Cheltenham Tips | Cheltenham Festival Tips

How To Read The Cheltenham Tips

Our Cheltenham tips could not be simpler to read, understand and back. We display the name of our expert tipster clearly above all their tips, so you can decide which of our team you wish to support at the 2025 Festival (or support them all) as well as at all other Prestbury Park meetings!

Underneath the names we list the races they have backed horses in as well as the name of the horse below. Watch out for if the tip has EW next to it, that means our expert recommends an each-way bet on the horse.

Our odds are displayed via a best odds function, showing you the biggest price that any of our betting site partners are offering on the tip, We display our odds in fractions, as is tradition in horse racing. With fractional odds, you receive the first number as your winnings and the second number as your stake is returned.

Cheltenham Festival Terminology Explained

At the Cheltenham Festival, there are plenty of terms used which could be confusing for those who are not all year round racing fans. Below we list some commonly used phrases at the Cheltenham Festival and their definitions:

• Bumper – At Cheltenham there is only one flat race for the young jumps horses, this is the Champion Bumper. A bumper in horse racing simply means a race with no obstacles and derives from the fact jockeys used to bump into each other as they jostle for position.
• Chase – A chase is the shortened version of a steeplechase and is a race run over tall fences rather than short hurdles. The horses competing in these races are known as chasers.
• Connections – This means the people who are closely associated with the horse, usually the owner, trainer or perhaps the racing manager.
• Furlong – This is a unit of measurement used in horse racing. There are eight furlongs in a mile.
• Going – This refers to the state of the ground on the track. The going can be anything from firm to heavy, with the most common surface at Cheltenham being described as good to soft.
• Novice – A novice is a horse who at the start of the current season had not yet won over a certain discipline. At Cheltenham, there are several races for both novice hurdlers and novice chasers.
• Pulled up – If the jockey feels a horse is out of contention, either because he’s tired and well beaten or because of injury or a bad mistake, he will sometimes choose to stop the horse mid-race or pull it up to preserve its well-being for next time.
• Ridden along/being ridden – A horse that is receiving physical encouragement from the jockey to continue its efforts. It is usually not a good sign if your horse is being ridden along in a race, although some do respond well to the urgings of their rider.
• Stay – A horse that ‘stays’ well is one that has the stamina to complete the race he or she is in, while a horse that does not stay is one who will not last home..
• Trip – This is another word for the distance run.
• Yard – Specifically, this is the yard of a given trainer, but it will often be used in reference to the group of horses trained there. For example, if the yard is in good form, it means that the trainer’s horses are running well.

How To Place A Bet At Cheltenham

If you are new to betting this year, it can seem daunting attempting to find an easy way to place your bets on the Cheltenham Festival of 2024. It is a simple process, however, and we are on hand to provide you with a step by step guide as well as a few example bets you could place.

• Open an account - Make sure you have a betting account with some money in if you are aiming to place a Cheltenham Festival bet. There are a host of amazing sign up offers we display here on HorseRacing,Net, so give our reviews a read and decide which betting site appeals most to you.
• Add your selection to your betslip - Once you know the horse you wish to bet on, either click the odds on our racecards and be redirected to the bookmaker's site where your betslip will be automatically populated, or go to your bookmaker and find the race and your horse, then click on the odds to add it to your betslip
• Press place bet - Once you are sure you've found the horse you want to bet on, hit place bet and your bet is on!

There are a myriad of offers and special markets for the Cheltenham Festival 2024, including odds boosts and money back specials. An example of how to use an odds boost would be if you add Galopin Des Champs to win the Gold Cup to your betslip. If there is an odds boost available with your bookmaker, it'll appear at the bottom of the betslip. Hit odds boost and the price of your horse, and the potential winnings, will increase!

A 10% odds boost on Galopin Des Champs if he was 1/1 would mean instead of getting 1/1, you would get 11/10 as your odds. That would mean an extra £1 of profit if you placed a £10 bet on the horse.

Avoid These Common Mistakes When Betting on Cheltenham

Betting on Cheltenham is one of the highlights of the sporting calendar for those who enjoy a punt, but there are plenty of banana skins one must avoid. Here we list a few of the key things to avoid:

• Don't get carried away - There are races coming thick and fast at Cheltenham and it is easy to lose track of the amount you have staked. Here at HorseRacing.Net we encourage responsible gambling and would encourage you to take breaks and set deposit limits.
• Don't forget to back each-way - A lot of the bigger races at Cheltenham see tipsters select a horse at a massive price each-way, with not much hope of victory but with hope of them finishing in the frame and returning each-way profit. If you are following an each-way tip, be careful to tick the EW box on your betting site so your bet is not win only.
• Don't miss the best price - Here at HorseRacing.Net we display our tips via the best odds function, while on our racecards we have an easy comparison matrix of all the current odds. Be sure you back your selection at the biggest price for maximum returns if you find a winner!
• Don't miss out on extra places - There is nowhere like Cheltenham for extra place offers, and betting sites will have a load for each race on the week. If you are betting each-way, don't forget to do so with the firm paying the most extra places.

Cheltenham Festival Feature Race Winners

Each day during the festival there is a feature race that is the spotlight betting event.

• Champion Hurdle: This is a Grade 1 National Hunt horse race for horses aged four years and older, run over a distance of two miles and about one furlong. It is considered one of the most prestigious hurdles races in the UK and Ireland.

• Queen Mother Champion Chase: This is also a Grade 1 National Hunt horse race for horses aged five years and older, run over a distance of two miles. It is considered one of the top chase races in the UK and Ireland.

• Stayers' Hurdle: This is a Grade 1 National Hunt horse race for horses aged four years and older, run over a distance of three miles. It is considered one of the top hurdle races for staying horses in the UK and Ireland.

• Cheltenham Gold Cup: This is the blue riband event of the Cheltenham Festival, a Grade 1 National Hunt horse race for horses aged five years and older, run over a distance of about three miles and two and a half furlongs. It is considered one of the most prestigious chase races in the UK and Ireland.

To assist you in picking your selection for each of these races along with the tips we supply we have listed the winners along with their starting price odds for each of these races over the last few years.

From this snapshot, of all the main races the Champion Hurdle looks to be the race to back the starting price favourite, as this runner has won the race in four of the last five outings, for those of you that fancy a bigger priced winner (such as our man RaceOlly) then the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Stayers' Hurdle could be the races to consider having seen 20/1 and 50/1 winners of those respected races. 2025 may not be the year to back an outsider in the Stayers' Hurdle however, as favourite and defending champion Teahupoo looks rock solid!

Frequently Asked Questions About Cheltenham Festival Tips