The upcoming four days at the home of jumps racing are the highlight of the National Hunt season, there’s no doubt about that.
If you’re into betting and love the racing, then you can’t beat the buzz of Cheltenham, but if you’re not careful, those four days can become rather costly.
The Cheltenham Festival is always home to many red-hot favourites, horses who’ve been hyped all season long, and we often hear how certain horses “can’t get beat”, but we should probably try to take that sort of thing with a pinch of salt.
It’s worth remembering that the festival is hugely competitive.
All the top trainers and connections want to win these top prizes and they’ve all done everything they possibly can to try and give themselves the best chance of success.
We’re also talking about highly precocious animals, not robots. Horse racing isn’t an exact science, especially not when it’s as competitive as Cheltenham is. Don’t be fooled otherwise. Bet wisely.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with betting on the favourite.
Many favourites win, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking horses can’t get beat, and don’t make the mistake of ruling out horses just because they’re not overly fancied in the betting.
At the end of the day, there will always be plenty of short-priced favourites at the Cheltenham Festival. This year will be no different.
Many of those shorties will win too, and some will win comfortably, after which you’ll think you could’ve pocketed easy money, but don’t forget that several favourites will get turned over, as they always do, leading to some rather burnt fingers.
I suppose the bottom line is try not to get caught up in the favourite hype.
The racing at Cheltenham is about as competitive as you can get for the most part.
Things can quickly go wrong, even for biggest favourites, and each and every year, we see plenty of upsets, with several outsiders and decent priced horses coming home in front, so don’t be scared of a price.