Cheltenham has survived the wet weather and goes ahead on Saturday. The feature on the card is the BetVictor Gold Cup. We previewed this race in a previous article and concluded that Saint Calvados ticks most of the boxes. However, the horse has not been declared to run but Spiritofthegames is a viable alternative at 15/2 (8.50) with Ladbrokes.

Sunday's card is not currently under threat from more rain. The Greatwood Handicap Hurdle is one of the highlights. Monsieur Lecog has a decent profile and can justify favouritism at 9/2 (5.50) with William Hill. The horse fits the bill for potential winners. Monsieur Lecoq is aged five and carries 11-08. Four of the last five winners were aged 5 and five in the last decade carried more than 11 stone.

It's a testimony to the ground staff that Cheltenham is on over the weekend. Local trainers said that the torrential rain earlier in the week was the worst in living memory. Drying conditions have helped the cause but the going will be soft and heavy in places. Monsieur Lecoq won a decent race on soft going at Chepstow last month. Spiritofthegames was a soft ground winner in the past.

There should be a crowd approaching Festival proportions at Cheltenham on Saturday. However, potentially the best horse could be running in Ireland. Klassical Dream is the 1/2 (1.50) favourite with Coral to win the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle. This two mile and 110 yards contest is often a stepping stone to the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March.

Klassical Dream is currently the favourite for the two-mile hurdlers' championship. The Willie Mullins trained horse was an impressive winner of the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the 2019 Festival. His closest market rival is Buveur d'Air, the dual winner of the Champion Hurdle but a faller in this year's race. Bookmakers go 10/1 bar Klassical Dream and the former champion.

Klassical Dream must be a good winner of the Morgiana Hurdle to contend in the hurdle race that matters most. Saldier and Sharjah also represent Mullins and he is long odds-on to train the winner. He has won the race nine times, from 1993 to 2018, when he prepared Sharjah to prevail. The leading jockey with six wins is Paul Carberry who has retired.

Here are some 10 year betting facts that can help you pinpoint the betting trend horses for the Morgiana Hurdle:

• The average starting price of the winners was just 9/5 to 11/1.
• The SP's ranged from 1/16 to 7/1.
• There were 7 winning favourites of which 4 started at odd-on.
• No winners started at double-figure odds.
• 5 winners were returned at 4/11 to 11/10/1.

At odds-on Klassical Dream fits the betting profile for potential winners. The race is a graded race and every horse carries 11-10. Horses aged 5 to 11 have won the Morgiana Hurdle since the start of the century. The winning-most age is 5 with four wins since 2001. Willie Mullins has won the last eight Morgiana Hurdles and Charles Byrnes trained the previous two winning horses. Mullins is in excellent shape to win the race for the 10th time.

Klassical Dream was one of the leading novice hurdlers last season and won the championship race in the discipline over two miles. He took his form to a new level with a decisive win in the Irish Novices' Hurdle last April, prevailing with a Racing Post Rating (RPR) of 160. Sharjah has a best RPR of 168 which the horse achieved in winning the 2018 race.

However, Klassical Dream is progressive and can put down a marker for the 2020 Champion Hurdle by winning the Punchestown race on Saturday. It's a busy day for racing in the UK and Ireland, weather permitting. The soft-ground specialists have a major advantage on the surface. Klassical Dream won on soft ground at the Cheltenham Festival in March.