Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide – Predictions 2024

Cheltenham Festival is an exciting episode; this is why we present you with an in-depth Cheltenham Festival betting guide. It’s known for its electrifying experience.

The event is popular among racing aficionados, who happen to be punters. It is also one of the most popular National Hunt racing meetings, taking place in the middle week of March for four days.

Top-rated chasers and hurdlers travel to Cheltenham racecourse to take part. The competition brings together the best competitors globally. Every chaser and hurdler travels to this great destination, dreaming of lifting the Golden Cup.

Between 12th and 15th March 2024, the best chasers and hurdles will compete in this race, and the recent races are a crucial guide. This is especially true for punters who want to place informed wagers. Are you after successful bets?

Cheltenham Festival wagering predictions are what you need, so let’s look at the highlights before diving deep to learn more.

Table of content

Best Wagers of The Cheltenham Festival 2024

  • Galopin Des Champs: The Gold Cup (early odds 11/10)
  • Crambo: Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle (early odds 10/1 each way)
  • Stage Star: Ryanair Chase (early odds 7/1 each way)
  • El Fabiolo: Queen Mother Champion Chase (early odds 10/11)
  • Magical Zoe: Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle (early odds 20/1)
  • Constitution Hill: Champion Hurdle (early odds 1/3)
cheltenham-festival-betting-guide

Cheltenham Champion Hurdle

The Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy is usually the opening day’s big race. Constitution Hill is the favourite to emerge as the winner at this stage.

Comfortably winning each time, Constitution Hill defeated Rubaud last time at Kempton in the Christmas Hurdle without breaking a sweat really for his first getaway of the season since his Aintree triumph. 

It looks like Constitution Hill is one of those racers who’ll be a legend of the tournament for trainer Nicky Henderson. The perfect way to get greater odds on betting platforms and better value is by wagering on him to win by a given distance.

Cheltenham Champion Chase

The Champion Chase is another great opportunity for bettors to enjoy some victory. El Fabiolo is the favourite in this race. However, the racer will have to take on some tougher horses in what could be a stronger renewal of the Champion Chase.

Recent victors of the race include Politologue, Put the Kettle On, Energumene, and Altior & Sprinter Sacre. It’s shaping up to be another rematch between El Fabiolo and Jonbon. 

While El Fabiolo has just raced twice since 2022, wining clearly, his jumping is still not fluent. However, Jonbon has the same problem. That means it’ll narrow down to who does it excellently. Early odds on leading horse racing betting platforms show that El Fabiolo is the favourite.

FAQ

🐎 What is Cheltenham Festival?

The Cheltenham Festival is an annual event in horse racing held at Cheltenham Racecourse in England, attracting top horses, jockeys, and spectators from around the world. It features several prestigious races, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and is renowned for its atmosphere, excitement, and high-quality competition.

🐎 How long is Cheltenham Festival?

Cheltenham Festival have 28 races across four days with £4.5 million prize money.

🐎 Has Cheltenham ever been cancelled?

In the 2001 Cheltenham Festival was cancelled due to foot and mouth disease was confirmed in a horse village. This year Cheltenham organizers confirmed that races will be, but behind closed doors and without spectators.

🐎 How much prize money Cheltenham Gold Cup winners get?

The Gold Cup is the most valuable non-handicap chase in Britain, and offered a total prize fund of £625,000.

🐎 How much are Cheltenham Festival tickets?

Ticket prices start from £37 and up to £1,359. Tickets can be purchased on the day at each entrance except for Gold Cup Day.

🐎 When is Cheltenham Festival 2024

Cheltenham Festival will take place from 12 to 15 March.

Cheltenham Gold Cup

The prestige that comes with lifting the Gold Cup is heightened for the next competition. Galopin Des Champs was a huge NAP victor in last year’s festival, defeating Bravemansgame in the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup by a clear margin. 

Galopin Des Champs likes the Cheltenham race and can manage yielding or soft ground, which at this stage is a bonus since all the festivals in recent years have featured some terrible days concerning rainfall, and this year seems no different, significantly boosting Galopin Des Champs’ winning chances.

cheltenham-gold-cup

Cheltenham Stayers’ Hurdle

Crambo emerging as the victor of the Long Walk Hurdle at the famous Ascot in December was a huge statement of his improvement and progress for a yard in good form.

The winners of Fergal O’Brien are looking to increase this campaign already, so it’ll not be a disbelief to see him bag more Grade 1s. 

With his horse that has already shown determination and grit to see off Paisley Park, the Long Walk specialist by a short head, while at the same time defeating the likes of Botox Has, Champ, and Dashel Drasher, Crambo is expected to keep on improving. An each-way ante-post bet can be a perfect option.

Ryanair Chase

Allaho is the massive early favourite among the 32 entries, as he placed excellently in the King George VI Chase. However, he could be excellently suited to another competition over 3m but just has an entry here. 

ryanair-chase

Depending on his Clonmel race performance, he should be challenging to beat. However, the performance of Stage Star in the Paddy Power Gold Cup and Turners’ Novices’ Chase in the previous festival shows he has the ability to lift this title.

Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle

Magical Zoe has won ahead of Asterion Forlonge at Leopardstown in the Jack de Bromhead Christmas Hurdle. If this form is anything to depend on, Magical Zoe can be trucked with a potential run further here at two metres, four feet at a huge price.

If you want to increase your chances of winning with these predictions, find the best bookie. Make sure it’s dedicated to offering competitive odds on the Cheltenham Festival events as well as some reasonable bonuses and promotions.

Cheltenham Betting Guide

There is a lot of prestige attached to winning at Cheltenham, as either a trainer, jockey or owner. That is also passed down to punters.

The racing we see at Cheltenham is the most competitive you will find in the UK, it is full of races that are either putting the very best horses against each other, have huge fields, or on many occasions, a combination of both of those.

mares-hurdle

So, if it is so difficult to find winners at Cheltenham Festival betting, how do punters be successful on what many people see as the best betting week of the years.

Here is horse betting strategy article for the Cheltenham Festival races which should give you the best opportunity to make a profit, regardless of the selections you pick. We hope this Cheltenham Festival betting guide will help you.

Plan Ahead for Four Days

From a money point of view, you really need to be creating a separate Cheltenham Festival betting bank and allocating money across all four days of the meeting. You should not be looking to spend all your money on the first day or two, and you should always have something for the final day.

If you begin the week with no money left over for Cheltenham betting on Thursday or Friday, you will instantly find yourself in chasing mode if you have a couple of losers on the opening day.

This is not how you should be approaching the meeting at all, you need a balanced approach and you need to be able to bet over four days without really thinking about if you are losing on the first day or not.

cheltenham-crowd

The correct plan will give you money for every day, so if you lose on the first three days, you don’t need to worry about not having anything left for the final day, and who knows, you may be able to turn things around on that day.

Stick to Single Bets

You will always find more success with your Cheltenham 2021 betting if you stick to single bets. Yes, multiples do give you the chance to win huge amounts of money, sometimes for just a small stake too.

However, finding one winner at a big meeting like Cheltenham races is tough enough, let alone trying to find more than one, so multiples, while they may work in some situations, should no be used at the big meetings.

The prices on offer at the festival are usually always big, helped by the fact that we have several races that attract big fields. This means, you can place a bet in all seven races on the day, have just one winner, and still make a profit.

horse-race

If you did this with a multiple bet, even those that pay you out if you have one winner, the chances are you would not make a profit. Anyone who looks back over the past few years at the Cheltenham Festival will see that big priced horses win every day of the meeting.

It is certainly possible for you to go through the festival backing just one winner each day, so four winners out of 28 races in total, and ending each day with a profit, which will obviously add up to total overall profit at the end of the week.

Follow Big Trainers In Form

The big trainers are where you will find the biggest and best horses. These are the ones who come to the fore at a meeting like Cheltenham.

People pay thousands of pounds each year for their horses to be trained by one of the big names, and the reason they do that is because they want success at the big meetings like this one.

Cheltenham horse racing is where the big boys all meet each other, and where their best horses will clash. Much of their success is determined by planning and preparation, getting their horses right on the day is key to winning at the festival.

cheltenham-festival

While you may get away with a horse being 90% ready in a smaller race earlier in the season, if you are not 100% ready then you won’t be winning at the Cheltenham Festival.

You will have your fancies for the first two days, and stick with those, but then it is important to look back over the big trainers to see what they have done. Have they performed well, or as good as can be expected, or have their horses been running poorly?

This is not an exact science, who knows what will happen over the final two days, but you can gain a lot of information about a yard during the meeting if they are firing in winners, seeing horses run well, or seeing plenty of disappointments.

Look Back at Course and Festival Form

One of the most important aspects, when you are looking at the festival, is to consider old form. Course form is important, while festival form is even more important.

You may see horses struggle all year, but know they can run well here and thrive at the festival because they love the test that Cheltenham offers.

This test cannot be found in many other areas, the Gold Cup is a prime example of this. We have many top races throughout the winter for Gold Cup contenders, but none of those offer the same test of 3m2f with an uphill finish at the end, most are 3m and on flat tracks with no hill.

For this reason, many people always say that the previous Gold Cup is the best form line going into the race, and this Cheltenham Gold Cup betting can be applied to many of the other races at the festival. It happened a year ago, but it would be foolish to dismiss the form from a previous festival.

Zigmas Pekarskas

Co-Founder & CEO

Zigmas, the Co-Founder & CEO of SmartBettingGuide project, is known for his deep knowledge of poker, sports betting and casino games. He has been in the gaming world for a long time and brings a lot of experience to the table. Zigmas also is an iGaming content creator with more than 15 years of experience in the field. With over eight yea ..
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