Cheltenham Festival: Stayers' Hurdle Betting Tips

Day three of the Cheltenham Festival takes place on Thursday and the feature race on a strong card is the Stayers’ Hurdle.

Last year’s winner Sire Du Berlais is back for another crack and there are plenty of other old favourites lining up, along with a new team of young up-and-comers.

Run over the stamina-sapping New course over 3m, the key to winning this race is in the name, as staying power is all important and horses who don’t get up the hill simply don’t win.

A field of 13 has been declared for Thursday’s big race and our expert has picked out a pair to follow in the feature event on what is a busy day of racing.

Selection: Crambo @ 9/2

Outsider to note: Sire Du Berlais @ 12/1

Improving Crambo looks ready to wrestle away the staying crown

CRAMBO simply hasn’t stopped improving since he started his career and proved he loves testing conditions when winning a red-hot running of the EBF Final at Sandown last season on heavy.

He has looked even better this season on quicker ground, so is evidently versatile regarding conditions, and there is every chance he can make the progress required to win the big one.

Crambo kicked off his season with a career-best effort in a handicap at Aintree and was arguably unlucky not to win at Haydock next time. He was caught out of his ground at a crucial stage, but absolutely flew home to close on winner Slate Lane near the line.

He would have won in another half-furlong and put that disappointment behind him when making a huge amount of progress to land the Long Walk at Ascot last time. Not many horses outbattle Paisley Park running to the line, but Crambo did just that and there was a long way back to the third.

The best part of Crambo’s race is always the finish and nothing will be coming home faster than him up the hill. He just needs to stay with them coming off the home bend and he will win.

Don’t discount Sire Du Berlais despite his advancing years

There aren’t many better horses at the Cheltenham Festival than SIRE DU BERLAIS. He has three wins at the meeting and defied his age of 11 when a surprise winner of this race 12 months ago.

Sire Du Berlais is another year older, but he has run only three times since winning the race last season and hasn’t been over-raced this campaign. He has clearly been trained with another crack at the Stayers’ Hurdle in mind and, if he can reproduce last season’s form, he could run well again.

The recent rain certainly won’t be a problem for Sire Du Berlais as he stays all day and it was soft 12 months ago. The question is just whether he retains his ability at his advancing age.

There was no sign that he did when he was well beaten on his seasonal reappearance at Navan last month, but it’s probably not wise to read too far into that as it was no more than a prep run for this.

It’s also hard to believe that top trainer Gordon Elliott would be bringing such a popular old veteran back here unless he thought he were still up to it and that is enough to convince me he is worth a chance, back at his old stomping ground, under top-class pilot Mark Walsh.

It’s far too soon to write Sire Du Berlais off and he could easily run into a place at a big price. Who knows, he might even be capable of winning.