Cheltenham Tips: The Festival Day by Day and Gold Cup Odds

Cheltenham tips on Pick Our Team are published through the festival feed on each racing morning, once the final fields are known; we do not name horses months out. The Cheltenham Festival runs Tuesday to Friday in March at Prestbury Park in Gloucestershire, seven races a day and 28 in all, and the 2027 meeting is fixed for 16-19 March.

Cheltenham tips today: the festival feed

Racing wire

Meetings are posted here each morning from the official fixture list.

Outside festival week the panel shows whatever Cheltenham is racing that day, or nothing at all. During it, day 2 tips, day 4 tips and the rest go up race by race, with a short note on why each selection is there and at what sort of price it stops being a bet. If a race is a lottery, the note says so and passes.

The four days at Prestbury Park

Each day carries its own name and its own championship. The supporting cards change around them, but the pattern has held for years.

Day	Name	Main feature
Tuesday	Champion Day	Champion Hurdle, Grade 1, 2m
Wednesday	Ladies Day	Queen Mother Champion Chase, Grade 1, 2m
Thursday	St Patrick's Thursday	Stayers' Hurdle and Ryanair Chase, both Grade 1
Friday	Gold Cup Day	Cheltenham Gold Cup, Grade 1, 3m 2.5f

Gold Cup Day is the one the rest of the jumps season is measured against. The Thursday name needs no explaining to an Irish reader.

Old Course, New Course and the cross-country

Cheltenham racecourse has two main tracks and a cross-country course. The Old Course is used on the first two days and the New Course takes over after that, so a horse with winning form at the track may have earned it on a different circuit from the one it races on in March. Check which course the form came from before leaning on it. The cross-country course, with its banks and odd obstacles, is a specialist's test and form elsewhere is a poor guide to it.

Gold Cup odds and the ante-post market

The Gold Cup market opens months before the race. Taking a price early can mean a bigger number than on the day, but the trade-off is harsh: under normal ante-post rules a horse that does not run is a losing bet, and the stake is gone. Ante-post bets are also outside Rule 4, so a late withdrawal of a rival does not cut the winnings.

Some bookmakers offer non-runner no bet on festival races in the build-up, which returns the stake if your horse does not line up. That is a concession, not a rule of racing, and the dates and races it covers come from the individual operator's terms. Read them before placing the bet, not after.

We publish no Gold Cup odds here. Prices move by the hour in festival week, and a figure printed on a page would be stale before you read it. The bookmakers' own markets are the only accurate source.

Each-way maths in a big Cheltenham handicap

The festival handicaps are where each-way betting earns its keep. Standard terms for a handicap with 16 or more runners are usually four places at 1/4 of the odds, although each bookmaker sets its own and some pay an extra place during festival week.

A worked example: EUR 5 each-way on a 12/1 shot costs EUR 10. If it wins, the win half returns EUR 65 (60 profit plus the 5 stake) and the place half is settled at 3/1, returning EUR 20, so EUR 85 in all. If it finishes fourth, the win half is lost and the place half still returns EUR 20, double the outlay. Unplaced, the EUR 10 is gone. Our each-way guide covers the smaller fields, where the terms are meaner.

Reading a festival card

A Cheltenham card is the same document as one from Tramore, just with more at stake. Start with the going, because the March ground can change across the week. Then the trip, and whether a horse has shown it stays it on a demanding track rather than a sharp one. Then course form, with the Old and New Course caveat above, and the most recent run, including how hard it was.

For Irish-trained runners, Irish form lines are the starting point. The Dublin Racing Festival in February is the obvious trial for many of them, and the best of the Cheltenham form is often tested again at Punchestown in late April.

Where to bet on Cheltenham from Ireland

Cheltenham is a British race meeting, but your bet is struck with whichever bookmaker you use, and in Ireland that firm should hold a GRAI remote betting licence. The card lists licensed bookmakers with a full racing product and BOG among their racing features, subject to each firm's terms; the rules behind it are on our licensing page. A GRAI licence is a betting licence only.

No.	Runner	Form	Licence	Verdict	Links
1	bet365Hillside (Europe) ENC	1-1-2-2-3	GRAI licence (betting)	NAP	Visit
2	Paddy PowerPPB Counterparty Services Limited	1-1-2-2-3	GRAI licence (betting)	NAP	Visit
3	BetfairPPB Counterparty Services Limited	1-1-4-4-4	GRAI licence (betting)	NAP	Visit
4	William HillWH Ireland Limited	1-1-3-2-3	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit
5	BetVictorBV Gaming Limited	1-2-5-4-5	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit
6	LadbrokesLC International Limited	1-1-3-2-4	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit

Form reads licence, markets, payments, safer-play tools, terms; 1 is best. How we rate. 18+ only.

Festival week pushes stakes up and judgement down. Bets are for 18+ customers only; set a budget for the four days before Tuesday, and if it is gone by Thursday, stop. The tools for that are on our safer gambling page.