Cheltenham Festival

Last Ran: 11th March 2008

The Cheltenham Festival is the major national hunt racing festival in the United Kingdom. Every year in mid march, the best jumpers from around Europe gather together to lock horns and find out who's really the best. Anything that's gone before means nothing if a horse can't win here.

The Festival is split over four days of competition, with six races on each day. Each day has a "feature" race, which will be the biggest race of that day, with the best horses and most prize money being on offer.

Cheltenham is a very demanding course, with a stiff uphill finish, making stamina a must as the horses round the final turn - many a dream has been shattered coming up that hill.

Trends are important in this meeting (as with any other major horse racing meeting). A major trend for the whole meeting to bear in mind is that only 7 of the last 90 horses aged ten or over have won at the Festival. Willie Mullins has a great record in hte Champion Bumper, too, with 5 wins from the last 12 renewals.

Another thing to bear in mind is that a lot of horses coming into the Festival have had a long hard season, so look for fairly light raced horses that appear to be coming into form in their latter races. The meeting at Leopardstown in January can be a good pointer, as can "trials day" at Cheltenham in late January.

Below is the schedule for the meeting this year. We've also got in-depth articles on each of the bigger races, with information on trends, past winners, latest odds and a betting preview.

Note: Some of the bookmakers listed on this site have increased their signup offers specially for Cheltenham - to see these view our Cheltenham Free Bets page.

Cheltenham Festival 2008

Day One - Tuesday 11th March

2:00 pm: Supreme Novices Hurdle
2:35 pm: Arkle Challenge Trophy
3:15 pm: Champion Hurdle
4:00 pm: William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase
4:40 pm: Cross Country Chase
5:20 pm: Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle

Day Two - Wednesday 12th March

Racing called off due to high winds.

Day Three - Thursday 13th March

12.30pm: National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup
1.05pm: Sun Alliance Novices Chase
1.40pm: Jewson Novices Handicap
2.20pm: Queen Mother Champion Chase
2.55pm: Ryanair Chase
3.30pm: World (Stayers) Hurdle
4.05pm: Racing Post Plate
4.40pm: Pertemps Handicap Hurdle
5.15pm: Kim Muir Challenge Cup
5.50 pm: Champion Bumper

Day Four - Friday 14th March

12.30pm: David Nicholson Mares Only Hurdle
1.05pm: Ballymore Properties Novices Hurdle
1.40pm: Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle
2.15pm: Triumph Hurdle
2.50pm: Novices Hurdle Final
3.30pm: Cheltenham Gold Cup
4.05pm: Foxhunters Chase Challenge Cup
4.40pm: Grand Annual Handicap Chase
5.20pm:County Handicap Hurdle

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Other Horse Races

Champion Bumper (13th March 2008)
Royal Sun Alliance Chase (13th March 2008)
Ryanair Chase (13th March 2008)
Cheltenham Handicap Steeplechase (13th March 2008)
Cheltenham Novices Handicap Chase (13th March 2008)

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