The Cheltenham Festival is the biggest week in jump racing and the biggest betting week of the British sporting year outside a World Cup summer. Four days, twenty-eight races, and a betting turnover that no other meeting comes close to. It runs in March at Prestbury Park, and the ante-post markets on its feature races open the previous autumn. This page covers how festival betting works, the terms that decide whether a bet is worth taking, and the offers worth having before the week starts. It stays here between festivals.

The four days

Each day is built around a championship race, and the character of the betting changes as the week goes on. Knowing which day a race falls on matters more than it sounds, because the ground changes across four days of heavy traffic and the market reacts to it.

Day one

Opens with the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, traditionally the race that sets the tone for the week and produces the loudest roar in British racing. The Arkle Challenge Trophy is the two-mile novice chase championship. The day’s championship race is the Champion Hurdle, over two miles and a furlong, and the Mares’ Hurdle closes the main action. Day one is the sharpest betting day of the week: the fields are large, the form is fresh, and ante-post positions taken months earlier are settled within a few hours.

Day two

The Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle and the staying novices’ chase are the principal novice events, and the Queen Mother Champion Chase is the day’s championship race – two miles over fences, and usually the fastest and most decisive contest of the festival. The Cross Country Chase, run over banks and unusual obstacles, is the festival’s oddity and a race where course form counts for far more than the ratings.

Day three

St Patrick’s Thursday, and the day with the strongest Irish representation. The Turners Novices’ Chase and the Ryanair Chase sit either side of the Stayers’ Hurdle, the championship race over three miles. Staying hurdle form is the most reliable of the four championship divisions year to year, which makes this the day where the market is usually closest to right.

Day four

Gold Cup day. The Triumph Hurdle opens it, the County Hurdle is the week’s most competitive handicap, and the Cheltenham Gold Cup over three miles two and a half furlongs is the race the whole meeting is built around. By day four the ground has taken four days of racing, and stamina counts for more than the going description suggests.

The terms that decide whether a Cheltenham bet is worth taking

More than any other meeting, Cheltenham betting is decided by the terms attached to a price rather than the price itself. Four of them do most of the work.

Non-runner no bet

This is the single most important term in festival betting. Ante-post prices on the championship races are available from the autumn, but a horse that does not make the line-up is normally a losing bet – the stake is gone whether it was withdrawn on the morning of the race or ruled out in December. Non-runner no bet removes that risk: if your selection does not run, the stake is returned.

Bookmakers apply it to the big festival races at different times, usually stepping in one race at a time from January onwards. The trade-off is straightforward. Prices before non-runner no bet applies are longer, because you are carrying the risk of withdrawal. Prices after it applies are shorter, because you are not. Jump horses miss targets often, so taking a shorter price with the term is frequently the better value, and it is worth checking which races a bookmaker has extended it to before placing an ante-post bet.

Each-way terms and extra places

Cheltenham handicaps regularly attract twenty or more runners, and the standard each-way terms – a quarter of the odds, first three places – are the baseline rather than the offer. During the festival most firms extend to four, five or six places on the big handicaps. The difference between three places and five in a twenty-four runner handicap is enormous, and far more valuable than a small difference in the win price.

Read which races the extra places apply to. They are usually confined to named handicaps rather than every race on the card, and the place fraction sometimes shortens from a quarter to a fifth when the place count is extended.

Best odds guaranteed

If you take an early price and the starting price is bigger, the bet is settled at the larger of the two. It costs nothing and it removes the main disadvantage of taking a price in the morning. Almost every firm offers it on British and Irish racing, though some cap it – by stake, by number of bets per day, or by excluding ante-post bets. The cap is the part worth checking.

Rule 4 deductions

When a horse is withdrawn after a market has formed but before the race is run, the remaining bets are reduced by a deduction proportional to the withdrawn horse’s price. A short-priced favourite coming out can take a substantial slice off a winning bet. It is a normal part of racing settlement rather than anything unusual, but it catches people out when a fancied horse is withdrawn at the start and their winnings arrive smaller than expected.

Market types at the festival

Ante-post

Betting on a race weeks or months in advance, at longer prices, carrying the risk that your selection never runs. The championship races are the natural ante-post markets. Unless non-runner no bet applies, treat an ante-post bet as a bet on the horse turning up as much as on it winning.

Win and each-way

The staples. Each-way is more useful at Cheltenham than at almost any other meeting because of the field sizes: a twenty-plus runner handicap with five places paid is a genuinely different proposition from a six-runner championship race where each-way betting is often not offered at all.

Without the favourite

A market that removes the dominant horse, used when a championship race has an odds-on favourite and the real contest is for second. It is a cleaner way of backing the second string than an each-way bet in a small field.

Match bets and trainer markets

Two named horses priced against each other regardless of where they finish, and markets on the leading trainer and jockey of the meeting. The Prestbury Cup – the running total of Irish-trained against British-trained winners across the week – is the festival’s own novelty market and one of the few where a view on the meeting as a whole can be expressed directly.

