Cheltenham Betting Odds

The Cheltenham Festival is one of the biggest horse racing meetings in the world. It’s the pinnacle of the UK National Hunt season, featuring four stunning days of top-class racing.

The festival is one of the most significant meetings in horse racing due to the high volume of top-tier feature races. It is packed with fourteen Grade 1 races and is a highlight of horse racing betting.

The Cheltenham Festival traditionally falls on the week of St Patrick’s Day celebrations, so it attracts a huge Irish race-going contingent, as well as leading trainers from across the Irish Sea.

Top Races at the Cheltenham Festival

Among all the races, it’s the championship fixtures that are the highest profile in horse racing betting. They are the much-anticipated Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and the blue riband event, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Champion Hurdle

The Champion Hurdle is the feature race on the opening day, and it is usually one of the biggest betting races of the Festival.

The Champion Hurdle is one of the Cheltenham Festival’s more lucrative races, with a total of £450,000 on offer in 2026.

Cheltenham Gold Cup Odds

The Cheltenham Gold Cup has been around since 1924 and the Grade 1 fixture captures the imagination of punters. Cheltenham Gold Cup betting is the highlight of the Festival.

Some of the greatest chasers in the world have won the race, including Best Mate, Arkle, Kauto Star and Denman. In 2022, jockey Rachael Blackmore created history by becoming the first female jockey to win, guiding 3/1F A Plus Tard home first.

The Gold Cup is a 3 m 2f contest for chasers at least five years old. It is also the richest non-handicap race in UK racing.

2026 Cheltenham Festival

The Cheltenham Festival will once again grip fans as the special four days of racing take centre stage again in the Spring of 2026. The Festival brings a stack of Grade 1 races together, attracting the biggest stars over the hurdles and fences, in a spectacular show of racing.

Because of the festival’s prominence, punters look for ante-post Cheltenham Festival odds to size up potential race fields well ahead of time. Form and future odds for the big races come from the results delivered across the National Hunt season, in the build-up to the big event.

Here is a look ahead to the upcoming 2026 Cheltenham Festival ante-post betting highlights.

Champion Day

The Grade 1 Supreme Hurdle raises the curtain to the Cheltenham Festival with a famous roar. Last year we saw Kopek des Bordes land the spoils for popular trainer Willie Mullins.

The feature race of the day is the Champion Hurdle and last year Golden Ace secured one of the shocks of the season to give trainer Jeremy Scott a sensational victory.

Style Wednesday

It’s all about fashion and style at Cheltenham on Wednesday, also known as Ladies’ Day, and there are three further Grade 1 contests to come. The day kicks off with the Turners Novices’ Hurdle, but the highlight is the Queen Mother Champion Chase, which features 12 fences.

Lecky Watson took advantage of a dramatic Brown Advisory Novices Chase to give Willie Mullins another big-race winner and connections will be targeting the Cheltenham Gold Cup with him this season. He will prove to be a popular pick in the Cheltenham betting odds.

St Patrick’s Thursday

It’s a day for Irish celebrations at the course for St Patrick's Day, and with more championship action to come. 

Gold Cup Day

Friday is Cheltenham Gold Cup Day, one of the biggest fixtures of National Hunt racing.

The 2025 renewal was won by the Gavin Cromwell-trained Inothewayurthinkin and many will fancy him to go on and retain his crown next spring. Can Galopin Des Champs defy the odds and return to win a third Gold Cup? Only time will tell.

2026 Cheltenham Festival Betting

Follow the latest Cheltenham Festival betting odds, including ante-post markets for all the championship races right here at 888Sport. Cheltenham is famous for its amazing atmosphere across the four days and with a total of 28 races, twelve of those being Grade 1 events, it’s a meeting like no other.

From watching novices tackle the course for the first time in races like the Supreme Novices' and the Brown Advisory, to the star-studded lines up in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup, there’s plenty to keep racing fans on the edge of their seats.

How to Bet on the Cheltenham Festival

888Sport Racing covers all of your Cheltenham Festival betting. Find the latest horse racing odds for all 28 races at the meeting. Selections can be pulled from the straight race winner markets, including ante-post and early prices, plus on the day of the race right up until the off.

Picking the race winner is the most popular type of wager played for Cheltenham betting. An each-way selection provides coverage of a selection finishing in 5th place in the race, depending on the fixture.

Other popular markets for Cheltenham odds are Forecast and Tricast bets, which are selections on the exact finishing order of the top two or three in a race. Race day accumulators are another popular wager for Cheltenham betting.

Look for alternative markets too, like The Prestbury Cup, which celebrates the annual duel between British and Irish trainers. Other featured markets are Top Jockey, Top Trainer and even Over/Under Totals on how many winners selected jockeys and trainers will land.

How to bet on the Cheltenham Festival:

• Browse the Cheltenham racecards for all four days
• Select a race like the Arkle, Champion Hurdle to Cheltenham Gold Cup
• Click the Cheltenham odds next to the selection and that will add the runner to the bet slip
• Enter the stake
• Double check the slip and if all is correct, select 'place bet'

Cheltenham Festival Horse Racing Tips

Follow all the latest information, live betting markets and insights for all the big races. Look at the form on the 888Sport Cheltenham Festival racecards with detailed horse racing tips from Timeform included. The 888 blog has further previews of the big meeting to enjoy, to help gauge the latest Cheltenham odds and markets.

Best Racing Features For The Cheltenham Festival

Bet Finder

Our Bet Finder is a great way to filter the runners at the Cheltenham Festival. Enter search terms like odds range, course winner and winning trainer to narrow down the horses that fit your strategy.

Each Way Plus

Back a horse in a race that has the 888Sport Each Way Promo and gets enhanced place terms on the result, or an extra place.

Double Result

The 888Sport Double Result feature for all UK & Irish racing pays first past the post. It will also pay if a back selection is promoted to a place finish or win.

Streaming

Live racing streaming is available at 888Sport with access gained by a qualifying bet on the race.

Cheltenham Festival Racing

The Cheltenham Festival is such a special event and one of the greatest sporting occasions around. It’s four of the most thrilling, high-quality days of racing on the calendar. Follow all the latest live betting odds and action at 888Sport both during the big build-up and the Festival itself.

Cheltenham Festival Racing History

The history of the Cheltenham Festival goes back to the mid-1800s. It was contested at different venues in the UK before it returned to Cheltenham in 1911 where the meeting has stayed ever since

Even though the Cheltenham Festival is steeped in tremendous history, it continues to evolve. A big change to the Festival happened in 2005 as an extra day was added, taking the meeting to its current four-day status.

The reshuffling of things made it so that there was a championship race on each of the days, and further races were added. There are now a total of 28 races at the Cheltenham Festival, with half of them Grade 1. The Festival is hosted annually in March, beginning on the second Tuesday of the month.