I love weekend's like this one as there's stacks of good racing to watch and it's FA Cup weekend - what more do you need? writes Fred Done

Punters looking to steal a march on the value with their antepost bets on the Cheltenham Festival this week have been steaming in trying to make sure they're on at fancy prices before this weekend's big meetings at Cheltenham and Doncaster.

Plenty of big names will be having their last race before the four day March meeting at one of those tracks tomorrow, and with any winner sure to collapse in price it makes sense to get on early.

Last year's Arkle winner Well Chief looks set to run a big race over the extended two miles in the Victor Chandler Chase at Cheltenham and I've layed the Martin Pipe horse at 5/2 for this race and at 4/1 for the Queen Mother Champion Chase on March 16.

Another Pipe inmate Therealbandit should be favourite for the Pillar Chase at the same course. He fell when going well in this race last year, and if he makes up for that then his current 33/1 quote for the Gold Cup will be around half that price on Sunday morning.

To do that he'll have to beat Ollie Magern, a Gold Cup entry who is my current favourite for the Sun Alliance Chase at 9/2, plus Sir Rembrandt who is 25/1 for this year's Festival highlight, after being narrowly beaten by Best Mate in the big race last year.

Up at Donny there's been a healthy gamble developing this week around Ferdy Murphy's You're A Gassman, another horse who holds a Gold Cup ticket despite still being a novice. Now trading at around the 3/1 mark for their feature race, I layed one bet of £10,000 at 9/2 on Tuesday and smaller stakes at 5/1, with more money at 4/1 and 7/2 registered on the seven-year-old.

Ollie Magern's stablemate Baron Windrush is my 8/1 second favourite for the Doncaster race, plus a 20/1 chance for the Sun Alliance Chase.

Bolton Wanderers have been well backed to take care of lower division opposition in the short journey to Oldham, and at 4/6 could well be a good bet.

El-Hadji Diouf hit the winner at Blackburn on Monday night and is an 11/8 poke to score at any time during Sunday's match. Those of you wanting to back Big Sam's men at bigger odds can do so by supporting them at 6/4 to be winning at half time and at full time, or if you think it'll be level at the break but a Bolton win after 90 minutes, get on at 100/30.

Another game live on the box is the South Coast derby as Southampton entertain Portsmouth. Opinons are divided over this one and you can back the Saints at 5/4 with me or Pompey at 11/5. The hosts rolled over Liverpool 2-0 at home last week, and a repeat scoreline is available at 11/1.

Fred Done