Cheltenham Tips: Our Best Bets for Day 4 At The Festival

Our in-house horse racing expert Dean Ryan is back again to take us through race by race tips for Day 4 of the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.

It's still an alternative look at the markets, looking away from the obvious for good or bad!

Triumph Hurdle - Cheltenham 1.30pm - Ethical Diamond 28/1 Each Way

Sir Gino has now been declared a non-runner, so we'll have to look at the rest of the field in the Triumph Hurdle. 

Majborough looks the one of the Mullins battalion. He could go off favourite, and is likely to come forward a lot for his latest run. 

Big, big horse with a bright future, but something quicker can take him down, and at the prices I feel we can let him win unbacked. Ethical Diamond is fascinating though. 

A big run under the radar in the Spring Juvenile was eyecatching for many, and not beaten far under tactics that demonstrated it was a work in progress.

Wouldn't need to leap too far forward to figure at huge odds, similar running on at the front few tactics might be fine to pick up some pieces.

And with a superb young jockey, who has hopefully learnt plenty on top from last time, it wouldn't be a shock if he got closer to Majborough than the rest.

Lots of alternatives, the blanket could cover the form we have seen bar Sir Gino, let's take a chance with a springer.

Selection - Ethical Diamond 28/1 Each Way

County Hurdle - Cheltenham 2.10pm - Petit Tonnerre 28/1 Each Way

Ah the County Hurdle. Like trying to work your way out of a Cheltenham car park after a deluge of rain and paying 30 quid for the privilege of doing that over the space of three hours.

King Of Kingsfield, who ran into Ballyburn and Slade Steel last time, has been well backed and is surely a player. 

He's not much of a price though, and he is not hard to find. Let's dig deeper. Magical Zoe has to be on the radar. 

Should have won the Mares Novices here. Since that, has progressed and progressed and just needs it to drop right. 

She has a real touch of class, is on a fair mark, and if Adrian Heskin can get the fractions right, it could be another huge run from a Henry De Bromhead runner.

Petit Tonnerre for Jonjo O'Neill is a sleeper, seemingly whilst running, but has lots of ability. 

A visor has gone on, the mark has dropped a few pounds since seventh last year, and these are the kind of things that help when explaining improvement should it materialise.

Will it though? He has been chasing with some promise, but just seems to be tricky, and very hard to gauge.

I can't let him go unbacked, but the alternative view is that I should. I won't though.

Selection - Petit Tonnerre 28/1 Each Way
Selection - Magical Zoe 12/1 Each Way

Albert Bartlett Hurdle - Cheltenham 2.50pm - Gidleigh Park 7/1 Each Way

This should be simpler to solve than the County, but it isn't. Do you side with Readin Tommy Wrong? The Ile Atlantique form looks a little rocky now. 

Townend has picked him, he could have rode recent winner Dancing City or High Class Hero, that can't have been easy to go one way or the other. Willie Mullins might not win this. 

There I said it. That's about as alternative as a view gets at Cheltenham. Here's the view then. If Gidleigh Park was trained in Ireland he'd be a short-price favourite. 

He isn't, he is trained by Harry Fry and therefore he has to beat Irish horses. But he is exciting, very exciting. 

Seems to be able to win ugly and flashy, has a scope and size edge on most horses, and has a very bright future.

Connections considered their options here, and could have gone to the shorter race. But they've aimed at the weaker Mullins runners, well, in comparison to Ballyburn and I think that is inspired.

Team GB don't have much in the way of stars at the moment. Let's hope Gidleigh Park is one you haven't heard of yet.

Selection - Gidleigh Park 7/1 Each Way

Gold Cup - Cheltenham 3.30pm - Gentlemansgame 20/1 Each Way

Galopin Des Champs is some horse. His two most recent performances, and the Gold Cup win last year, surely win this race. Might he go off at odds-on to win this again? He might.

