Cheltenham Gold Cup Betting

Cheltenham, UNITED KINGDOCHELTENHAM - MARCH 12: Richard Johnson and One Knight clear an early fence before landing The Royal & Sun Alliance Novices Steeple Chase Race on the second day of The National Hunt Festival held on March 12, 2003 at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham, England. (Photo by Julian Herbert/Getty Images)

As the most keenly anticipated race of the Cheltenham Festival, the Cheltenham Gold Cup offers one of the biggest betting markets of any race in the National Hunt racing calendar. Unlike the Grand National Handicap Steeplechase run at Aintree, the Cheltenham Gold Cup usually produces a short-odds favourite for the race, and the favourite has a relatively good chance of going on to win the race or at the least finish placed.

There are many factors to look at when doing your Cheltenham Gold Cup betting, and one of the best ways to choose which horses to back and which horses to scratch is to study trends which indicate what types of horses are likely to pull off a win in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Cheltenham Gold Cup Betting Tips

  • Check the age of your horse. A horse’s age is one of the most important factors to investigate when making your Cheltenham Gold Cup betting picks. National Hunt racehorses generally perform at their peak between the ages of eight and 12, allowing you to scratch off horses older than the age of 12. The Cheltenham Gold Cup has a history of producing young winners with seven- to nine-year-olds winning the majority of the races. Only 18 horses over this age have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup since 1924.
  • Pick a horse with experience. Although Cheltenham Gold Cup winners don’t always have a history of wins prior to the race, all of them have run in at least six steeplechases prior to their win at the Cheltenham Festival. The importance of experience in Cheltenham Gold Cup betting is also illustrated by the fact that eight out of ten horses to have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup have finished placed at the Cheltenham Festival in previous years.
  • Don’t pick a loser. This might sound like the most obvious tip of them all, but it is worth keeping in mind that of 53 the last contestants to have been beaten in the Cheltenham Gold Cup have entered the race only to be beaten again.
  • Put it all together. To make the most of your Cheltenham Gold Cup betting, list the contenders and look out for a horse between seven- and nine-years-old with a history of previous placed finishes at the Cheltenham Festival, a steeplechase track record and no previous failures in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

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