Betting On The Cheltenham Festival
The Cheltenham Festival is a hugely popular horse racing meeting. It is among the most celebrated race meets in the National Hunt racing calendar. This four day festival takes place annually at the Cheltenham Racecourse in Gloucestershire, England. The pinnacle of the festival is the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which is run on the final day.
Betting on the 2012 Cheltenham Festival
The Cheltenham Festival in 2012 takes place from the 13th March until the 16th March. The main race – the Cheltenham Gold Cup – will be run on Friday 16th March. As usual, there are host of hopeful runners and once again Kauto Star and Long Run are among the favourites for the race. Big Bucks is scheduled to run in the World Hurdle on the Thursday, attempting to win that race for an unprecedented fourth year running. There are lots of other interesting races with plenty of betting opportunities and most online bookmakers will be listing odds well in advance of the festival. If you are looking for somewhere to bet on the 2012 Cheltenham Festival, then please have a look at the page on Horse Racing Betting Sites for recommendations of the best options.
Best Cheltenham Betting Sites
All about the Cheltenham Festival Horse Races
The annual Cheltenham Festival is a massive event in the racing calendar. It is phenomenally popular among fans of National Hunt racing and attracts huge audiences each year – from England, Ireland and around the world. The festival is a real favourite among the punters and there are hundreds of millions gambled on the races over the four days.
The Cheltenham Festival was historically run over just three days, but this was changed in 2005. There are four championship races, and one is run on each of the four days. The Cheltenham Gold Cup was established in 1924 and was the first Championship race to take place at the festival. This remains the premier race of the Cheltenham Festival and is run on the Friday each year. 1927 saw the introduction of the Champion Hurdle, which is the first Championship race to be run at the festival each year on the Tuesday. Wednesday see the running of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, first run in 1958. The most recently introduced of the four races is the World Hurdle (also known as the Stayers Hurdle) which was established in 1972 and takes place on the Thursday each year.
Each year, the jockey who wins the most races during the Cheltenham Festival is named as the top jockey for the festival. There have been some illustrious names to win the top jockey award at Cheltenham Festival, and most recently Ruby Walsh has been dominant – having been named top jockey six out of the eight festivals between 2004 and 2011.
In contrast to many of the top flat racing events in the UK and Ireland, the Cheltenham Festival does not tend to attract much in the way of internationally trained horses. There have been some French trained horses do well – most notably Baracouda who twice won the World Hurdle – and some horses from Australia and the US do make the trip. However, the vast majority of the horses that compete at the Cheltenham Festival are trained in either Britain or Ireland.