The Countdown To The 2023 Cheltenham Festival Has Started

We are now just a week away from the start of the famous Cheltenham Festival and 2023 promises to be a hugely exciting year, with some of the best horses in jump racing set to attend the four days of action starting on Tuesday 14^th March.

Over the past few years, bet365 Sport have come up with some great offers for the festival and it is going to be interesting to see if they come up with another offer for their customers for this year’s event.

The site has already had a number of non-runner, no bet antepost prices up for the majority of races at this year’s festival for some time now and as we head towards Tuesday next week, you can bet the anticipation will build ahead of this huge event.

So what will we see over the four days of the Cheltenham Festival this year, which races are the ones to pay most attention to and which horses are expected to perform well at the meeting.

In our preview, we are going to give you a taste of the action you can expect to come over the four days.

The Cheltenham Festival Origins

Although the festival’s origins date back to 1860, the National Hunt Committee only settled on Cheltenham for its permanent home in 1911, in time for the 1912 meeting.

Previously, the meeting had been held at various times in Market Harborough, Warwick and Cheltenham in the 51 years previously and the first mention of the meeting being a festival came in 1907 (when the event was held in Warwick).

Since 1912, the event has been held in Cheltenham and has become known widely as the Cheltenham Festival.

The Stayers’ Hurdle, first run in 1912, is the oldest Championship race ahead of the Gold Cup, which was established 12 years later in 1924, although in its early years the Gold Cup was seen as a race to prepare runners for the Grand National at Aintree, which took place in April.

Other big races added to the schedule came in later years such as the Champion Hurdle, which was first run in 1927 and most recently the Queen Mother Champion Chase, which is one of the newest Championship races first raced back in 1959.

Originally, the festival was held over three days, but in 2005 this changed to four days and the schedule adjusted to ensure that there would be one Championship race each day, finishing with the Gold Cup on Friday.

Further races were added to ensure that there were six races each day and a few years later, this was expanded to seven races per day, or 28 for the entire meeting.

Cheltenham Festival 2023 – The Schedule

The four days of racing see seven races per day and the full schedule for the meeting is as follows:

Cheltenham Festival 2023 Day One – Champion’s Day – 14^th March

The championship races on each day are shown in italics.

Race List

• 1.30pm – Supreme Novices Hurdle
• 2.10pm – Arkle Chase
• 2.50pm – Ultima Handicap Chase
• 3.30pm – Champion Hurdle
• 4.10pm – Mares’ Hurdle
• 4.50pm – Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
• 5.30pm – National Hunt Chase

Day One Highlights

One of the great things about Cheltenham is that there is high quality racing from the off and the Arkle Chase is a great example of that with El Fabiolo (11/8) and Jonbon (13/8) both expected to run well in what should be a highly competitive field when entries are declared for the race.

The big race of Day One is the Champion Hurdle and the odd-on favourite is Constitution Hill (2/7) with State Man (11/4), Vauban (10/1) and Honeysuckle (12/1) expected to provide the stiffest test to one of the shortest priced favourites of the festival.

Cheltenham Festival 2023 Day Two – Ladies Day – 15^th March

• 1.30pm – Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle
• 2.10pm – Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase
• 2.50pm – Coral Cup
• 3.30pm – Queen Mother Champion Chase
• 4.10pm – Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase
• 4.50pm – Grand Annual Handicap Chase
• 5.30pm – Champion Bumper

Day Two Highlights

Ladies Day is the traditional home of the Queen Mother Champion Chase and we have seen some movement in the antepost market for this race in recent times with Energumene drifting out to 15/8 for the race after being a long time favourite. Edwardstone is the horse to have supplanted him and is now the 7/4 favourite for that race, although either could start the race as the SP favourite.

Delta Work is also the 10/11 antepost favourite to win the Cross Country Chase in the race after.

Cheltenham Festival 2023 Day Three – St Patrick’s Day – 16^th March

• 1.30pm – Turners Novices’ Chase
• 2.10pm – Pertemps Final
• 2.50pm – Ryanair Chase
• 3.30pm – Stayers’ Hurdle
• 4.10pm – Craft Irish Whisky Co. Plate
• 4.50pm – Mares Novices Hurdle
• 5.30pm – Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup

Day Three Highlights

St Patrick’s Day is always a fantastic day of the meeting, and many fans will be keen to see Shishkin in action in the Ryanair Chase (8/11 fav with bet365) with his main opposition set to come from Blue Lord and Conflated.

There’s also a very open Stayers’ Hurdle to enjoy straight after which could see any of Blazing Khal, Teahupoo, Marie’s Rock, Home By The Lee and Flooring Porter in with a great chance.

Cheltenham Festival 2023 Day Four – Gold Cup Day – 17^th March

• 1.30pm – JCB Triumph Hurdle
• 2.10pm – County Hurdle
• 2.50pm – Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle
• 3.30pm – Cheltenham Gold Cup
• 4.10pm – Hunters’ Chase
• 4.50pm – Mares’ Chase
• 5.30pm – Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle

Day Four Highlights

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is always the big highlight of the final day of the festival and we will see last year’s winner A Plus Tard try to defend the title. Stattler and Bravemansgame are two horses expected to challenge last year’s winner but the main threat is the current antepost favourite Galopin Des Champs (6/4 with bet365).

The French horse should have won last year’s Supreme Novices Hurdle, but fell when well clear at the final fence. However, winning form this season has seen him backed in to favourite in the feature race on Friday.

Another great battle to watch on Day Four include a potential showdown between Lossiemouth and Blood Destiny in the JCB Triumph Hurdle.

With so much great action to enjoy across the four days and 28 races, tune in to Cheltenham from next Tuesday to get your fix of the best jumps racing in the world!