For the third of our best ante posts for the Cheltenham Festival in March, we are going to suggest a horse that didn't run over Christmas and, in fact, hasn't run over hurdles all season.
Whilst Punchestowns' impressive victory in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in December rightly propelled him to the head of the market for the World Hurdle, it is the current second favourite, KASBAH BLISS, who makes more appeal to us.
He was second to the great Inglis Drever in the race last year and with that horse's future sadly now in doubt after he was injured on his last start at Newbury, the way is clear for a new star in the staying division and there is every reason to believe that Kasbah Bliss will return to action a significantly better horse than he was last season.
For starters, he was in the form of his life on the Flat in the summer where his performances included an excellent fourth in the Group 1 Prix Du Cadran at Longchamp's Arc meeting, when he had the legendary stayer Yeats behind him.
The second reason for such optimism is that Francois Doumen has been bullishly reporting that the horse has really grown up in recent months and is now the finished article.
Doumen certainly knows what it takes to win this race, as he trained Baracouda to win it twice, and with Kasbah Bliss only beaten a length last year he doesn't need to improve much to go one better.
In fact, we think he'll return a significantly better horse and with the World Hurdle starting to look very much like a two horse race, Punchestowns may have to go some to beat this proven championship stayer.
3-1 is currently widely available, and Kasbah Bliss could easily turn out to be one of the bankers of this year's Festival.
Other ante post bets to consider at this stage include:
Walkon (7-1) - Triumph Hurdle
Albertas Run e/w (16-1) - Gold Cup
Wichita Lineman (7-1) - National Hunt Chase
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