Punters backing Cooper to sweep Cheltenham Festival 2017 Top Jockey betting

Geraghty injury sends punters towards Cooper

Cheltenham Festival

Ruby Walsh has been the tour de force at the Cheltenham Festival since he first landed the top jockey prize there back in 2004. He has come away from the Festival as the top jockey ten times in his illustrious career over the last 13 seasons and you have a price of 8/13 at bookmaker Paddy Power on him being crowned the top jockey again this year.

However, punters are not seeing him as the banker that perhaps he would be expecting to be for his year’s festival and Bryan Cooper has taken a lot of backing at a price of 10/1. At the start of the week, there was a heavy, heavy amount of support coming in for Cooper and that has seen Walsh move a little to 1/2 from 1/3 to be crowned top jockey this year at the Cheltenham Festival.

So why the heavy opposition coming in for Walsh?

Well last year Walsh was running at 1/3 to claim the top jockey award and he had a much bigger variety of chances than he does this time out. Walsh will be missing the bankers of Vautor, Annie Power and Min in his rides this season, and even though he will get some fantastic connections under his belt through the Willie Mullins stable, punters are seeing that this is as good a time to oppose him as ever before.

Bryan Cooper could potentially be going in Petit Mouchoir, A Toi Phil, Apple’s Jade, All Hell Let Loose, Shattered Love, Alpha Des Obeaux, Tombstone, Dinaria Des Obeaux, Disko, Sutton Manor, Empire Of Dirt, Lord Scoundrel, Barra, Death Duty, Outlander and Tell Us More to name just a few.

While that is a lot of chances for Cooper, who is benefiting from the injury to Barry Geraghty of course who misses the Festival, when you look across their top five rides respectively at the Cheltenham Festival 2017, Walsh has taken a much higher percentage of bets per race than Cooper has for his. For example, 38% in the Champion Chase bets so far have been on Walsh’s Douvan, while only 14% of bets in the Mares’ Hurdle have been for Cooper’s Apple’s Jade. So while the chances are there for Cooper, punters aren’t backing them as heavily as they are on Walsh’s main charges.

Cheltenham Festival 2017 Top Jockey Odds

Ruby Walsh 1/2, Noel Fehily 7/1, Mark Walsh 8/1, Bryan Cooper 10/1, Richard Johnson 16/1.

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