When is the Cheltenham Festival and why tune in?
Any horse racing fan worth their salt will be eagerly awaiting the 2024 Cheltenham Festival. With 28 races over four spellbinding days of races, this March Tuesday 12th – Friday 15th national hunt festival is a gathering of the best talent there in the racing world. Many of the races in this prestigious event are both steeped in history, and also makers of history – as i’m sure we’ll have some of the races on repeat for years to come. Cheltenham is one of those events the whole nation tends to tune in to when it comes around, and being that it’s free to air and ever popular (viewing figure were into the millions last year) I doubt this year will be an exception to the rule.
Running from Tuesday to Friday, some of the highlights include the Supreme Novices Hurdle on Tuesday, the much loved Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday (at time of writing the Willie Mullins trained favourite El Fabiolo is a super short 2/5, with Jonbon at 7/2) the Stayers Hurdle on Thursday and of course the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday.
The current lay of the land for the Gold Cup Cheltenham betting sees Galopin Des Champs as clear favourite at 10/11 at time of writing, with FastorSlow at 4-1, with others deemed to be in with a decent shot at 8-1 and thereabouts. The bookies certainly look to setting out their stall in such a way that they think they know how this pans out, so it’ll be fascinating to see it play out in real time. Considering Galopin Des Champs form both now and in winning the Gold Cup last year, it’s hard to see past him. Life has a habit of surprising us though, and racing is certainly no exception to that.