Bet on Cheltenham Festival: Samcro Wins Deloitte Novice Hurdle

The popular Samcro has proved yet again why he’s touted to be one of the main favourites at the Cheltenham Festival this year, after his enormous success at the grade One Deloitte Novice Hurdle last Sunday. However, despite receiving loads of adulation for his most recent achievement, the owner of the horse stressed, “the hype needs to stop; he’s only a horse.”

Can Samcro go all the way at Cheltenham?

And Samcro’s owner is none other than the chief executive of Ryanair and billionaire Michael O’Leary; who’s a well-known horse racing enthusiast and has a number of other expensive race horses in is Gigginstown House Stud. But O’Leary aims to keep a lower profile of the horse, perhaps in an attempt to keep the odds lower with online sportsbooks in UK.

Samcro is viewed as one of the favourites with Bet365 Sportsbook to be a success at the Cheltenham Festival, considering his astonishing pace at the Deloitte Novice Hurdle which saw him perform even better than previous winners like Vantour, Istabraq, Brave Inca and Nicols Canyon, all of whom have recorded fast times at the respective event.

(For more info about the online sportsbook, check out our review on Bet365 Sportsbook, that features a number of betting markets on horse racing.)

It’s still not known what event Samcro will enter next month, as the team around him is yet to decide whether to challenge him in the Supreme Novice Hurdle – which features over the same two-mile trip as last Sunday’s event – or the Ballymore Novice Hurdle that’s over five furlongs. It’s believed that Samcro will remain in the Ballymore event, which highlighted just how impressive his performance was considering the relative ease with which he strode during the race.

Samcro – “the door opener”

Gordon Elliott, Samcro’s trainer, stressed how Samcro has surprised him with his racing success, as he was initially bought for specific races of lower categories, but has managed to put on brilliant displays when he challenged his competition on his way to the top spot in the Deloitte Novice Hurdle. So it’s no surprise that Elliott and his owner O’Leary are looking to have him race in the Cheltenham Festival in what is one of the most prestigious horse racing events. “He’s opened up a lot of doors,” commented Elliot. “He was bought to be a three-mile chaser and that’s what he is, but he showed a lot of class there today and he could be anything. Coming into today, I’d have said we would go for the two-mile and five but the way he did that, I’d say he could go for any race.”

Jack Kennedy, the jockey that rode Samcro to the win at Leopardstown on Sunday, heaped tons of praise on the promising horse that could soon be the main attraction at the Cheltenham Festival. So make sure to place your wagers with providers of internet betting in UK today before the event.

“He couldn’t do any more,” said Kennedy, who is aiming to ride him to victory again. “He jumped great and travelled well. It doesn’t really matter what you do with him. He’s a dream to ride. He settles away and he’s always there whenever you want him. He’s a pleasure to ride. All going well, we’ll try and get to Cheltenham in one piece and look forward to it.”