The bookies are fearing a potential hammering from punters after a change of running plans by Willie Mullins.
Cheltenham’s winningest trainer had been preparing to run Lossiemouth in the Unibet Champion Hurdle for the last two years. But in a late change of plan, finalised on Sunday, he declared the grey for the Mares’s Hurdle instead.
As a result of the u-turn, the four Grade 1 races on day one of the Cheltenham Festival features four short-priced favourites, three of them odds-on. The situation strikes fear into the layers who believe it’s given punters an acca opportunity that could cost them fortunes if all four horses win on Tuesday.
The last similar scenario was in 2015 on the corresponding opening day of the fixture. Mullins saddled the Ruby Walsh-ridden Douvan to win the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at 2-1.
In the next race, the Arkle Challenge Trophy, the same pair combined to capture the Grade 1 Chase with the odds-on Un De Sceaux.
Then after Faugheen, a 4-5 favourite, brought up a treble for Mullins and Walsh in the Champion Hurdle, the bookies were on the hook for massive losses from liabilities on Annie Power in the Mares’ Hurdle.
She was sent off the 1-2 favourite and in total command as she approached the final flight, but she came down in what was labelled ‘The £50 million fall’.
With that experience still fresh in the memory, the betting industry is braced for a huge opening day to the biggest betting week of the year.
Coral spokesperson David Stevens said: “As well as Lossimeouth, 8-13 with Coral for the Mares’, Kopek Des Bordes is evens for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Majborough is 4-7 for the Arkle, and Constitution Hill is 8-13 to regain the Champion Hurdle.
“We expect the quartet to feature in many thousands of accumulators on Tuesday, which could see liabilities on a par with this day ten years ago, when Annie Power’s last hurdle fall spared the layers a £50 million hammering.
“At current odds the fourfold pays around 7-1, and if the first three all come home in front, Constitution Hill’s Champion Hurdle run will become even more significant, as it will be no exaggeration to say that industry liabilities will once again be in the tens of millions, as they were ten years ago.”
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