The Cheltenham Festival Horse Racing Event

The Cheltenham Festival is a National Hunt race meeting,
featuring a number of races over fences and hurdles.

The Grand National meeting at Aintree is the only National
Hunt meet that awards more prize money than the Cheltenham
Festival, which takes place every year in March at the
Cheltenham Racecourse. It’s one of the biggest horse racing
betting events in Britain, and hundreds of millions are gambled
during its four days. The Cheltenham Festival attracts huge
audiences and is well known for having one of the best
atmospheres.

The horses at the Festival are typically leading jump horses
from Great Britain and Ireland with very few international
horses taking part. That said, a number of French trained horses
can usually be expected most years. The biggest race at the
Cheltenham Festival is the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which was the
first championship race to be held as part of the meeting. These
days there are four championship races, one on each of the four
days for a total of 27 races overall.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is held on the last day of the
Cheltenham Festival (traditionally a Friday) and is the most
prestigious of the race meeting. It is, in fact, one of the
biggest of all the annual National Hunt races. It’s run over 3
miles and 2.5 furlongs, and there are a total of 22 fences that
the horses must jump. The race was established in 1924 and is
open to five-year-olds and older. The total prize pool for the
race is around £500,000, and there have been some illustrious
winners throughout its history: Arkle, Desert Orchid, Best
Mate, and Kauto Star to name just a few.

Other Races at the Cheltenham Festival

As mentioned, each of the four days of racing at the
Cheltenham Festival features a championship race as well as
several others. The main race on the first day is the Champion
Hurdle open to horses aged four years and older, who run a
distance of just over 2 miles. The race was founded in 1927 and
currently has a prize pool on offer of over £350,000. Other
races on the first day include the Supreme Novices Hurdles and
the Arkle Challenge Trophy.

Day two of the Cheltenham Festival has seven races, the main
one being the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Established in 1959,
it’s run over 2 miles and is open to five-year-olds and over.
Two other notable races on the second day are the National Hunt
Steeple Chase and the Champion Bumper. The main race on day
three is the World Hurdle, a 3-mile race with 12 hurdles to
jump. It’s open to horses aged four years and older and has a
prize pool of around £250,000.

Betting on the 2024 Festival

With four days of racing and a total of 28 races, there are
plenty of betting opportunities at the Cheltenham Festival. Like
most National Hunt racing, the races are often unpredictable,
and it’s not always easy to pick winners. However, if you spend
a bit of time studying the form guide, you are sure to find a
few good value bets: particularly if you are betting each way.
There are usually a number of other outcomes you can bet on at
the Cheltenham Festival, such as which jockey will ride the most
winners over the four days.

Of the many ways to bet on horse racing, the simplest is
probably to use an online bookmaker. There are a large number of
online betting sites on the Internet, most covering horse racing
reasonably comprehensively. The top UK gambling sites will
almost certainly have a wide range of betting markets on the
Cheltenham Festival. There are a few online betting sites that
we believe are particularly good when it comes to horse racing
betting. For further details, please visit our page outlining
the best horse racing sites.