The Cheltenham Festival features 28 races staged across four days during March each year. The schedule includes 14 Grade One races. The daily line-up is as follows:
The first day of the Cheltenham Festival is Champions Day, where the feature race is the Champion Hurdle over 2 miles. This race could see the unbeaten Supreme winner from last year, Constitution Hill, take on the two-time winner of this race, Honeysuckle.
The card opens with the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, which the famous Cheltenham roar will greet. Look out for Cheltenham betting offers around this race, with many bookmakers offering a money-back special on the first race at Cheltenham.
There are also another two Grade One races on Champions Day with the Arkle and Mares' Hurdle, as well as two competitive handicaps and the Grade Two National Hunt Chase.
Moving on to Day Two and another four Grade One races. The card opens with two Grade One events, the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle, followed by the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase. These two races can produce stars of the future and is a great way to start Ladies Day.
The Coral Cup is the first handicap on the card and can be an especially popular race on betting sites for Cheltenham Festival offers. Look out for extra places at many betting sites with a huge field likely to go to post.
The feature race on the second day is the Grade One Queen Mother Champion Chase over 2 miles. In what is always an exhilarating spectacle, Energumene will be going for back-to-back victories in the race, having won impressively last year.
Day Two also sees the unique Cross Country race, which the dual Grand National winner Tiger Roll has made his own in recent years. Delta Work beat his stablemate Tiger Roll in 2022 and looks set for another tilt at this prize.
The day is rounded off with the Champion Bumper - a flat race for inexperienced horses, which an Irish-trained horse has won for the last six years.
The third day of the Cheltenham Festival is an Irish celebration traditionally known as St Patrick's Thursday. There are another three Grade One's on offer, starting with the Turners Novices' Chase over 2 miles and 4 furlongs.
The Stayers' Hurdle is Thursday's feature race, won by Big Buck's and Inglis Drever in recent years. This time, the Gavin Cromwell-trained Flooring Porter will be going for a hat-trick in the race, having been successful in 2021 and 2022. The other Grade One on the card is the Ryanair Chase, where Allaho is also going for a third successive Cheltenham victory.
Cheltenham saves the best until last, with Gold Cup Day on the fourth and final day of the Festival. Three Grade One races, including the highlight of the week, The Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The Cheltenham Gold Cup is the blue-ribbon event of the National Hunt season. Run over an extended 3 miles and 2 furlongs, it is the ultimate jumping test for any horse. As a result, most of the Cheltenham betting will revolve around this race, and betting sites will offer multiple promotions in the build-up to the Festival.
The two other Grade One races on Friday's card are the Triumph Hurdle and Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle. The afternoon is rounded off with the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle, which has produced some standout performances from horses who have gone on to further Cheltenham Festival success.
The meeting features the top National Hunt horses, jockeys, trainers and owners, and always attracts massive crowds to the Gloucestershire racecourse.
Betting activity goes through the roof when the Festival is on, with on-course bookmakers, betting shops and online sportsbooks all eager to grab a piece of the action.
We’ve shown you the top betting sites for the Cheltenham Festival and what we check before recommending them. Now you need to know what betting features we look for.
Competitive Odds: Given there are so may betting sites to choose from, punters don’t have to settle for second best when it comes to odds. On that basis, we favour bookmakers that offer Best Odds Guaranteed on the Festival.
Variety of Markets: We love sites that go beyond win and each-bets on the Festival. Match bets, winning distance and top jockey are amongst the markets that take the betting experience to another level.
Live Streaming: This one is massively important to us. We much prefer using betting sites that offer live streaming of horse racing. In an ideal world, live streams of the Festival should be available via betting apps if sites are going to make it to the top of our list.
Cheltenham Festival Specials: The best Cheltenham Festival betting sites offer a wide range of special bets before and during the meeting. Enhanced odds and Acca Boosts are amongst the specials we like to see.
10bet offers in-depth coverage of the Cheltenham Festival, with ante-post markets available months ahead of the big event.
Get superb Cheltenham Festival odds at 10bet. With a superb mobile betting app, this is one of the best places to wager on horse racing on the move.
bwin’s comprehensive Cheltenham Festival markets puts many other online sportsbooks to shame.
