Willie Mullins' Bambino Fever Tipped as Cheltenham Day 3 NAP

Willie Mullins' Bambino Fever heads the market for the Mares' Novices' Hurdle at 1:20pm on Day 3 of the Cheltenham Festival, installed as the tipsters' NAP of the day at 11/10, with Paul Townend booked to ride.

The selection carries genuine form credentials. Bambino Fever won the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham last season and followed up with victory in the Punchestown equivalent, establishing herself as a top-class mare in the bumper sphere. Her hurdling campaign opened shakily, beaten by Gordon Elliott's Oldschool Outlaw on seasonal debut, but she left that form firmly behind with an impressive win at Fairyhouse. As the Myracing analysis puts it: "Paul Townend's mount can reverse the form with her old rival here and has the perfect profile for this sort of race."

That rival, Oldschool Outlaw, is the most credible threat in the race and the price gap between the two is generating real debate. Quoted at 4/1 with William Hill, Gordon Elliott's mare beat Bambino Fever when they last met at Naas in December before producing an even more emphatic display at Fairyhouse, demolishing a field of decent horses. The price discrepancy between the two has been called "baffling" by analysts, with the view that Oldschool Outlaw represents one of the strongest each-way bets of the entire Festival. Elliott, it is worth noting, is having an outstanding season by any measure.

A third runner to watch is Waterford Whispers, trained by Henry de Bromhead. She is expected to find support in the market and could complicate matters for both the favourite and her Irish rival, particularly given the backing she carries as another of JP McManus's runners in the familiar green and gold colours.

The broader context matters here. Bambino Fever arrives at a Cheltenham where Irish-trained runners have dominated the narrative across the first two days, and Day 3 figures to extend that pattern. Mullins has the horse, the jockey, and the profile. What he does not quite have is an uncomplicated path: Oldschool Outlaw has already beaten Bambino Fever once this season and showed at Fairyhouse that the Naas win was no fluke.

The Fairyhouse win from Bambino Fever suggests she has improved sharply since that defeat. Whether she has improved enough to turn the tables on a rival who has also been progressing is the key question the 1:20 will answer.