Cheltenham Festival Betting

A horse walks back to scale at the Cheltenham Festival 2007 (Getty Images) The Cheltenham Festival forms the first leg of the horseracing highlight of the year – the Spring Double. Whilst the Grand National meeting – the second leg of the Spring Double – tends to feature a majority of handicap races, the Cheltenham offers up a more diverse mix of races with and without weights which means betting tactics tend to vary from those used at the Grand National.

Whereas the Grand National Handicap system often makes it extremely difficult to predict winners, it also tends to offer longer odds and bigger payouts to punters who make the best picks. In contrast the Cheltenham Festival races run without handicaps have a tendency to produce clear favourites at short Cheltenham Festival odds close to the race.

However, there is more to horse race betting on the Cheltenham Festival than placing all your money on the favourite in any of the events. In the history of the Cheltenham Festival it is not uncommon for long-odds outsiders to take the race and defy the predictions of the Cheltenham Festival betting markets.

Below are a few tips to help you narrow down some of the factors to look at when picking your Cheltenham Festival winners.

Cheltenham Festival Betting Tips

  • Look to form first. Although long-odds outsiders can and have won races at the Cheltenham Festival, including the Gold Cup, form is the basic horse racing betting guideline. Horses that win at the Cheltenham Festival have better than even odds of winning again at the next – though not necessarily the same race. Similarly horses that failed to achieve in a previous festival are statistically unlikely to turn around their form.
  • Look at previous starts: When betting on the big races look out for horses that finished placed in their previous starts. Horses that have not finished placed in a previous running of the same race are statistically highly unlikely to win a big race, whereas previously placed horses have an excellent winning record when it comes to having their second or third go at any of the big races.
  • Look at weights in the handicaps. Handicap races in the Cheltenham Festival tend to be beyond the reach of horses carrying handicaps over 11 stone.