Chris Cook
Thursday February 01 2007
The Guardian
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds," as that famous
punter Ralph Waldo Emerson so rightly pointed out. In like spirit, let us
set aside the advice given in this space four short weeks ago, to the effect
that no ante-post bets should be considered on this year's
Festival.
You might point out, and rightly, that the reason for that advice still
holds true - it remains impossible to predict the going at
mid-March, partly because the clerk of the course may opt to turn on the
taps. But something else has changed.
It is the decision of Better Bet bookmakers to offer 'non-runner, no bet' on
nine Festival races, a concession that seems almost too good to be true.
Most firms will get around to offering such terms as the big week looms but
to start taking bets on this basis in January is little short of
sensational.
Of course, it would count for nothing if Better were offering shorter prices
across the board, but this is not the case. Without looking to the rank
outsiders, I found over a dozen horses in their lists for which the Better
price matched the top price on the High Street. They offer
11-4 for the Champion Hurdle - that's half a point more than you'll get from
William Hill, who will keep your cash if the grey is injured in Saturday's
prep-run.
The one that leapt out at me was Nickname at 7-1 for the Champion Chase. The
eight-year-old is 10-1 elsewhere but that has a lot to do with the fact that
he is a doubtful starter - trainer Martin Brassil wouldn't risk him on
anything faster than soft.
If he were to line up at
had come right for him, in which case he would start a lot shorter than 7's.
Nickname spent his formative years learning to cope with the porridge-like
ground that
tractor. His last two outings have resulted in easy wins against
high-quality rivals on heavy going.
There's another interesting bet in the Triumph Hurdle, where Better offer a
quarter the odds each-way to four places. Degas Art, the only horse to have
beaten Katchit over hurdles, is on offer at a very tempting 14-1, matching
the best price with the big firms.
Katchit is as low as 5-1 in places, having franked the form with three
subsequent wins. Degas Art has been given a break since mid-November but is
still believed to be healthy and, as he was more than a stone better than
Katchit on the Flat, there is every reason to expect that he will confirm
the placings when they meet again.
Better Bet launched in 2005 and now have 13 shops, with plans to open more.
If there isn't one near you, go to their website at www.betterbet.com.
