Cheltenham Festival: 80 per cent of the favourites are trained in Ireland - and Willie Mullins has more than everyone else put together

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Now that we are, for definite, into the actual jumps season, this seems a good moment to take a first peek at what's going on in the betting markets for the Cheltenham Festival.

I realise that some will feel it's a bit early for that kind of talk, with the big week being four months away, but these sets of odds are a useful indication of where the power lies in jump racing at any one time and of course we can return to this list in late March and have a jolly laugh about the mistakes we all made in the autumn.

There are markets available on 20 of the 28 festival races. Unibet have also chalked up the remaining eight handicaps but I don't feel like including those details until there's a bit more sign of life to those markets.

Cheeringly, a lot of these races look competitive at this early stage, which is just as things should be. We have only one odds-on shot in Constitution Hill and I don't think it would be fair, on this occasion, to complain about cowardly layers. Even he was odds-against early in the summer, when there was talk of him possibly going over fences this season.

I had a right moan at about this time last year when there were quite a few warm favourites. Constitution Hill was down to 4-7 by then and we had other favourites at 7-4, 2-1, 2-1, 2-1 and 9-4. I mean, yikes. Our best races should not look predictable so far in advance. For what it's worth, three of those six short-priced favourites went on to win at the festival.

Anyway, things are looking just a smidge trickier this time around. Here's the list of current favourites:

Tuesday
A Dream To Share 6-1 Supreme
Marine Nationale 11-4 Arkle
Constitution Hill 1-2 Champion Hurdle
Lossiemouth 3-1 Mares Hurdle
Stay Away Fay 14-1 NH Chase

Wednesday
Ballyburn 6-1 Ballymore
Gaelic Warrior 6-1 Brown Advisory
El Fabiolo Evs Champion Chase
Galvin, Delta Work 7-2 Cross Country
Romeo Coolio, Aurora Vega 16-1 Bumper

Thursday
Facile Vega 6-1 Turners
Icare Allen 16-1 Pertemps
Allaho 3-1 Ryanair
Theleme 11-2 Stayers
Brighterdaysahead 6-1 Dawn Run

Friday
Burdett Road 7-1 Triumph
High Class Hero 14-1 Albert Bartlett
Galopin Des Champs 2-1 Gold Cup
Ferns Lock 5-1 Hunter Chase
Allegorie De Vassy 7-2 Mares Chase

So the six shortest-priced favourites are 1-2, Evens, 2-1, 11-4, 3-1, 3-1. It's still not the ideal situation – I'm sure I remember a time when you wouldn't get that many shorties in the actual week of racing – but half of those are a bigger price than any of last year's top six.

Quite a few of these markets are subject to rapid development as horses make their seasonal reappearances over the next few weeks. A Dream To Share hasn't raced over hurdles yet and nor has Ballyburn. What will Gaelic Warrior or Marine Nationale look like over fences? We don't know.

A shortage of form leads to punters putting their faith in big-name trainers, which perhaps serves to exaggerate the power of the biggest yards. On that note, let's consider who trains the favourites listed above:

Willie Mullins 10.5
Gordon Elliott 2.5
J & T Kiely
Barry Connell
Nicky Henderson
Paul Nicholls
Arnaud Chaille-Chaille
James Owen
David Christie

In other words, Willie Mullins has more favourites for the next Cheltenham Festival than everyone else put together. Yikes again. But, as I say, there's possibly an element of punters siding with his horse when there's little information to go on. He hasn't completely taken over the game . . . yet.

If we add up favourites by country, we get these totals:

IRE 16
GB 3
FRA 1

Does that accurately reflect the balance of power in jump racing just now? I'll let you supply your own answers but, more than ever, it's going to be important this winter to watch Leopardstown, Fairyhouse, Naas, Navan, Gowran, Limerick and Punchestown if you want to understand what's going to happen in March. And maybe a bit of Clonmel as well.

Read these next:

What's on this week: the return of Grade 1 stars at Haydock before Galopin Des Champs takes centre stage at Punchestown 

Daryl Jacob to ride Bravemansgame in the Betfair Chase as Paul Nicholls confirms plans to run at Haydock 

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.