't perform - just 2 from 30 have placed this century.

- 12 of the last 13 winners had run 32 days or longer before the festival.

Our View

Picking the winner in this handicap isn't going to separate the men from the boys. It's going to separate the lucky from the unlucky, or those able to prick themselves when sticking their hands into a haystack. Well let's see what we are this year.....?

We're going to look to the top of the weights, the top of the betting and then stick our pins in. (see trends)

Let's start with William Henry - the second favourite in the race, and on offer at 15/2 with Corals. That's going to give you a 6/4 return on the place which simply has to be value. Towards the top of the weights, he's won over this trip and this course before, which most in the field have not. He's shown he can handle the soft ground and ticks plenty of the right boxes from the trends.

Our second pick is Red Indian who could reward backers with a place based on his liking for the ground. Placed on all four starts on soft ground, and also in his only starts at Cheltenham and at this class, he could defintiely go close off a very fair weight. He ran William Henry close in the Lanzarote Handicap, and looks well prices at 22/1 with Coral.

Finally, we'll add in Mischievious Max who was close to Red Indian when running here at the end of last year. He's got pletny in hand on the weights not and is rarely out of the frame, so could be another to benefit from all those extra places on offer. I'd favour the 25/1 with six places than the 20/1 with seven places on balance.

1pt e/w William Henry at 15/2 (Coral)

1pt e/w Red Indian at 22/1 (Coral)

1pt e/w Mischievious Max at 25/1 (Paddy Power)

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