Scottish horses in the running at Cheltenham

2014 Cheltenham Festival- The Scottish Connection

With only a matter of days to go until the 2014 Cheltenham Festival gets underway, fans everywhere will be looking forward to a week of top class national hunt racing.

The festival begins on Tuesday March 11th and, after expanding to four days racing in 2005, will run until Friday 14 March. During this time, 27 races of the highest quality will excite race goers, with millions in prize money on offer.

Fans who wish to follow all of the latest news in the build up to the festival can follow news stories with posts tagged “Cheltenham odds” at Coral. Being on top of all the news can be the key to finding a winner at the festival.

The 2014 event will feature some of the most well-known names in the racing industry, with superstar horses such as Hurricane Fly, Bobs Worth, and Big Buck’s , as well as top jockeys such as A.P. McCoy and Ruby Walsh likely to go close for the top jockey award.

As well as these, several horses, trainers and jockeys with links to Scotland will be appearing at the 2014 Cheltenham Festival, hoping to take some of the biggest races of the season.

Ryan Mania: Last year’s Grand National winning jockey on board Aurora’s Encore, Mania hails from Galashiels. He will be hoping to have a few winners at the festival to continue to enhance his growing reputation in the sport.

Lucinda Russell: As Scotland’s leading national hunt trainer, Russell is enjoying an excellent season so far, and her best bet of Cheltenham victory may be Tap Night, who is a 16/1 shot with Coral for the Byrne Group Plate on day three.

Musselburgh Trials Day: Scotland’s leading national hunt racecourse played host to a day of Cheltenham trial races on February 2nd, with home-grown jockey Ryan Mania winning two races. Several of the entrants will go on to race in some of the biggest events at the 2014 Cheltenham Festival, with their outings at Musselburgh possibly giving them a key bit of form going in to the festival.

In other news leading up to Cheltenham, fans will be disappointed to see that superstar chaser Sprinter Sacre has been pulled out of defending his Queen Mother Champion Chase crown due to a heart defect. Sire De Grugy is a 7/4 favourite with Coral now to take victory in Sprinter Sacre’s absence.

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