Cheltenham Festival: Highlight of 2013 Horseracing Season

Every year, rain or shine, hundreds of thousands of elated horseracing fans gather at Prestbury Park to mark the beginning of the Cheltenham Festival. This year will be no different, as Cheltenham festival 2013 kicks off on Tuesday, March 12, and runs through Friday, March 15. Cheltenham Racecourse will be home to Champion Day, Ladies Day, St Patrick’s Thursday, and Gold Cup Friday; the top-notch races on each of those days are the Champion Hurdle, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the World Hurdle, and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, respectively.

When the the gates open and the horses fly out at the start of the William Hill-sponsored Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, the first race of Cheltenham Festival 2013,  a unique sound will echo from the park. This resonating bellow, known as the Cheltenham Roar, will reverberate around the world, as online punters and horseracing fanatics will join those present at the festival in cheering on the horses and riders. This is a tradition as legendary as the races themselves, and no self-respecting racing fan will remain silent on this auspicious occasion.

Every year, the greatest horses to come out of the UK and Ireland meet at the festival and thrill audiences everywhere. Due to the wonders of modern technology, the races can be streamed to online viewers in real time, which means every punter can feel like he or she is right there, trackside. The Irish are particularly fond of the festival and St Patrick’s Thursday revolves around a theme so thickly Irish that attendees are likely to start talking with a brogue by the end of the day.

Well in advance of the start of the festival, sites like William Hill feature Cheltenham betting markets with ante-post prices. Punters who are thirsty for even more information will be happy to drink in the latest news regarding the history of the horses, their current form, and the predictions of resident experts. On all the best sites, the pundits will weigh in with advice and tips to make your Cheltenham punting experience as enjoyable – and lucrative – as possible.

Horse racing has been a popular spectator sport in Britain for hundreds of years and its popularity shows no signs of declining despite uncertain economic times. Throughout its history horse racing has been synonymous with gambling. Making money from horse racing is not easy as successful bookmakers certainly outnumber successful punters, however, if you are prepared to put in the effort it is possible to make a profit in the long rung.

Betting Market
Any successful punter requires a regular supply of winners. What many punters fail to acknowledge, however, is that roughly 65% of horse races in Britain in the last 10 years were won by one of the first three in the betting market. The majority of horse races are won by horses at, or approaching, their peak, running against limited opposition. Bookmakers are renowned for their generosity, so these types of horses are inevitably well fancied and occupy positions towards the head of the betting market.

Form
Concentrating on the first three in the betting narrows the field down to a manageable number from which a selection can be finalised. What you are looking for is a horse with good recent form, preferably winning form, in a similar race or races. Typically, the form of a horse`s last two runs are sufficient to determine its prospects of winning a race in the near future, but it may be necessary to look further back in the form book to determine its preferences with regard to distance, going, etc.

Multiple Bets
Bookmakers are keen to promote multiple bets, such as Yankees and Canadians, simply because they yield such high profits. Many punters are tempted by the prospect of a large return for a relatively small outlay, but the nature of these bets means that they need two or three winners to return a profit. Win singles are much less profitable for the bookmaker and, conversely, much more profitable for the punter which is why you tend to hear very little about them. The secret of successful punting is to achieve maximum profit from each and every winner, so win singles are the only way to go for serious punters.

Racing Tips
Of course, you may simply enjoy betting on horses for entertainment purposes. You may not have the time or the inclination to spend hours studying the form book, in which case you may need to rely on the opinions of tipsters and other industry experts. Websites such as freeracingtips.co.uk provide free horse racing tips delivered straight to your inbox if you sign up with them.

If you’re a first time bettor at the race tracks, the terms and types of bets can really get confusing. Once you’ve taken the time to observe the horses and read up on the race track program and other helpful aids and have already chosen your horse, it’s now time to place your wager. But putting your bet is not that simple on the race track. You have to know the type of bet you are going to place. This piece is an introduction to the most common bets that you can make on the race track. Most race tracks accept a minimum wager of $2.

A bet for win means that your horse must finish first for you to collect. A place bet allows you to win when your horse finishes first or second while a show bet means that your horse must finish first, second or third place. When you bet across the board, you are essentially making the three types of bets mentioned above equally: win, place and show. Thus, in the event that your horse wins, you collect on all three wagers (win, place, show). If your horse comes in second place, you only collect on the place and show bet. Finally, if your horse finishes third, you only collect on the show bet.

For multiple bets, you can do the Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, Superfecta, Daily Double and Pick 3. In a Quinella, the horses that you bet on must finish first and second in either order while in an Exacta bet, they must finish in first and second in the exact order. A Trifecta bet allows you to collect a wager if your horses finish first, second and third in the exact order while in a Superfecta, you can collect if your horses finish first, second, third and fourth also in the exact order. In a Daily Double bet, the horses you bet on must finish first in each of the two races that make up the Daily Double so you can collect. A Pick 3 works the same way as a Daily Double but as the name suggests, applies to three consecutive races.

There are other bets that you can place and as you become more sophisticated and knowledgeable on the track, you can definitely try them out. But if you’re still learning the ropes, then those mentioned above should suffice. Now that you are familiar with the common types of bets, it’s time for you to place them and cheer your horse home!