How Successful Have Sir Alex Ferguson’s Horses Been?
Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has spent a great deal of time and money acquiring horses to race competitively and currently owns an incredible 32 horses, some of which are expected to race this week at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.
Let’s dive straight in to discover how successful Alex Ferguson’s horses have been since they have taken part in various major races over the past few years on the UK horse racing calendar.
How much prize money has Sir Alex Ferguson’s horses won?
According to reports, Sir Alex Ferguson’s horses have won close to £7,000,000 in prize money, which could climb above this at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival. Since shifting away from football and focusing more on his hobby, Ferguson’s horse racing hobby has become very profitable.
His most notable horse and his newest horse, Spirit Dancer, won several feature races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The prize money collected from both came to around £1,707,530.
Which of Ferguson’s horses might be worth betting on at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival?
Six of Alex Ferguson’s horses are expected to compete at the Cheltenham Festival, which gets under on Tuesday 12 March and will run until Friday 15. His six horses running at Cheltenham this year are the following:
- Monmiral
- Il Ridoto
- Sonigino
- L’Eau Du Sud
- Hitman
- Protektorat
Protektorak currently has the best Cheltenham odds compared to the other five horses owned by Ferguson and has a much better chance of winning some prize money.
Sonigino will be the first to race and is expected to take part in the coral cup, which starts at 14:50 on Wednesday, 13 March. This same horse will also be his last to race at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, running in the Martin Pipe Handicap on day 4 (the final day) at 17:30.
According to experts and tipsters, two of Sir Alex Ferguson’s horses with the best chance of winning the most prize money are Protektorat and Hitman.
They are both running in the Ryanair Chase at 14:50 on day one. The winner of this race will walk away with £211,013, which would add to Ferguson’s already impressive winnings.
Twelve horses are expected to race in the Ryanair Chase (Class 1) (Grade 1) (GBB Race), and Protektorat is currently priced at around 10/1 in the fractional odds format, meaning there’s a 9.10% implied probability rate of this horse actually winning the race.
In comparison, Hitman is currently priced at around 20/1, with only a 4.80% implied probability rate of winning. Banbridge, currently priced at around 3/1 (25/00% IPR), is the odds-on favourite to win this race outright.
The second odds-on favourite to win behind Banbridge is Envoi Allen at 7/1. You then have Stage Star at 4/1 and Capodanno at 7/1. Other runners include Conflated (also 7/1), Ahoy Snor (10/1), Fil D’or (10/1), Fugitif (16/1), Ga Law (16/1), and Millers Bank (66/1 – the least favourite).
Ferguson has a feeling that Hitman will do well in the race, but others think that Protektorat has a better chance of winning or at least placing.
If you don’t want to place an outright bet on either of these horses to win the Ryanair Chase, don’t forget that most iGaming sites with sports betting services also have E/W (Each Way) betting markets, which pay for first, second, or third place finishes.
Final thoughts
Now that you know the names of Sir Alex Ferguson’s horses that will be racing at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, don’t forget to keep an eye out for them.
You can watch the action unfold from various sports streaming websites or live on television, and the first race is set to begin at 13:30 on Tuesday, 12 March.
