Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide: Markets, Concessions, and What to Know

Four days in March. Twenty-eight races. The biggest week in National Hunt racing and, for the UK betting market, the biggest single festival of the year.

Cheltenham rewards specialist knowledge more than any other UK meeting. Trainer patterns, ground preferences, ante-post timing, and the concession calendar all matter in ways they don't the rest of the jumps season. What follows is the practical betting vocabulary for the Festival, aimed at punters who want to understand the shape of the week before they place a bet. For the broader racing-odds vocabulary (Starting Price, BOG, tote), start with our horse racing odds explained.

When does the Cheltenham Festival run?

Four days in mid-March. Tuesday to Friday. Usually the second or third full week of the month.

Each day has its own character and its own feature race. Tuesday is the Champion Hurdle. Wednesday is the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Thursday is the Stayers' Hurdle and the Cross Country. Friday is Gold Cup day. The Festival opens with the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at 1:30 on Tuesday afternoon, and by tradition, the Cheltenham Roar (the noise from the stands as the tape goes up on the first race) is the real opening of the week.

Around the four championship races sit the novice races, the handicaps (Coral Cup, Pertemps Final, Plate, County Hurdle), and the Mares' Hurdle and Cross Country that give the Festival its full 28-race shape. The big handicaps routinely field 20+ runners and carry the longest-priced winners of the week.

What are the four feature races?

Four championships, one per day.

Champion Hurdle (Tuesday, Day 1). The top-rated 2-mile hurdle race in Europe. Run over 2 miles, 87 yards. Traditionally the reigning champion faces the strongest challengers from the UK, Ireland, and France. A horse winning both Supreme Novices' Hurdle and Champion Hurdle in consecutive years is one of the genuinely hard doubles in the sport.

Queen Mother Champion Chase (Wednesday, Day 2). The championship of 2-mile chasing. Run over 1 mile, 7 furlongs, 199 yards, with 12 fences. Pure speed and jumping under pressure. The favourite often starts at short odds and goes off at short odds; big-priced winners are rare.

Stayers' Hurdle (Thursday, Day 3). The long-distance hurdling championship. Run over 2 miles, 7 furlongs, 213 yards. Demands stamina that the Champion Hurdle doesn't. Often the race where Flat imports or dual-purpose horses challenge the specialist jumpers.

Cheltenham Gold Cup (Friday, Day 4). The Festival's showpiece. 3 miles, 2 furlongs, 70 yards, with 22 fences and a notorious stamina test up the Cheltenham hill. The Gold Cup is the championship race of staying chasers and the race every jumps trainer points their best horse at.

What is ante-post betting on Cheltenham?

Ante-post on the Festival opens within days of the previous year's meeting. Prices quote roughly 12 months in advance, drifting in and shortening up as horses win or lose their key prep races through winter.

Ante-post prices are usually more generous than the day's price. The trade-off: you carry the risk that your horse doesn't run. Injury, a poor prep performance, a change of target to a different race, or the trainer simply deciding the ground won't suit. Non-Runner Money Back protects against that risk, but only from a stated date (usually early February). Bets placed before the NRNB window don't get refunded if the horse doesn't run.

The argument for ante-post: you lock in a price the market may not offer again. The argument against: non-runner risk outside the NRNB window. Most serious Festival punters wait until the NRNB window opens and take ante-post prices then, rather than betting in summer or autumn.

Does Non-Runner Money Back apply?

Yes, for most UK-licensed bookmakers on most Festival races. The date it kicks in varies.

Common NRNB windows open in early February, roughly 5-6 weeks before the Festival. From that date, ante-post bets on the relevant races are refunded (usually as a free bet) if the horse doesn't run. Before that date, the same bets are not protected.

Practical consequence: if you want an ante-post price and you're backing a horse that might not run, wait for the NRNB window. The price you give up by waiting a few weeks is usually smaller than the value of the concession.

Check each bookmaker's specific NRNB terms for each race. Coverage across all 28 Festival races is common but not universal, and some smaller races on the card (Cross Country, Foxhunter) can fall outside a book's NRNB programme.

What are the place terms for each-way?

Place terms at Cheltenham vary dramatically by race.

Championship races (Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, Queen Mother, Stayers'). Standard each-way terms: 1/4 or 1/5 of the win odds, 3 places paid. Small fields and favourites at short odds make each-way less attractive on these.

Handicaps (Coral Cup, Pertemps, Plate, County, Kim Muir, Martin Pipe). These are where each-way earns its keep. 16+ runners is routine, which means at least 4 places paid at 1/4 odds at most UK books. A handful of bookmakers offer 5 or 6 places on specific Festival handicaps.

The big handicap card on Thursday and Friday is where each-way betting on 25/1, 33/1, and 50/1 outsiders can produce meaningful place returns when the favourite is beaten. It's a specific rhythm the Festival rewards.

Can I bet on Cheltenham in-play?

Yes. Most UK-licensed bookmakers offer full in-play coverage across every Festival race.

Next-to-go markets update as each race approaches, with odds moving sharply in the final minutes before the tape goes up. In-running markets during the race itself price the contenders dynamically as the field crosses fences, splits, and comes up the hill. Cash Out is widely available on both ante-post and on-the-day bets, though during a live race the offered value moves faster than a human can usefully react to most of the time.

Live streaming is available at several UK-licensed bookmakers for funded accounts, and ITV Racing covers all four days of the Festival on free-to-air UK television. Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing carry in-depth coverage across the week.

What's the best strategy for a casual punter?

Three approaches stand out for punters who don't want to bet every race.

Placepot. Pick a horse to place in each of the first six races at the Festival on a given day. The pool splits between all punters who get all six. Big-field handicaps at Cheltenham produce Placepot dividends regularly into four figures for modest stakes. The Wednesday and Thursday cards are traditionally the hardest Placepots, which also means the highest dividends when they land.

Each-way on big handicaps. 16+ runners, 4-6 places paid at 1/4 odds, longer-priced winners. Each-way on the big handicap races produces place returns that win-only betting can't match when the favourite is beaten.

One-race focus. Pick the championship race on each day and focus attention there. Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother, Stayers', Gold Cup. Four bets across the week, each on a race you've actually researched, beats 28 reactive bets placed as each race loads. The discipline is the point.

Whichever approach you take, set a Festival budget before day one and treat it as the spend for the week. Deposit limits on your bookmaker account are the single most effective tool for keeping a four-day meeting inside the boundaries you meant.

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