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The Cheltenham Festival has been run and won, and while the winners will all go home with smiles, so too will many punters. Long Run was sent out as favourite in the Gold Cup and he didn’t let his supporters down winning by a conservative seven lengths. In the process, he became the first six year old to win since 1933 and carried the first amateur rider in thirty years.

It was a great race. Last year’s winner, Imperial Commander had to be pulled up after the second last. He is believed to have burst a blood vessel, but will be back racing after recovering. Kauto Star and Denman, both eleven years old and previous winners, fought on well for second and third while Sir Alex Ferguson saw his horse, What A Friend, soldier on for fourth.

Long Run will be back next year – he’s only six so he’s got a few more runs in this event left in him. Kauto Star and Denman are both probably too old to reappear in the Gold Cup, but there are plenty of races left in their old legs. Imperial Commander? Horses can and do come back after an injury. Whether or not he can, only time will tell. Ladbrokes were happy to take on Imperial Commander, a move that surprised many punters but went off well for them.

Bookmakers are already betting on next year’s Gold Cup and Long Run is already the 3/1 favourite. Big Bucks is also drawing attention at 10/1, but surely he’ll have a crack at a fourth consecutive World Hurdle. Bookmakers have him at 2/1 and favourite for that event.

Has the Cheltenham Festival affected the Grand National betting? Junior was a good winner on Thursday and he’s been backed into 14/1 with Bet365 and well worth keeping an eye on. The favoured way is still The Midnight Club at 11/1. That race is only a couple of weeks away.

Big Bucks toyed with his opposition in yesterday’s World Hurdle and while looking to be tiring in the home straight, found that little extra to power away from second favourite Grands Crus. It was Big Bucks’ third consecutive World Hurdle and Ladbrokes have already made the champion hurdler an even money favourite to win next year’s renewal.

Connections of Big Bucks have already mapped out his next twelve months – but then, it was difficult, he’s going to follow the same plan as this year. That includes heading off to Aintree early next month. Most of the leading bookmakers have opened books already on next year’s festival – there are some pretty good odds on offer too. Go Long has not even raced in this year’s Gold Cup and he is an early 7/1 favourite for next year’s.

While Big Bucks won his third World Hurdle, previous winning form continued to rule with Albertas Run winning a second successive Ryanair Chase. Although a previous winner of the race, punters sent him at 6/1, well over the odds as it turned out.

Even more surprising was the 20/1 offered about Buena Vista. He won a second Pertemps Final leading the field from start to finish. Buena Vista is an amazing horse having appeared at the Cheltenham Festival for seven consecutive years now – that would make him one of the most experienced horses at this year’s festival.

Today is the last day of racing at this year’s Festival and the highlight of the week is no doubt the battle to take home the Gold Cup. Imperial Commander won last year and is looking strong for a double. Previous winners in Denman and Kauto Star are also there and pressing for favouritism while Go Long seems to be the one many want to back. He’s got our money too.

Big Bucks is off to Aintree now and while he’s not running in the Grand National, there are plenty still nominated for the event. Grand National betting has not been influenced to date by the Cheltenham Festival – perhaps today’s racing can clear some of the air.

History has always played a big part in finding winners during the Cheltenham Festival. Winners from previous years often back up again the following year to either win the same race, as we saw Quevega do on day one, or to win a better class race. Sizing Europe proved that theory right yesterday winning the feature event, the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Sizing Europe was last season’s Arkle winner and has proven that form to be good. Once again, punters let previous form get under their guard – and the bookmakers happily took their money.

For connections, it’s the second win with Sizing Australia presenting for them on day one. We didn’t have a great day again yesterday when it came to selections. We suggested Rock On Ruby each way in the second event and collected with a second place. Otherwise, the winners came home at decent prices, some as long 16/1 – it’s hard to predict them.

There are two horses at good odds that stand out today. Faasel has a decent record here over the last couple of years and is well weighted in the Kim Muir Challenge Cup. He’s also well priced at 16/1. His form is not great, but backed each way he is sure to figure in the finish. I’d much rather back him 4/1 (place odds) for three chances of a payout (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) to and even money horse with one chance of a payout.

My second selection is Quartz de Thaix. He is a previous winner at the Festival and is also weighted kindly. He looks to be good value at 7/1 in the Byrne Group Plate – also backed each way.

Ladbrokes sponsor the main event today, the World Hurdle. It’s a tough day of racing today, but no where near as tough as the Grand National early next month. Grand National betting still has favourites at better than 12/1 – a great time to have a punt before prices firm.

We could be in for an interesting week of racing in the Cheltenham Festival if day one is anything to go by. Favourites were rare with Quevega (5/6) and Hurricane Fly (11/4) the only two to win. Ruby Walsh may be worth following having ridden three winners on the first day, a good performance considering he has been out of action for so long.

