THREE winning favourites on the opening day of the 2018 Cheltenham Festival will have ensured that plenty of punters kept their heads above water, but one of the week’s biggest hotpots got turned over in the Mares’ Hurdle and must have scuppered a fair few accumulators in the process.

On all known form, Apple’s Jade should have won comfortably, and she was sent off at long odds-on, but she had an off day and could finish only third. Again, the overall time was nothing to write home about, and after a bit of digging I think I discovered why.