With the start of the Cheltenham Festival just days away, and most of the racecourse clues now done and dusted, we caught up with Coral’s senior horseracing trader, John Priddey, to find out the five horses that have caused the most ripples in the ante-post markets, as well as the big mover who unfortunately won’t be hitting the bookies for six at Prestbury Park.

Michael O’Sullivan Supreme Novices’ Hurdle – Salvator Mundi

This horse was a big social media tip during the summer months, although we’d first quoted him for the Festival opener at 20/1 a year ago. His odds dipped to as low as 3/1 after he won the Moscow Flyer at Punchestown in January, although he has since eased in the betting following his stablemate Kopek Des Bordes’ impressive victory at the Dublin Racing Festival. Despite this, he remains by far the biggest loser in the Festival ante-post book.

Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase – Dancing City

Another Willie Mullins-trained runner, we first quoted him at 33/1 when he finished third in last year’s Albert Bartlett, and that price soon disappeared once it became clear he'd be going chasing this season. Two wins over fences saw those odds shorten again, and while the bulk of our liability came from early season bets before it became clear his stablemate Ballyburn would also take this route, there are plenty of customers still sitting pretty at double figure odds.

Boodles Gold Cup – Galopin Des Champs

Despite winning the last two Gold Cups, this fellow was as big as 7/2 for the hat-trick after losing out to Fact To File and Spillane's Tower in the John Durkan back in November. At that stage we sensed there might be a changing of the guard in the staying chase division, but his loyal followers kept the faith and have been totally vindicated ever since. Successive wins at Leopardstown have shown he’s as good as ever, and already odds-on, he's set to go off as the shortest priced Gold Cup favourite in recent memory.

Weatherbys Champion Bumper – Windbeneathmywings

We’ve only seen this 5-y-o in action once this season, but after a 14 length demolition job of his rivals at Ascot before Christmas, punters couldn't get enough of David Pipe's charge at odds of 10/1 and 8/1. Those bets looked even stronger when the Dublin Racing Festival failed to produce a big contender, although we held out at the top price for a long time and unsurprisingly continued to see support. Since then however, the Willie Mullins duo of Gameofinches and Copacabana have come into the picture, givjng us some hope of avoiding a hefty payout.

Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase – Busselton

One from left-field, we've accrued a fairly big losing number on this horse following a rush of bets in the Non runner, money back book. He seems to have been one of the big whispers on the Cheltenham Preview circuit, and as a result, Joseph O'Brien's chaser has been backed into as short as 8/1 from 25/1 in the last fortnight. He has had two sighters at the course this season, plus the classic 'Tiger Roll' Boyne Hurdle spin, so is one we’ll be keeping a very close eye on.

And one that got away...

My Pension Expert Arkle Trophy – Sir Gino

This exciting talent was heavily backed at prices as big as 10/1 around the time of his Fighting Fifth Hurdle win, and was as short as 4/5 after his amazing chasing debut at Christmas. We also laid him in plenty of doubles with his stablemate, Constitution Hill, with the latter going for the Champion Hurdle. Very sadly ruled out of the Festival in February, despite the fact he would have carried an ugly red number in our ante-post book, we’d loved to have seen him take on Majborough in what could have been a classic Festival encounter.