Thistlecack's Bumpy Road to the 2018 Cheltenham Festival

The Cheltenham Festival might still be a few months away. But this doesn’t stop racing enthusiasts and punters from forecasting next year’s big event. Now, Thistlecrack makes his way to the headlines after a series of fortunate events that brings him closer to competing in the 2018 Cheltenham.

This is the case despite the seemingly disappointing year this Thoroughbred horse had. 2017 proved to be a disaster for him after sustaining an injury. This led to him missing a number of races for the National Hunt. Fortunately, the 9-year-old is reported to be on his road to recovery.

Because of this, it’s pretty likely that we’ll see him again in next year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup. Thistlecrack sustained a torn tendon which led to his absence in this year’s Cheltenham. But after just a few months, Joe Tizzard referred to his horse’s status to be perfect.

Now, everything is clear for the gelding as he’s expected to compete in the upcoming Kempton’s King George this coming Boxing Day. Not only is this a form of preparation, but this will also be a means to gauge the horse’s condition.

Reports also have it that Thistlecrack is one of the favorites in the upcoming races, together with Sizing John. The only thing that stops him from getting maximum hype is the few sponsors. This might be due to the past injury he sustained.

Despite this, there are still a lot of punters expecting to see Thistlecrack back in the racing game. This is thanks to the 8 wins over 11 starts he had. But because his last hurdle race was way back in April of 2016, he should first go through a series of conditioning or preparatory races. This coming Boxing Day's tournament is a pretty good answer to this need.

It’s also worth considering that Thistlecrack had a few jumping errors during the Chepstow race last October of 2016. But this wasn’t much of a problem as it’s currently undergoing a serious training campaign. The gelding was also foot perfect during the King George event.

Now that the Cheltenham Gold Cup proves to be the perfect avenue for Thistlecrack to regain his lost glory, it’s safe to say that you can get your Cheltenham 2018 betting offers at Freebets.co.uk as early as now.

Why? It’s because the odds speak for the high victory chances of Thistlecrack. He currently has a strong 12/1 betting odds, the same as other high-caliber horses like Finians Oscar and Penhill.

Though the odds aren’t perfect for him, it’s still a close call to the 6/1 and 10/1 odds of Nichols Canyon and Faugheen. And it’s not really much of a problem as Thistlecrack’s doing far better than more popular horses like Apples Jade and Supasundae. The two horses currently have 14/1 and 16/1 odds.

With this being said, there’s no doubt that Thistlecrack is going to do a pretty good job in the 2018 Cheltenham. It’s just a matter of time he proves his pundits wrong.