Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

What would you do if you won a million pounds? Would it change your life? Spending the money is the easy part, knowing how to win it is the key – and I have a cunning plan.

Instead of pinning your hopes on six coloured balls in the National Lottery, where the odds are nearly 14 million to one, select six horses at the Cheltenham Festival instead. The odds of winning a million pounds from a bookmaker are, well... 1,000,000 – 1.

Here’s a bet that I prepared earlier. You don’t have to use the same horses, it can be a lot of fun waving that pin! The bet is an accumulator on six horses where the winnings from the first horse roll on to the second, and so on.

Horse no.1 is Knockara Beau in Tuesday’s JLT Speciality Chase. He’s a grand type of horse and a previous winner at Cartmel. Knockara’s been knocking around for a while and he’s not one of those improving youngsters, so he is a big price at 25/1.

Next up is Zarkander in the Champion Hurdle at 4/1. He won the Triumph Hurdle two years ago and was too young to win this race last year. Five year olds have a poor record in the race, which is the only reason I haven’t suggested another Cartmel favourite Countrywide Flame. It’s always nice to follow a horse that you’ve seen in the flesh, particularly if they’ve won at Cartmel, which is why I am siding with She Ranks Me (16/1) in the Mares Hurdle. She has the mighty Quevega to beat, but she’s already picked up two listed races since her Cartmel victory in August.

Previous Festival winners often perform well again in the Championship races and I hope the former Supreme Novices Hurdle winner Menorah (10/1) will do the business for Philip Hobbs in the Ryanair Chase on Thursday.

Sadly (for you) I am writing this before I can gather the sound advice of the panellists at our Cheltenham Preview Night on Thursday evening. But I’m still going to put in Ferdy Murphy’s chaser Divers at 16/1. I hope he agrees with me – if you want to find out, check the blog on the Cartmel Racecourse website over the weekend.

You’ll be quite excited by Friday if those five have all won – so you might not feel up to watching Silviniaco Conti (4/1) in the Gold Cup, which would be a shame as I am sure he will win by a long way.

The total odds are 2,066,350 – 1.  But remember that the maximum pay-out is likely to a million, so you really only need to stake 50p. If you want you to stake a full pound, you can make your bet each-way; that way you’ll gain a consolation if they all finish second! If you’re as confident as I am, save the change for a bag of sweets.

And if I won a million? I’d like to visit a racecourse every day and spend my time talking about racing – so no change there then.