Cheltenham Festival

The Cheltenham festival in 2018 will take place between the 13th and 16th March.

This year looks to offer another exciting selection of races with Samcro, Next Generation and We Have A Dream all racing for top spot.

Already the entries for the novices’ hurdle races have been announced. The 73 entries for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle include Getabird and Willie Mullins.

The Cheltenham Races are an annual festival that takes place in March - usually around St Patrick’s Day - at the Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham. It brings together the very best racehorses from around Britain and Ireland and offers huge amounts of prize money, second only to the Grand National.

There is an enormous amount of money wagered on the Cheltenham races, with the event - as with the Grand National - one of those that attract the casual bettor as well as the experienced. It is relatively common for punters, more experienced in other forms of sports betting, to till place an annual wager on the Cheltenham races.

Perhaps one of the reasons for it to have established itself so firmly in the British and Irish psyches is because it has existed since 1860 when the National Hunt Chase was first held at Market Harborough. Today, the event is steeped in history and today is best know for the ‘Cheltenham roar’ which refers to the noise generated by the crowd as the starter lifts the tape for the first race.

The festival, which is held over four days, includes a number of races including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and World Hurdle.

The Cheltenham racecourse is situated at Prestbury Park, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. It’s an idyllic setting, nestled at the base of the Cotswold Hills.

The racecourse consists of an old course and a new course that run alongside each other. The new course has a downhill fence and a longer-run than the new course. There is a cross-country course that is only used for cross-country steeplechases.

What better for a traditional British and Irish racing event than some classic cold, damp weather to go with it. The average for that time of year is around 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit and rain is common. Don’t worry about the thousands of attendees, they’ll be nicely wrapped up in their alcohol jacket.

We will keep this page updated nearer the time, but do watch the forecast carefully, as weather will play a huge part in each horses performance.

Cheltenham was last called off due to strong winds in 2008.

The simplest type of bet is to back a particular horse to win. This type of bet is also known as on the nose. We recommend you stick to this type of bet if you are new to betting on this event.

A place bet - means that your horse needs to finish either 1st or 2nd. There is no place bets available for a race with only 1-4 horses and if there are 5-7 runners your horse needs to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd. If it is a handicap race with 16 or more runners, your horse can finish within the first four.

Each-way bet is a combination of a win bet and a place bet - so £10 each-way means a £10 bet on a win and a £10 bet on a place bet. If your horse wins both bets pay out. If your horse is placed, the second part of the bet will pay out.

A show bet is when your horse comes 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

Exotic Wagers refers to a type of bet that allows you to bet on multiple horses.

An Exacta bet is when you predict which exact horses will come in 1st and 2nd. So, for example, a £10 bet on horse 2 and horse 4 will mean that horse 2 will have to come first and horse 4 will have to come second in order for you to win.

A Quinella bet is another type of Exotic Wager and is similar to the Exacta bet, in that you are predicting the first two spots but only in any order. This means that you can name two horses that need to come in the top two spots, only unlike the Exacta bet you do not need to get the right order. So, for example, a £10 bet on horses 2 and 4 will pay out if both horses make the first two spots.

A Trifecta is one of the most difficult exotic wagers you can make. To win you need to predict the exact order of the first three spots in a race. So, for example, you place a wager on horse 3 to finish 1st, horse 5 to finish 2nd and horse 6 to finish 3rd. All these horses need to finish in that exact order for you to win.

A Superfecta bet is the most difficult, this is the same as the Trifecta bet but without the ‘Tri’. With this bet you need to predict the exact order of the first four places in the race.