Placepot and other pools

Pick a placed horse in each of the first six races. Pool betting rather than fixed odds, so the dividend depends on how many others did the same. Cheltenham’s competitive handicaps make festival placepot dividends unusually large, and unusually hard to hit.

What actually moves the market

• The going. Jump racing is decided by ground more than any other factor. A card described as good to soft in the morning can ride heavy by the fourth race, and horses whose form is entirely on quick ground are frequently unbacked by the time they reach the start.
• Declarations. Final fields are confirmed 48 hours before each race. That is the point at which ante-post prices become fixed-field prices, and the moment most withdrawals are known.
• Irish form lines. A large share of festival winners come from Irish yards, and the Irish trials in the preceding months are the strongest guide to the championship races. British form read in isolation understates the Irish challenge most years.
• Stable form. Jump racing is dominated by a small number of large yards, and a yard out of form in February is a genuine warning for March, however good the individual horse.
• Course form. Cheltenham’s uphill finish suits a particular type of horse. Previous festival form at the track is a stronger signal here than course form is at most courses.

Mistakes that cost money at Cheltenham

• Taking an ante-post price without checking non-runner no bet. The longer price is longer for a reason, and jump horses miss targets constantly.
• Backing every favourite in a handicap. Festival handicaps are the most competitive races run in Britain all year. The championship races are where favourites are worth respecting; the handicaps are not.
• Ignoring place terms. A bigger win price with three places is often worse than a shorter one with six, and the comparison is easy to make before the race and impossible afterwards.
• Chasing on day four. Four days of racing, twenty-eight races, and the Gold Cup as the last chance to put the week right is the classic pattern for a bad Friday. Setting the week’s budget on the Monday is the practical defence.
• Assuming the going description. Official going is a starting point. Watch the first race of the day and see how the times and the finishing positions actually behave.

Reading a Cheltenham card

Twenty-eight races over four days, and they are not all the same kind of contest. Four race types make up the card, and each behaves differently in betting terms.

Championship races

The four divisional championships – Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and Gold Cup – plus the Ryanair Chase. Small fields, high quality, and the races where the best horse usually wins. Favourites have a far better record here than anywhere else at the meeting, and each-way betting is often not offered because the fields are too short.

Novice races

Restricted to horses in their first season over hurdles or fences. The form is thin by definition, which makes them the hardest races to price and the ones where the market moves most in the final week. A novice with two runs and a big reputation is a different betting proposition from a novice with six runs and a solid profile, and the market does not always distinguish between them.

Handicaps

Every horse carries a weight set by the official handicapper to give them a theoretically equal chance. Cheltenham’s handicaps attract the largest fields of the week and are the most competitive races of the British season. They are also where the each-way and extra-place offers concentrate, for the obvious reason that the bookmakers expect them to be hard to call.

The bumper

A flat race for jumps-bred horses with no hurdling or chasing experience at all. It closes the meeting and is, in betting terms, the least predictable race of the week. Almost all the runners are unexposed, and the form is largely private.

The road to the festival

Cheltenham ante-post markets do not move at a constant rate. They move at four points, and knowing when they move is most of what makes an early price worth taking.

• Autumn trials, October and November. The first real form of the season. Prices are at their longest and the risk of a horse never reaching March is at its highest. This is the point at which non-runner no bet is least likely to be available.
• The Christmas meetings. The major staying chases run over the festive period are the strongest Gold Cup guide of the season, and the market reacts sharply to them. A great many ante-post positions are settled here, one way or the other.
• The Irish trials in February. The Dublin Racing Festival is the single most informative weekend for the championship races, and prices on Irish-trained contenders often shorten dramatically straight afterwards.
• Declarations, 48 hours out. Final fields are confirmed and the market becomes a fixed-field market. Withdrawals are known, non-runner no bet stops being relevant, and the handicap weights are settled.

The practical consequence: a price taken in October is a bet on a horse staying sound for five months. A price taken after the Irish trials is a bet on a race. Those are very different things and should be staked differently.

The Gold Cup

Three miles two and a half furlongs, twenty-two fences, and the race that decides the season. It is the most-bet single race of the festival and one of the few where the ante-post market is worth engaging with early, because the field of genuine contenders is small and identifiable from the autumn.

Two things about it are worth knowing before betting. The first is that it is a stamina test rather than a speed test – horses that win over shorter and are stepping up in trip are the most commonly overbet type in the race. The second is that it comes at the end of four days of racing, so the ground is at its most testing, which amplifies the stamina requirement further. A horse whose form is on quick ground over three miles is not the same proposition on the Friday of the festival as it was in December.

Common questions

When does the Cheltenham Festival take place?

Four days in March each year, at Prestbury Park in Gloucestershire. The exact dates are confirmed by the course well in advance; the status line at the top of this page carries the next confirmed window.

What is the Prestbury Cup?

