My Eventful Cheltenham Festival: A Five-Horse Accumulator as I Embrace My Inner Enthusiast

I don’t really believe that, I do the same stuff every week and am very comfortable with it, but in the spirit of trying something that everyone else seems to enjoy, I’ve had a go at putting together an ante-post accumulator for the Cheltenham Festival.

Accas are a very muggy way to bet because the margin in favour of the bookmaker just keeps getting bigger the more selections you add. When you place an acca, you have basically abandoned all chance of getting the value and are instead crossing your fingers for a hefty payout. It is neither big nor clever.

But the Racing Post does not aspire to be a sort of Gambling Governess, cracking a ruler over your knuckles when you’re about to do something naughty. We don’t insist on you having broccoli with every meal and not every bet has to be the product of a series of ruthless calculations and never-ending patience, like one of those extraordinarily wily movie assassins who would have to be getting paid £30,000 a kill just to break even. Every so often, you’re allowed to chuck over a grenade and hope for the best.