It's a cracking renewal though, winning a Gold Cup is hard. Winning two is harder, but what's new in here to stop him? Not too much is unknown, but it's a Gold Cup. 

Have I said it's hard to win a Gold Cup? It's the flimsiest of reasons to take him on, but you have to at the price, well I think you do. 

Bravemansgame is overpriced, but can he bridge the gap from last year? Has he regressed? I think the answer is no, and slightly yes.

Gerri Colombe hasn't come forward enough from last year, and has had a go at the favourite already, and whilst he will relish this, it might just be he is shy of this class.

Fastorslow came through handicaps to the top table and has beaten the favourite. Twice! Both times it seems it might have been cheaply, and when they tussled this term it wasn't to be.

I'd rather back Corach Rambler than Fastorslow, and I don't think he can win a Gold Cup. It's hard, as I think I've said already.

L'Homme Presse warmed up over shorter in a farce of a race and didn't win it. Wasn't going to from the flag fall, but if you like him, I wouldn't put you off. 

This is his hardest test to date, but he hasn't fluffed his lines when tested yet. A nagging doubt is that he missed a chance last year when it was all upside until that spill in the King George.

Hewick might not run, that seems to be the news. What a story it would be if he could figure, but despite a heroic career, this is a chapter in the story that even a Hollywood film wouldn't sanction.

Nassalam, Jungle Boogie and The Real Whacker are good horses. This is a race for great ones and I'd be shocked and then some if they could get this done. So I've left two. Gentlemansgame and Monkfish. 

Monkfish loves Cheltenham, has been a big miss with injury, when set to dominate the scene, but he is back. Tenderly returned to what looks like himself, and he gets one go to pull off a miracle. 

A huge horse, blessed with everything you'd want and a wild shout perhaps, but it's Willie Mullins. It's a brilliant horse and he could figure.

Gentlemansgame is a bit of an unknown, profile-wise. You'd like maybe one more piece of evidence that he can go at this level. 

Mouse Morris knows more about the game than most, and he didn't think he did. I think this might be better than his owners Gerri Colombe, and if so, he's overpriced by some way.

He beat Bravemansgame, slightly fortunate to do so, but it was a step forward, another one, a bigger one is needed, but let's trust Mouse to know just how big.

Two against the field, perhaps better to go against the field without Galopin Des Champs. I'll leave that to you to decide.

Selection- Gentlemansgame 20/1 Each Way
Selection- Monkfish 25/1 Each Way

Foxhunters - Cheltenham 4.10pm - No Bet

Take a break, a great race to watch and enjoy.

Selection- No Bet

Mares Chase - Cheltenham 4.50pm - Dinoblue 11/10

Dinoblue is solid. Solid as a rock. Trip concerns will be dissipated with drying ground. Jumping concerns have been dissipated with her performances this year.

She could have run in the Champion Chase, but they had El Fabiolo in the yard. That might be a missed opportunity in hindsight, but she will take a world of stopping here.

It's not an alternative view, she should be able to account for a good field, but a not good enough field.

Selection- Dinoblue 11/10

Martin Pipe Hurdle - Cheltenham 5.30pm - Waterford Whispers/Quai Du Bourbon Reverse Forecast

The boys race. If this is what the meeting comes down to for a make-or-break bet you're struggling, but it can happen.

The form can be studied, poured over and it will tell you that Quai Du Bourbon and Waterford Whispers are ahead of the pack. 

Unfortunately, so will the betting. Michael O'Sullivan is the best jockey in here and he's on Quai Du Bourbon. That's a huge plus, huge.

It's trained by Willie Mullins, another. The alternative view is to back Henry De Bromhead and Waterford Whispers. He looks exciting.

They will likely be first and second, but when you see them all line up at the start you'll realise how hard it is to be confident of that happening. It's been a long week. 

Let's try the forecast and not split them. They can do that at the line hopefully. 

Thanks for reading this week.

Selection - Waterford Whispers / Quai Du Bourbon Reverse Forecast