2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup Ante-Post Preview – 14/1 Chantry Looks Safe as Houses
Chantry House and Nico De Boinville jump the last before winning the 2021 Marsh Novices’ Chase.
2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup Ante-Post Preview
Our expert has delved through the current state of play in the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting market, identifying a selection available at odds of 14/1 with Sky Bet. Check out their thoughts below, and why not also check out our Champion Hurdle ante-post article.
Cheltenham Gold Cup (Friday 18th March 2022)
Willie Mullins’ Al Boum Photo came up narrowly short when bidding to emulate Best Mate’s three successive Gold Cup wins, but he still rates a live player in the 2022 renewal, where he may get his preferred soft ground conditions.
He will be a 10yo by he lines up at the tape next March, however, and runners from that age group have tended to struggle in recent Gold Cups.
Minella Indo prevented Al Boum Photo from creating history and he is once again likely to stand in his way.
He heads most betting markets and remains relatively unexposed, but an underwhelming reappearance at Down Royal last month raised a few eyebrows and at his current price of 6/1 he makes little appeal considering that he was almost a double-figure price in March.
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When looking at most Gold Cup ante-post markets, my first port of call is to look back at last year’s novice chases run at the Festival. These races usually prove an excellent barometer for Gold Cups and the likes of Minella Indo, Al Boum Photo, Sizing John and Lord Windermere had all ran in a graded novice chase at the previous year’s Festival.
Three of those did their prep in the 3m Chase – formerly referred to as the RSA – but last year’s renewal of that didn’t look an overly strong renewal and the winner Monkfish is unfortunately out of action for the season.
The race which catches the eye instead is the Marsh Novices’ Chase.
Last year’s renewal went under the radar slightly after the fall of the strong race favourite Envoi Allen, but the form has since worked out very well.
The runner-up was Fusil Raffles, who has since taken the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby, the third was Asterion Forlonge – who went on to run out a wide-margin winner at the Punchestown Festival, whilst the fourth, Chatham Street Lad was an 11l Grade 3 winner on his next start.
It is the winner of that race, CHANTRY HOUSE who makes the most appeal from an ante-post perspective at his current 14/1 price.
The JP McManus owned gelding actually finished third behind stablemate Shishkin in the 2020 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, yet it was this discipline that he was purchased for and he has certainly created an impression over the larger obstacles, winning five of his six starts so far.
He showed a good attitude to land the Marsh, hitting the line strongly, and the step up to 3m appeared to unlock some improvement when going in at Aintree afterwards.
Chantry House had just The Big Breakaway in opposition on seasonal reappearance at Sandown last time, yet he comfortably dispatched of that rival and whilst he wouldn’t be the strongest second season chaser around, it is worth noting that he wasn’t disgraced at the Festival behind Monkfish – who barring injury would be towards the top of the market for this race.
Chantry House’s next port of call is reportedly the King George, where he should get his preferred good ground conditions.
His powerful yard has plenty of previous in the King George and a solid run at Kempton would surely see Chantry House going off a great deal shorter at Cheltenham than his current 14/1 odds.