Saint Calvados can be backed at +1200 with online bookmakers to win Saturday's BetVictor Gold Cup, and that is a price worth taking for the Cheltenham handicap chase. The three day meeting at the home of jumps racing in the UK is the first major fixture of the National Hunt season.

The Cheltenham Festival in March is the culmination of the campaign, but there are some valuable prizes from now until Christmas. Saint Calvados has the form to win the race at the weekend on the Old Course at Cheltenham over two miles and four furlongs.

The Old Course and New Course at Cheltenham are both left-handed ovals of about one and a half miles in circumference. Both tracks are undulating with an uphill finish which should suit Saint Calvados. The Old Course is sharper and that is another positive for the selection.

The BetVictor Gold Cup has been run under several guises and has had a number of title sponsors. The race was first run in 1960 and was called the Mackeson Gold Cup. The race is a handicap in which the horses negotiate 16 fences over one and a half circuits of Cheltenham's younger track.

Five horses have recorded two wins in the race, but there has never been a three-time winner. The leading jockey is the retired Tony McCoy, who won the race four times between 1998 and 2006. Martin Pipe is the most successful trainer with eight winners from 1987 to 2005.

Here are some 10-year betting trends that can help you pinpoint the leading contenders:

• The average starting price of the winners was just over +1100
• The SPs ranged from +550 to +2500
• There was one winning favourite
• Four winners started at double-figure odds
• Five winners were returned at +700 to +800

Saint Calvados is in the right price range, but Spritofthegames can currently be backed at +700 with Ladbrokes. That horse is aged seven and carries 11 stones and three pounds, which fits in the profile of some of the recent winners.

A horse aged six or seven has won 12 of the last 17 runnings of the Gold Cup. Baron Alco was a winning seven-year-old last season and since 1999, 45% of the winners have been that age. The age range of the winners over the last 20 years is five to nine for a race in which horses aged four and older are eligible. Weight is another important factor in a race of this nature.

Seven of the winners over the last decade have carried under 11 stone. The weight range of the winning horses since 2009 is 10-03 to 11-11. Saint Calvados is the top weight this time and carries 11-12. The winner of the BetVictor Gold Cup has never had that burden this century.

However, Saint Calvados ticks several of the boxes and has a decent form profile in the context of the Cheltenham race. The horse has been thrown in at the deep end at the last two Cheltenham festivals and while found wanting at Grade 1 level, it has course form.

Saint Calvados won a Class 2 handicap chase at Cheltenham at the end of last month as the +250 favourite over two miles. Carrying the top weight of 11-12, the horse made smooth headway from half way and kept on gamely up the hill. The undulations of Cheltenham will not inconvenience our selection for the BetVictor Gold Cup.