As day two looms, it’s interesting to look at some of the betting odds available. When it comes to late moves, it’s all pretty quiet. I think punters and bookmakers are still trying to digest the results from day one and then trying to apply them to day two. From day one, all winners were 10/1 or better and all the winners had plenty of supporters. Market moves hardly played a part except perhaps for the first race – Al Ferof (10-1) had plenty of early support but eased again as Cue Card’s supporters stepped in.

Today’s racing will be equally spectacular and you can look forward to a few more surprises. The first race is for amateur riders while the last is the traditional Bumper over the flat course. The Queen Mother Champion Chase is today’s highlight and it looks to be a thrilling match between Big Zeb and Master Minded. Somersby could well foil both of them.

The Coral Cup follows the Champion Chase and that’s a wide open betting race with probably half a dozen having strong chances. If you’re looking for a good value bet, take a closer look at Rock On Ruby in the second.

Day one at Cheltenham hasn’t thrown any light on the chances of those in the Grand National. Betting is still wide open with the favourites still well into double figures. Let’s see what the rest of the week delivers.

The greatest show on turf has finally arrived in the form of the spectacular Cheltenham Festival. There are 105 horses running around today across seven races. The smallest and perhaps most disappointing field is in the Arkle Challenge (10 runners) while the biggest field is in the last race where 20 horses will charge for that first fence.

It’s a real party atmosphere when the Festival starts. 200,000 pints of Guinness will be sold, hundreds of thousands of pounds will swap hands via the bookmakers, and hundreds of thousands of pounds will move around the Internet thanks to the many online bookmakers. Ladbrokes claim the Cheltenham Festival is one of their busiest periods when it comes to horse race betting.

Of the favourites running today, Cue Card (5/2) in the first and Medermit (3/1) in the second look to be strong chances. Later in the day, Peddlers Cross (9/2) in the Champion Hurdle and Maljimar (6/1) in the Cross Country Chase look to be good each way bets with bookmakers. If you are looking for longer prices, then consider Reve de Sivola (10/1) in the Stewart Family Spinal Research Handicap Chase – good each way value and plenty of late support coming for this horse.

There’s been plenty of talk over the weeks from trainers and owners and commentators haven’t been shy about voicing their opinions either. From today, the talk stops – it’s the actions that are going to mean the most – and it’ll be a joy to watch.

While we have four days of racing at Cheltenham to look forward to, we have an equally great day’s racing coming up on April 9 when Aintree hosts the annual Grand National – the race that dreams are made of (and more than one movie as well). Grand National betting has been keen for weeks now and as we get closer it’s only going to get hotter.

One of the more popular types of bets these days is the spread bet. Big events like the Cheltenham Festival offer a lot of spread betting opportunities so I thought we’d have a look at what was available.

If you haven’t tried spread betting before, this type of betting relies on you picking a range rather than a result. For example, how many people will attend the first day? Bookmakers will frame a market around their guesses, so if they feel that between 95 and 100 attend, you can bet either over or under that range – risky betting but full of interest (those numbers used for an example only, of course – there’s bound to be more than 100 in attendance).

Some of the spread bets available include:

How many winning favourites (this is points based so check with your bookmaker)
Total winning margins (in lengths)
How many pints of Guinness are sold (over the four days)
How many people attend

There are many other different spread bets available. You will need to see what your favourite bookmaker has to offer. If you don’t like spreads, but you do like to bet on outcomes, bookmakers are offering odds on events such as:

The leading rider
The leading trainer
The number of Irish trained winners

Again, check on what your bookmaker is offering – each bookmaker likes to find something different that allows them to stand out. Spread betting, or betting on outcomes like those listed can add a lot of interest to the Cheltenham Festival, especially if you’re not betting in a lot of the minor races.

There are some bookmakers that are offering spreads on the Grand National as well. They could be worth checking out if you have some luck at Cheltenham.

There are a lot of people around who simply don’t follow horse racing. However, there are certain events which draw their attention each year, the Cheltenham Festival, the Grand National and the big Ascot meetings being a couple of note. Course bookmakers used to love these part-time punters since they usually placed bets using their hearts (or a hat pin) rather than their brains. At least with online bookmakers, they can’t actually see you coming.

One of the oddities at the Cheltenham Festival is a race known as the Bumper. Rather than a jumps race, this is a flat race that is run under national hunt racing conditions. One question often overheard is why the race is called a ‘bumper’?