The running tally of Irish-trained against British-trained winners across the four days. It is a genuine competition between the two racing nations and a betting market in its own right, and it is the simplest way to express a view on the meeting as a whole rather than on individual races.

Is ante-post betting worth it?

Only with non-runner no bet, or with a stake small enough that losing it to a withdrawal does not matter. Jump horses miss intended targets routinely – through injury, through unsuitable ground, or because a trainer reroutes them to a different race at the same meeting.

What does extra places mean?

The bookmaker pays each-way on more finishing positions than the standard terms require – five or six places instead of three in a big handicap. It is the most valuable festival promotion, because it changes what the bet actually pays rather than just adding a free bet on top.

Reading a Cheltenham racecard

The card carries most of what you need before you look at a single price, and four fields do the work.

The form figures run left to right with the most recent run last. A dash separates seasons; a slash separates a longer break. Letters matter more than numbers here: F is a fall, U is unseated rider, P is pulled up, and B is brought down. Over thirty fences at a festival, a horse with F or U in its recent figures is carrying a risk the win price may not reflect.

The weight in a handicap is the handicapper’s assessment. In a championship race the weights are close to level, so the number tells you little; in a handicap it is the whole race.

The official rating and the horse’s best previous rating together show whether a horse is improving or has been dropped in the weights after a poor run. A horse racing off a mark several pounds below its peak is the classic profile for a festival handicap.

The trainer and jockey matter more at this meeting than at any other, because a small number of yards win a disproportionate share of the races. A first-time festival runner from a yard with no festival record is a different proposition from the fourth string of a major stable.

Betting the festival handicaps

The handicaps are where the money is lost and where the value is. They attract the biggest fields, the loosest prices and the extra-place offers, and they reward a different approach from the championship races.

• Ignore the favourite’s price and look at the market shape. A handicap where the favourite is 5/1 and twenty horses are between 10/1 and 33/1 is a race the bookmakers cannot split either. That is an each-way race, not a win race.
• Look for horses that have been campaigned to be well handicapped. A yard aiming at a festival handicap in March will often have run a horse over unsuitable trips or ground earlier in the season. The form figures look poor and the official rating drops accordingly.
• Course experience counts double. Cheltenham’s undulations and uphill finish are unlike anywhere else. A horse that has run well at the track before has demonstrated something a rating cannot capture.
• Field size drives the terms. Confirm the number of declared runners before placing an each-way bet – place terms step up at defined field sizes, and a late withdrawal can drop a race below the threshold.

Novices, and the road to a championship

A large share of festival races are for novices, and they are the hardest races on the card to price. A novice is in its first season over hurdles or fences, so the form is thin by definition and often earned against weak opposition at small meetings.

Two profiles win these races. The lightly raced horse with a big reputation, where the market is betting on potential rather than achievement. And the more exposed novice with a solid, tested profile against decent rivals. The first type is usually shorter than it should be and the second longer, because reputation prices faster than form does.

Novice form is also the best guide to the following year’s championship races. The horses winning the two-mile novice chase and the top novice hurdle in one March are frequently the ones contesting the Champion Chase and Champion Hurdle the next, which makes the novice races worth watching even if you do not bet them.

Irish and British form

The Prestbury Cup exists because the Irish challenge is the defining feature of the modern festival. A large share of winners come from a small number of Irish yards, and the strongest guide to the championship races is the Irish trial meetings in the winter rather than the British ones.

The betting consequence is that British form read on its own systematically understates the Irish contenders, and the market corrects for this at different speeds in different races. It corrects fastest in the championship races, where the leading Irish horses are well known, and slowest in the handicaps, where an Irish-trained runner with form only at Irish tracks is genuinely harder for the British market to price.

Cheltenham betting offers and free bets

Festival week produces more promotions than any other in the calendar, and they fall into three groups. Welcome offers for new customers, which are the same offers available the rest of the year rather than anything festival-specific. Existing-customer promotions, which is where the festival actually differs – extra places, money back on a beaten favourite, enhanced each-way terms and faller insurance, concentrated on the four days. And price boosts on individual horses, which are worth exactly what the boosted price is worth against the rest of the market and no more.

The offers that matter are the structural ones: extra places on the handicaps and non-runner no bet on the championship races. Both change the mathematics of a bet. A free bet does not.

The comparison below shows the current welcome offers from UK-licensed bookmakers with racing markets, including the qualifying stake, the wagering requirement and the expiry on each.

Casino list updated: October 2026

See also our horse racing betting page, the Grand National hub, and this week in sport for what else is on.

Responsible gambling

Cheltenham concentrates a great deal of betting into four days, and the structure of the week - a championship race every afternoon, building to the Gold Cup - encourages staking that would not look sensible spread across a month. Setting a limit for the whole festival before the first race, rather than a limit for each day, is the approach that survives a bad Tuesday.

Every UK-licensed bookmaker must offer deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. Free and confidential support is available from GambleAware at gambleaware.org and from GamCare. GAMSTOP lets you self-exclude from every UK-licensed gambling site at once.