Where have all the favourites gone?

What a disastrous start to Cheltenham for the punters: 13 races run and only two favourites have come in and both of those for Ruby Walsh; only the bookmakers are happy; even their share prices rose yesterday, so what is going on? In the thirteen races we have had eleven different jockeys with winners; only B.J. Geraghty and Ruby Walsh have had two each. The winning odds have been exceptional, 12/1, 6/1, 33/1, 9/1, 25/1, 14/1, 7/1, 10/1, 10/1, 14/1, 40/1 and finally Ruby Walsh who has ridden two favourites to victory at 6/4 and 4/1 but look at Geraghty’s winners, 10/1 and 14/1. This seems to tell us that the arguably top jockeys Walsh, McCoy and Geraghty know more about picking winners than the bookmakers as they have 5 out of the 13 winners between them. But then who determines which horses are the favourites anyway? The bookmakers of course! Large betting activity will influence a horses price but how many folk simply bet on the favourite because it is the favourite or in other words how many people will bet on what the bookmakers suggest? No wonder they are doing well. There are still two days to go but following the top jockeys seems to be a better bet than following the favourite. The alternative is to stick to online casinos, at least you know what the odds are and slot machines or roulette tables do not have off days and blackjack does not depend on the underfoot conditions