Well Chief gave the partnership between Tony McCoy and Martin Pipe a boost with a victory over Irish challenger Kicking King in the Irish Independent Arkle Trophy.
It was only Well Chief's second race over fences, but his trainer won the Royal & Sun Alliance Chase with the similarly inexperienced Rolling Ball and this five-year-old proved well up to coping with this contest, his only notable jumping blemish coming when he overjumped at the fifth.
That error was a symptom of his keenness - both going down and in the race - but he was settled by McCoy - helped by the decent pace - and gradually crept closer before coming through to lead after two out. He soon went clear before idling slightly but held on bravely.
The 2003 Supreme Novices Hurdle second Kicking King showed himself at least as good a chaser with a very decent effort, always chasing the pace and keeping on well.
He coped well with these fences and is well up to winning another big novices' event this spring. Longer-term, he has a bright future when stepped up in trip - he shapes as though longer distances will suit.
1. Well Chief (A P McCoy) 9/1
2. Kicking King (B J Geraghty) 7/2
3. Le Duc (J Tizzard) 25/1
| Paddy Power | Paddy Power £250 Free Bet |
|---|---|
| Ladbrokes | Ladbrokes £200 Free Bet |
| Boylesports | Boylesports £20 Free Bet |
| William Hill | William Hill £25 Free Bet |
| Sportingbet | Sportingbet £10 Free Bet |
| Bet365 | Bet365 £200 Free Bet |
| VCBet | VCBet £125 Free Bet |
Paddy Power are our firm number one choice for your Cheltenham Festival bets. When you open an account with Paddy Power you can claim a free bet of upto £250.
When the racing starts in March many of the listed bookmakers on our site provide special betting markets and cashback offers. As soon as these are revealed we will be adding them to our site to ensure you have all the latest Cheltenham offers at your disposal.

Following on from last year, we are delighted to announce that we are featuring horse racing tips from Channel Four Racing presenter, Tom Lee. Tom appears on Channel 4's Morning Line and covers live Racing in the afternoon as well fronting RTE's Racing coverage in Ireland, his Cheltenham Festival Tips and previews of each day's Racing will be available during the Festival and supported with opinions and views from our Racing writers.
On this section you can get an overview of the each of the races and official going for each day of the festival. In addition we have previewed each race with all the form, tips and odds to assist you in backing a Cheltenham Festival winner.

We now have the latest antepost betting odds for the main Cheltenham Festival 2010 races. These odds are updated regularily to ensure that you in touch with all the market moves in the build up to the festival.
All the bookmakers will be putting up Special Offers on top of their Cheltenham Festival free bets for the festival. Generally you can get extra value with various cashback offers should your horse finish second or if it falls which are just a couple of the different types of offers you will find on this site during the Cheltenham Festival Races.
For those of you who do not have accomodation or tickets for the 2009 Cheltenham Festival, we have some useful tips to assist you in having a great week at Prestbury Park. Wheter you are looking for Cheltenham Festival accomodation or Cheltenham Racecourse Directions we should be able to help.