The Cheltenham Festival is the headline event in the horse racing calendar with a flurry of top class racing and plenty of generous betting offers and promotions over the four days.
Cheltenham 2016 starts on Tuesday 15th March until Friday 18th March with the feature race the fourth race on each day; Tuesday the Stan James Champion Hurdle, Wednesday the BetVictor Queen Mother Champion Chase, Thursday the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, Friday the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup. Depending on which statistics you believe the course is expected to welcome over 230,000 racegoers from across the globe and an estimated 600 million pounds will be gambled over the Cheltenham Festival.
Howtobet4free are launching a dedicated Cheltenham Festival page which will provide you with the previews of the races, best odds for featured races, details of our recommended bookmakers to sign up with for the Cheltenham Festival as well as all the details of the best betting offers and promotions for the event. The signup process is very straight forward, and should take no longer than a few minutes. The Cheltenham Festival is arguably the best time of year to sign up with a new bookmaker because of the strong new customer and existing free bet offers.
Tuesday March 15th - Day One - Champions Day
1:30pm Supreme Novices Hurdle
2:10pm Arkle Challenge Trophy
2:50pm Festival Handicap Chase
3:30pm Champion Hurdle
4:10pm David Nicholson Mares Hurdle
4:50pm National Hunt Steeple Chase
5:30pm Centenary Novice Chase
Wednesday March 16th - Day Two - Ladies Day
1:30pm Neptune Investment Hurdle
2:10pm RSA Chase
2:50pm Coral Cup
3:30pm Queen Mother Champion Chase
4:10pm Cross Country Chase
4:50pm Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle
5:30pm Champion Bumper
Thursday March 17th - Day Three - St Patrick's Day
1:30pm JLT Novices Chase
2:10pm Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle
2:50pm Ryanair Chase
3:30pm World Hurdle
4:10pm Byrne Group Plate
4:50pm Kim Muir Challenge Cup
5:30pm Mares Novices Hurdle
Friday March 18th - Day Four - Gold Cup Day
1:30pm JCB Triumph Hurdle
2:10pm County Handicap Hurdle
2:50pm Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle
3:30pm Cheltenham Gold Cup
4:10pm Foxhunter Steeple Chase
4:50pm Conditional Jockeys Hurdle
5:30pm Grand Annual Chase
Day One – Champions Day – 1:30pm Supreme Novice Hurdle / 3:30pm Champion Hurdle
The first day of Cheltenham Festival 2016 generates huge interest, with the Supreme Novice Hurdle kicking things off. The Supreme Novice Hurdle is a race in which the favourite has traditionally rarely won, although the Willie Mullins factor is likely to have an impact here. Willie Mullins has trained the last three consecutive winners including Champagne Fever (2013), Vautour (2014), and Douvan (2015). The favourite Min, is trained by Willie Mullins and will be popular for many, and is currently best priced at 13/8 with SkyBet and worst priced at Evens with BetVictor. The obvious alternative to the favourite is Altior, which is currently best priced at 6/1 with bet365 and worst priced at 5/1 with Paddy Power.
The Champion Hurdle is the feature race of day one, and really gets the Festival going. This build up to this race is dominated by Faugheen who has demolished virtually all in his way and many will wonder if Faugheen can be beaten? Faugheen’s odds have shortened over the last few weeks and is now priced well under evens, with Paddy Power best priced at 2/5 and worst priced with Betfred at 4/11. Given the low odds on Faugheeen, it’s probably wiser to focus on the each-way markets with the ever improving Identity Thief the standout pick at 14/1 (best priced at William Hill) and worst priced at 10/1 with SkyBet.
Day Two – Ladies Day – 3:30pm Queen Mother Champion Chase
Day two and the feature race is the Queen Mother Champion Chase which again features an odds on favourite, Un De Sceaux and is packed with big names and former champions such as Sprinter Sacre and Un De Sceaux. Un De Sceaux is the favourite, best priced at 4/5 with Paddy Power and worst priced with Sportingbet at 8/11. It’s hard to not find compelling reasons to back Un De Sceaux who has a 100% winning records for all races completed.
Cheltenham legend Sprinter Sacre is well worth a look, best priced at 5/1 with Boylesports and worst priced at 9/2 with Coral. Sprinter Sacre is a previous winner and appears to be recovering well this year after a disappointing form last year. Sprinter Sacre is fresh from a good win over Sire De Grugy in the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton and could well trouble Un De Sceaux.
Day Three – St Patrick's Day – 3:30pm World Hurdle
Into the second half of the Cheltenham Festival and the highlight race is the World Hurdle which is a 3 mile Grade One, dominated in the recent past by Big Buck’s. Always a highly competitive event, Cole Harden aims to repeat a strong victory 12 months earlier. Cole Harden is joint third favourite best priced at 8/1 with bet365 and worst priced as low as 15/2 with Sportingbet. Cole Harden has disappointed this year and will need to improve considerably to be in the shakeup this time. Thistlecrack is the favourite and a relatively strong favourite in this race, best priced at odds of 11/8 with Coral and worst priced at odds of evens with William Hill. I have a feeling the odds may drift a little as we get nearer to the start of Cheltenham Festival 2016 on Tuesday 15th March, so I would sit tight for a bigger price. A better value each-way back would be At Fishers Cross, who is best priced 40/1 with Stan James and worst priced at 20/1 with BetfairSportsbook. Fishers Cross has a certain class and is well capable of finishing in the places this time around and given the odds is certainly worth a small wager.
Day Four – Gold Cup Day – 3:30pm Cheltenham Gold Cup
The showcase event and the finale to the biggest week of the year for horse racing, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is exactly what the Cheltenham Festival is all about. It’s an intense and energy sapping 3 miles and 2 ½ furlongs that will push any horse to its absolute limit and guarantees drama. Vantour is the favourite at 4/1 with bet365 and worst priced with Ladbrokes at 7/2, although at those odds I wouldn’t be overly compelled to back Vantour. The race is wide open and I suspect the odds will fluctuate as the weeks roll on so they may be better opportunities to back Vantour and some of the other likely candidates.
There has been a fair amount of attention for Holywell in recent weeks, which is partly driven by the numerous questions of the field in front of him at lower odds. Holywell tends to perform well between February and April and better ground conditions are likely to lead to an improved place on last year’s 4th place finish. With the news that 2015 Gold Cup champion Coneygree will not be running, there is a decent case for backing Holywell each-way. Holywell is currently best priced at 50/1 with bet365 and worst priced at 25/1 with Boylesports.
I hope you’re all looking forward to Cheltenham Festival 2016, and that wets your whistle of what’s to come. As you can see from the above there is a huge discrepancy in the odds offered by one bookmaker to another bookmaker Make sure to stay tuned for more Cheltenham previews, news, and betting offers from Howtobet4free.com as we draw to closer to the biggest week in the year for horse racing.
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Click to ClaimFrancois is one of Howtobet4free’s co-founders and has written many of Howtobet4free’s popular Betting Guides. Francois also helps run the @howtobet4free_ Twitter account