While there are many stories that have appeared over the naming of these races, the true answer is the simplest. In years gone by, the ‘bumper’ was a race that was set aside for inexperienced riders. Rather than allow them to race over the fences, and risk major incidents, they were given a race of their own in order to gain experience. Inexperienced riders tend to have an ungainly look as their horses race along – the riders had a tendency to bump up and down, very much like a show jumping rider – those riders were known as ‘bumpers’ and that name spread to their race.

These days, the Bumper is open to all riders and, over the years, has attracted some big names. As usual, there is only the one Bumper at Cheltenham this year, the last race on day two. The race has a history of kicking up some long-priced winners so it’s a race that bookmakers are keen to bet on. The race has also been a good test with many horses returning the following year and winning over the fences.

The Grand National is certainly no bumper – can you imagine those riders bumping along towards Becher’s Brook? Now that would be a sight.

While punters and bookmakers sift through the fields for the Cheltenham Festival trying to find winners, they won’t be the only ones. Owners, trainers, and riders will also be looking at those fields trying to determine tactics to give their horses the best chances of winning. There’s good reason too. The prize money on offer is nothing to sneeze at. Check out some of these prize allocations:

Cheltenham Gold Cup – £500,000
Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy – £370,000
Queen Mother Champion Chase – £320,000
World Hurdle – £260,000
Ryanair Chase – £260,000
RSA Chase – £130,000

The Gold Cup naturally takes the cream of the prize money but events like the Queen Mother Champion Chase still has a sizable purse that’s worth chasing. Most of the other races carry at least £70,000 in prize money and with some races offering prizes to the top five to cross the line, staying clean and just finishing can earn connections a prize.

It’s a pity it wasn’t so easy for punters. However, choose the right bookmaker and you can collect free matching bets, free matching deposits, and special betting options such as refunds on race falls in some races. The free bets and free deposits often mean you can really enjoy the Cheltenham Festival by extending the number of bets you can make.

Bookmakers are currently offering anything from £25 to £200 in matching deposits, especially for new customers. Just be sure to read all the terms and conditions when trying to decide which bookmaker to sign up with (and you can sign up with more than one if you choose).

Who knows? Collect some good winners at Cheltenham and you’ll be able to take advantage of some of the great odds now on offer in Grand National betting.

The Cheltenham Festival is one of the most important meetings of the hunt racing season. The Grand National will always be the premier jumps race of the season, but as far as an overall racing meeting goes, the Cheltenham Festival has it all. Organisers are now starting to consider adding a fifth day, that day being a Saturday. It would surely go down well with punters.

At present, the course and facilities would most likely struggle if a fifth day was added. Organisers are now looking to upgrade both the course and facilities and have allocated some £30m to the project. Upgrades to the course will always bring criticism, especially by those that like to look back at history. Punters and bookmakers would also find a new course hard to deal with initially as past form would then count for nothing.

The major bookmakers are predicting over a £100m will be invested at this year’s festival – that’s a lot of money in anyone’s books. It will be interesting to see if the Gold Cup would move to a Saturday should they add a fifth day, especially given the size of the crowd that would gather. Cheltenham swells during Festival week, even though it is a normal work week – imagine how many would attend on a Saturday, a non-working day for many betters.

A fifth day for the Cheltenham Festival? It sounds like a great idea. We see the big crowds that gather at Aintree each year to witness the Grand National. It would make that four-day period one of the biggest racing weeks in English race history – and punters would love every minute of it.

The Cheltenham Festival is probably one of the few race events around the world that has a history of multiple wins across so many races. The Gold Cup has been famous over the years for having horses that have dominated the event. However, the Gold Cup is not the only event to see horses record multiple wins.

Day one of the Festival is a good example. Obviously, there are some races where multiple wins are impossible. These are the graded races where wins and subsequent wins make the horses ineligible to compete at that level again. In fact, three of the seven races on day one are for novices while three of the remaining four have a history of multiple winners.

The main race, the Champion Hurdle has seen Hardy Eustace win twice while Istabraq delivered three times from 1998 to 2000. The Mares Hurdle is only a new race, but a race in which Quevega has really dominated. She has won two of the three running to date and is a short-priced favourite to make it three on end – in fact, she is the shortest-priced favourite for the whole festival at this stage of ante post betting.

The Cross Country race is also fairly new, however, Garde Champetre claimed two successive wins in 2008 and 2009. He is back again this year to try and reclaim his title. Bookmakers have been generous opening him as a 6/1 ante post favourite – we think he can go close to winning again and those odds are looking good. If you look across the majority of races, you will notice where the trends are in multiple winners – it can be a good guide to finding winners too.

The Grand National doesn’t quite have the same history of multiple winners, but that never stops punters from backing them. Grand National betting is started to heat up as punters try to grab some of the better ante post odds – are you going to be one of them?