ThruxBets

It probably won’t come as a shock to anyone, but if you’re looking for Cheltenham Festival pointers from this weekend’s racing at Musselburgh, then unfortunately, you’re probably wasting your time.

While these are competitive races in their own right, they have little to no relevance once March comes around, as the stats below show.

It was hard to separate horses that ran at this two-day meeting – branded as Scottish Cheltenham Trials Days – from those that appeared at Musselburgh’s one-day meeting in February and then went on to the Festival.

To avoid muddying the waters, the figures below focus solely on horses that ran at the Cheltenham festival and had their most recent start at Musselburgh.

So overall, the stats, are:

188 runners 5 winners (2.7%) 23 places (12.2%) -44 LSP

Form figures of: 0P80P507P70009507067P8PP20PP3938PPPP866P0BP000P3PP00090PPP1P790050F400000000FPP44PP7090203940P4800503P000040880P7007008F02P09PP169PPPP004PP0060400001500001449060F08062003P00160600P0P005UP3

So yeah, not great by any means! And there hasn’t been a winner since 2018, 58 runs ago! That was Warren Greatorex’s MISSED APPROACH in the Kim Muir.

Just to add a little depth, I’ve picked out some of the main races and looked at their numbers.

Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle ▶ 21/0/2p – form figures of 70008PP90009044F00006

Triumph Hurdle ▶ 14/0/1p- form figures of 870380P4000P0F

County Hurdle ▶ 25/0/2p – form figures of 0506000090P8090004903000P

Coral Cup ▶ 10/0/1p – form figures of 0300800000

Albert Bartlett ▶ 10/0/2p – form figures of P38P6PP20P

Pertemps Handicap Hurdle Final ▶ 21/0/1p – form figures of 0P700P00P00040P0070P6

As the stats show, there were however five winners. MISSED APPROACH in the Kim Muir, SALUBRIOUS in the Martin Pipe, ZEMSKY in the Foxhunters back in 2011 and HOT WELD way back in 2006 in the National Hunt Cup.

The fifth winner was DIVERS in 2011 in a novices handicap chase, but that race has since moved to Sandown so that one doesn’t count!

So there you go.

Enjoy Musselburgh today, but enjoy it by not using it as a Festival pointer.