The Chase horses had their spot in the limelight Saturday with the Paddy Power Gold Cup and now it’s the turn of the Hurdlers with two feature races on Sunday’s card at Cheltenham.

In this post we focus our attention upon the Greatwood Hurdle and using Proform we analysed race results down the years to uncover the following stats, facts and trends.

Ages

Horses aged four, five and six have won 15 from 17 renewals however, from a profitability perspective, five year olds have notched up eight wins in total and a return at Betfair Starting Prices of £24.03 to a £1 stake, 32.04% return on investment.

5yo Qualifiers: Garde La Victoire, Baltimore Rock, Vaniteux

 

Recent Form

8 horses have won the Greatwood when winning their previous start. Horses that finished second accounted for 3 winners.

1^st LTO Qualifiers: Blue Heron, Roman Flight, Goodwood Mirage, Exitas, Clondaw Warrior

 

Class

Horses that ran in a class “A” race in their preceding start have won 9 times from a population of 91 runners. A 33% better than expected performance.

Qualifiers: Vaniteux, Blue Heron, Baltimore Rock, Pearl Swan, Mijhaar, Pine Creek, Baradari, Regal Encore

 

Running Styles

Historically they dominate the distribution of running styles, however horses that raced “held up” in the Greatwood show a profit of £17.52 at Betfair Starting Prices to a £1 stake (11 winners from 17 renewals).

Below is our pace map for this year’s race.

Qualifiers: Olofi, Garde La Victoire, Pine Creek, Pearl Swan, Vaniteux, Baradari, Roman Flight, Baltimore Rock, Raven's Tower, Exitas, Clondaw Warrior, Regal Encore, Goodwood Mirage

 

Betting Market

The front two in the market have accounted for 9 wins from 17 renewals (favourite: 5, second favourite: 4)

Last year’s winner Dell Arca was priced at 12/1 and with previous winners priced throughout a wide spectrum of starting prices, this race has the whiff of being one that could benefit the sponsors.

 

Selections

In a competitive race our selections are 

1. Vaniteux
2. Garde La Victoire
3. Baltimore Rock