The 2020 Cheltenham Festival is just two weeks away and the excitement is reaching fever pitch.
Plenty of punters will be hoping their ante-post selections all make it to Prestbury Park for the four-day meeting, which kicks off on Tuesday, March 12.
Oddschecker have compiled a list of the most-backed horses for the Festival.
All figures and percentage of bets are taken from March 16, 2019, until today (February 25, 2020).
Here are the five most backed horses:
1. Envoi Allen: 6.3%
The clear favourite to win the Ballymore Novices Hurdle, Envoi Allen is the most-backed horse by punters for the entire festival, through Oddschecker.
Accruing a whopping 58% of all bets on the Ballymore since the end of last year’s festival, odds have been cut accordingly on the Gordon Elliott-hope from 10/1 in June 2019, into just 11/8 now.
2. Paisley Park: 5.99%
Officially the biggest favourite at the festival, odds-on shot Paisley Park could cause serious problems in the trading floors if he hacks up in the Stayers Hurdle.
Accounting for a staggering 71% of all bets in the race, the Emma Lavelle-trained eight-year-old is the only show in town for the Stayers, and is priced at 8/11 to emerge victoriously.
3. Benie Des Dieux: 4.71%
Alongside Paisley Park, Benie Des Dieux is the only other odds-on shot at this year’s festival and punters are all over the Willie Mullins entrant.
Priced at 4/5 at the time of writing, Benie Des Dieux has accounted for 64% of all bets in the race over the last year.
4. Tiger Roll: 3.9%
Returning champion Tiger Roll caught the eye of the casual punter in last year’s Cross Country and Grand National – and he’s set to strike again.
Another short price favourite at 11/10, Tiger Roll is romping the ante-post punting. Since last year’s festival finished, a ridiculous 83% of all bets in the race have backed the 10-year-old.
5. Altior: 3.46%
Going for the Champion Chase, punters are all over Nico De Boinville’s mount, Altior, who is the most attractive price out of the most backed horses, currently 2/1.
That’s a backable price for punters, and they’ve followed suit, with 32% of all bets in the last year backing the Nicky Henderson entrant.
It’s a crowded field, however, and bookies will be cheering on the rest of the field, with Defi Du Seuil (9/4), Chacun Pour Soi (11/4) and Cilaos Emery (18/1) well placed to turn over the gelding.
