The Cheltenham Festival is one of the biggest horse racing meetings in the world. It’s the pinnacle of the UK National Hunt season, featuring four stunning days of top-class racing.
The festival is one of the most significant meetings in horse racing due to the high volume of top-tier feature races. It is packed with fourteen Grade 1 races and is a highlight of horse racing betting.
The Cheltenham Festival traditionally falls on the week of St Patrick’s Day celebrations, so it attracts a huge Irish race-going contingent, as well as leading trainers from across the Irish Sea.
Among all the races, it’s the championship fixtures that are the highest profile in horse racing betting. They are the much anticipated Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and the blue riband event, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The Cheltenham Gold Cup has been around since 1924 and the Grade 1 fixture captures the imagination of punters. Cheltenham Gold Cup betting is the highlight of the Festival.
Some of the greatest chasers in the world have won the race, including Best Mate, Arkle, Kauto Star and Denman. In 2022 jockey Rachael Blackmore created history, by becoming the first female jockey to win, guiding 3/1F A Plus Tard home first.
The Gold Cup is a 3 m 2f contest for chasers at least five years old. It is also the richest non-handicap race in UK racing.
The Cheltenham Festival will once again grip fans as the special four days of racing take centre stage again in the Spring of 2025. The Festival brings a stack of Grade 1 races together, attracting the biggest stars over the hurdles and fences, in a spectacular show of racing.
Because of the festival’s prominence, punters look for ante-post Cheltenham Festival odds to size up potential race fields well ahead of time. Form and future odds for the big races come from the results delivered across the National Hunt season, in the build-up to the big event.
Here is a look ahead to the upcoming 2025 Cheltenham Festival ante-post betting highlights.
The Cheltenham Festival 2025 will open with back-to-back Grade 1 races, with the 2m Supreme Novices’ kicking things off. It’s always a thrilling start to the meeting and trainer Willie Mullins has some key players in this year’s renewal including firm ante-post favourite Salvator Mundi.
The Arkle quickly follows, with Mullins potentially having another strong candidate for Grade 1 success, in the form of Ballyburn. The main challenges to the ante-post favourite in the Arkle could come from the likes of Sir Gino and In The Pocket.
After the Grade 1 Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle, comes the highlight of the opening day, the Champion Hurdle. The Willie Mullins-trained State Man won last year’s contest as the 2/5 favourite and should be back for a defence.
The last five Champion Hurdle renewals have been won by the race favourite now. Lossiemouth has been showing well in the race’s ante-post market, alongside the likes of Constitution Hill and Sir Gino.
It’s all about fashion and style at Cheltenham on Wednesday, also known as Ladies’ Day, and there are three further Grade 1 contests to come. The day kicks off with the Turners Novices’ Hurdle, but the highlight is the Queen Mother Champion Chase, which features 12 fences.
Jockey Rachael Blackmore scored last year’s win on Captain Guinness for trainer Henry de Bromhead in the popular contest. This could be another star-studded renewal, with Nicky Henderson’s Jonbon and Willie Mullins’ Gaelic Warrior battling it out at the head of the ante-post market. El Fabiolo and Energumene could also launch challenges in the big fixture for Mullins.
It’s a day for Irish celebrations at the course for St Patrick's Day and with more championship action to come. The Ryanair Steeple Chase is the first of those, which the Dan Skelton-trained Protektorat won last year. Trainer Willie Mullins will have decisions over the likes of Gaelic Warrior and El Fabiolo who could take on this one instead of the Champion Chase.
Then follows the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, a race which was won last year by Gordon Elliott’s favourite, Teahupoo, ridden by Jack Kennedy. Teahupoo is expected to take his place in Thursday’s race in a bid for a double, with Strong Leader and Impair Et Passe among potential challengers.
Friday is Cheltenham Gold Cup Day, one of the biggest fixtures of National Hunt racing. Last year, jockey Paul Townend won the race for a record-equalling fourth time, delivering the win for Willie Mullins on Galopin Des Champs for the second year running.
Galopin Des Champs is expected to attempt a hat trick bid in the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup, potentially facing challenges from the likes of Fact To File, Fasterslow and Gerri Colombe. The last three renewals have been won by the Cheltenham
Gold Cup betting favourite, and the Paul Townend/Willie Mullins combo has combined for victories in four of the last six.
Follow the latest Cheltenham Festival betting odds, including ante-post markets for all the championship races right here at 888Sport. Cheltenham is famous for its amazing atmosphere across the four days and with a total of 28 races, twelve of those being Grade 1 events, it’s a meeting like no other.
From watching novices tackle the course for the first time in races like the Supreme Novices' and the Brown Advisory, to the star-studded lines up in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup, there’s plenty to keep racing fans on the edge of their seats.
888Sport Racing covers all of your Cheltenham Festival betting. Find the latest horse racing odds for all 28 races at the meeting. Selections can be pulled from the straight race winner markets, including ante-post and early prices, plus on the day of the race right up until the off.
Picking the race winner is the most popular type of wager played for Cheltenham betting. An each-way selection provides coverage of a selection finishing in 5th place in the race, depending on the fixture.
Other popular markets for Cheltenham odds are Forecast and Tricast bets, which are selections on the exact finishing order of the top two or three in a race. Race day accumulators are another popular wager for Cheltenham betting.
Look for alternative markets too, like The Prestbury Cup, which celebrates the annual duel between British and Irish trainers. Other featured markets are Top Jockey, Top Trainer and even Over/Under Totals on how many winners selected jockeys and trainers will land.
How to bet on the Cheltenham Festival:
Follow all the latest information, live betting markets and insights for all the big races. Look at the form on the 888Sport Cheltenham Festival racecards with detailed horse racing tips from Timeform included. The 888 blog has further previews of the big meeting to enjoy, to help gauge the latest Cheltenham odds and markets.
Our Bet Finder is a great way to filter the runners at the Cheltenham Festival. Enter search terms like odds range, course winner and winning trainer to narrow down the horses that fit your strategy.
Back a horse in a race that has the 888Sport Each Way Promo and gets enhanced place terms on the result, or an extra place.
The 888Sport Double Result feature for all UK & Irish racing pays first past the post. It will also pay if a back selection is promoted to a place finish or win.
Live racing streaming is available at 888Sport with access gained by a qualifying bet on the race.
The Cheltenham Festival is such a special event and one of the greatest sporting occasions around. It’s four of the most thrilling, high-quality days of racing on the calendar. Follow all the latest live betting odds and action at 888Sport both during the big build-up and the Festival itself.
The history of the Cheltenham Festival goes back to the mid-1800s. It was contested at different venues in the UK before it returned to Cheltenham in 1911 where the meeting has stayed ever since
Even though the Cheltenham Festival is steeped in tremendous history, it continues to evolve. A big change to the Festival happened in 2005 as an extra day was added, taking the meeting to its current four-day status.
The reshuffling of things made it so that there was a championship race on each of the days, and further races were added. There are now a total of 28 races at the Cheltenham Festival, with half of them Grade 1. The Festival is hosted annually in March, beginning on the second Tuesday of the month.
| Cheltenham Festival First Event | 1834 |
| Maximum Capacity of Cheltenham Racecourse | 68,000 |
| Local Economy Yearly Worth | £100,000,000 |
| Amount of Races in Course of 4 Days | 28 |
| Amount of Grade 1s Races | 14 |
| Maximum Number of Gold Cup Horses | 24 |
| Cheltenham Racecourse Owner | Jockey Club Racecourses |