It is difficult to find fault with bwin’s horse racing service. Live streaming, loads of markets and Best Odds Guaranteed. What’s not to like?
888sport is another sports betting site offering superb Cheltenham Festival coverage, both ante-post and when the meeting gets underway.
Cheltenham Festival punters will be in their element at 888sport, with the site offering wide range of horse racing specials, bonuses and promotions.
The Coral Cup handicap has been a fixture of the Cheltenham Festival since 1993, highlighting the firm’s love for the four-day fixture in March.
With tons of ante-post odds and brilliant coverage during the meeting, you can’t go wrong with Coral for Cheltenham Festival betting.
Given how much success Ireland enjoys at the Festival, it is little wonder that one of its top bookmakers offers fabulous coverage of the meeting.
Boylesports is one of the best independently-owned bookmakers in the business, making it the ideal place to bet on the Cheltenham Festival.
The lead-up to the Cheltenham Festival is the best time to create new online betting accounts to make the most of the standout offers and free bets available. Most betting sites will offer enhanced welcome offers for new customers and provide further promotions throughout the week.
Here we will look at some of the most popular Cheltenham betting offers and how you can use them.
This offer is standard across all online betting sites but will likely be enhanced to give you more Cheltenham free bets. It requires you to bet a certain amount of your own money before receiving free bets for the Cheltenham Festival. Popular Bet and Get offers include. Bet £10, Get £30 in free bets and Bet £5, Get £20 in free bets
These offers usually revolve around a horse viewed by many as the ‘banker’ of the week. The short odds are not likely to entice many new punters, which is where online betting sites come in. They will offer new customers much bigger odds around a particular horse to win, with any extra winnings paid out in free bets. These extra odds can be as big as 20/1 and even 50/1.
This can be a promotion for all customers when placing bets on the Cheltenham Festival. You can get your stake back as a free bet with online betting sites if certain things happen in a race. These are often outcomes such as being beaten by the favourite, falling at the last or finishing second. So it’s important to know which sites offer promotions on different races and place your bets accordingly.
With so much choice on offer during the week, punters can find it challenging to choose which bets to place at Cheltenham.
Here is a list of some of the most popular bets that can be made throughout the week when using betting sites for Cheltenham Festival betting.
Cheltenham Festival betting is also a unique opportunity to take advantage of any special bets that betting sites offer. These could focus on some betting markets such as the following;
You’ve now got most of the information you need about Cheltenham Festival betting sites – now it’s time to look at how to place a bet. The general format is as follows:
Much like horse racing in general, there are lots of things to consider before placing a bet. These include:
Betting on the Festival is like tackling a puzzle. There are many strands to unravel before you get to the final outcome.
All of the races are hugely competitive – the meeting brings together the best horses, so there are no foregone conclusions.
The betting sites we recommend are fully licensed and regulated to offer their services to UK punters.
All of the sites we feature hold licences with the Gambling Commission (UKGC) or other respected organisations responsible for overseeing the betting industry.
These types of regulators keep a tight hold on the betting industry, giving punters peace of mind that their interests are being looked after.
By sticking to the Cheltenham betting sites we feature, you can deposit money and place bets safely and securely.
With 28 races over four days, there are plenty of opportunities to pick winners at the Cheltenham Festival. There will also be loads of content around with tipsters and analysts featuring on podcasts and preview evenings in the build-up to the Festival.
It is always worth paying attention to horses with previous form at the Cheltenham Festival. Many horses return to win year after year, sometimes in the same race but also tackling different races. An example of this is Galopin Des Champs, who is the favourite for the Gold Cup this year. He won the final race in 2021 and would have won at the Festival once more but for a late blunder last year. He will likely run another big race back at a track he loves this year.
Trainers are also crucial when picking a horse to bet at the Cheltenham Festival. Some trainers have an excellent record at the Festival, and in recent years, it has been dominated by Irish runners. Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott are two high-profile trainers who have great chances throughout the week and have yards stacked with quality horses.
Finally, keep an eye on the ground conditions. The ground at Cheltenham is usually good to soft, but different underfoot surfaces suit different horses. If it were to rain significantly in the build-up to the Festival, you would want to be betting on horses who have shown previous form in softer conditions. The betting markets can miss these factors and provide an opportunity for big-priced winners during the week.
