Cheltenham Betting 2008

The National Hunt season is upon us once again and there can be no doubt that, far and away, the highlight of the jump season is the wonderful and historic Cheltenham Festival

The Cheltenham Betting Arena

This, the most prestigious meeting in the National Hunt calendar, can be traced back as early as 1815 with its origins on Nottingham Hill before it moved to its present site at Prestbury Hill in 1902. It takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Racecourse with this year?s meeting taking place on 11-14 March.

It`s prestige and, perhaps because it usually coincides with St. Patrick?s Day, has made the Festival hugely popular with Irish visitors and more than 10,000 racegoers make the pilgrimage from Ireland to Cheltenham each year.

In fact, the meeting has become something of a battle between the Irish and the British to see which can train the most winners. If you feel like a change from predicting the winning horses you will find odds on the total number of Irish winners at the meeting or, indeed, the number of pints of Guinness served over the four days (hint ? last year it was just under 200,000!).

For those with a love of jump races there can be no finer offering of prestigious events than the Cheltenham Festival with four championship races, six other Grade One events and a multitude of supporting races.

Cheltenham Betting Races

There are 24 races in all, including the Champion Bumper, Arkle Challenge Trophy, Champion Hurdle, World Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and the jewel in the crown, the Cheltenham Gold Cup where runners have to jump 22 fences over three miles two and a half furlongs. The meeting was extended from the traditional three days to four in 2005 simply to accommodate the rich array of racing on offer.

Cheltenham Betting Options

Top Trainer and Jockey betting is available and, to help you with this, as well as when looking for the winners in your Cheltenham Betting campaign, it?s always useful to look at the trends of previous meets and seek out the trainers who provided the winners, the jockeys and the ages of the winning horses.

Last year?s champion Trainer was Paul Nicholls, also a winner of the Gunness Festival Award, who trained Kauto Star, the winner of the Gold Cup; Robert Chocolate Thornton pipped Ruby Walsh for Top Rider while 13 of the last 14 Cheltenham Gold Cup winners were aged between seven and nine. But this year, Kauto Star will have to fight off the fierce challenges from Denman.

The Cheltenham Betting Rewards

On top of the £3 million offered in prize money, hundreds of millions of pounds are wagered at Cheltenham, often millions of pounds on each race. Tremendous energy is applied to the scrutiny of contenders and the prediction of winners. The atmosphere generated by the excitement of it all is wonderful and best characterised by the ?Cheltenham Roar?, a huge noise produced by the crowd as the horses enter the home straight and long run in.

Prime yourself for Cheltenham

Punters interested in the Cheltenham Festival will do well to follow events at earlier Cheltenham meets such as the Festival Trials Day where many potential Festival winners will be running.

Representing the finest bloodstock on the planet and with the best trainers and jockeys in the world there can be no greater revelation of the magnificence of attainment that these dedicated people have achieved. The Cheltenham Festival must surely be the Olympics of jump racing.

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