RULES 'N HORSES
Cheltenham Festival 2024 complete guide – how to find a winner plus all the big races, horses, trainers and jockeys
Bash the bookies and be an expert with our simple guide
THE Cheltenham Festival is the biggest week in the jumps calendar and it attracts many people who may be new to the sport.
If that’s you, then welcome - you couldn't have picked a better week to get started!
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There will be thrills, spills, celeb sightings, superstar owners and a whole load of cash changing hands as the best thoroughbreds on the planet battle it out.
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Racing, like many sports, has a terminology all of its own and can be confusing — even for people who have been watching it for years.
But don't let that put you off. Racing is a brilliant, exciting sport and an amazing day out with friends too.
Cheltenham is about as good as it gets - so without further ado, here's our bluffer's guide on how best to enjoy these magical four days.
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CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL
First run in 1860, the Festival has grown to become the biggest four days of the jumps season.
It features a series of “Championship” races that decide who the best horses of the year are.
The main ones are the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday, the Champion Chase on Wednesday, Thursday’s Stayers’ Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday, all run at 3.30pm.
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There are a host of top supporting races too and owners, trainers and jockeys dream of winning any race.
RACE TYPES
HURDLES: The horses jump hurdles which look like gates.
They are not fixed rigidly into the ground and horses often kick them down as they jump them. They are usually three and a half feet high.
Rich Ricci talks us through his favourite Cheltenham Festival moment ever
CHASES: The horses jump fences that are made from birch and are normally four and a half feet high.
Most tracks also have a water jump where the fence is smaller but there is a small “pond” to leap over.
There are plain fences and ditches — these have a gully in front of the fence so the horse has to jump further.
NATIONAL HUNT FLAT: They are also called bumpers and are a flat race for future jumpers to gain experience.
THE BIG HORSES
Sadly, this year's Festival will be missing two of its biggest stars in Constitution Hill and Marine Nationale.
The former, who was the reigning Champion Hurdle king, is unwell while the latter, who was red-hot favourite for the Arkle race, is injured.
But there is still plenty of awesome equine talent on show.
State Man (Champion Hurdle), Lossiemouth (Mares' Hurdle), Galopin Des Champs (Gold Cup) and Sir Gino (Triumph Hurdle) are all heavily fancied to win.
That's not to mention the likes of Ballyburn (Gallagher Novices' Hurdle) and Fact To File (Brown Advisory).
But this week is all about the emergence of new stars, as well as champions confirming their brilliance.
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THE BIG JOCKEYS AND TRAINERS
There's no denying it, one trainer stands head and shoulders above the rest at Cheltenham: Willie Mullins.
The Irish genius will almost certainly smash through the 100-winner mark at the Festival this week.
Joining him from over the Sea are the likes of Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell.
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Mullins' No1 jockey is Paul Townend. Rachael Blackmore, Danny Mullins, Jack Kennedy and Mark Walsh are some of the other names to watch looking to raid our top prizes.
The best British trainers are Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson, with their jockeys Harry Cobden and Nico de Boinville expected to bang in a few winners against the Irish onslaught.
THE BIG OWNERS
They don't get any bigger than Irish billionaire JP McManus.
A legend of the game, he wins at all costs, this year buying two favourites just days before the races.
He used to be one of the co-owners of Manchester United, which brings us on nicely to Old Trafford legend Sir Alex Ferguson.
He has entered a whole load of top horses over Thursday and Friday.
Perhaps his best chance of a winners is L'eau Du Sud in the County Hurdle at 2.10pm on Friday.
But he will also have the likes of Hitman, Protektorat, Sonigino and others running before then so keep your eyes peeled on our racecards to find out who runs where and when.
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Harry Redknapp is also expected to be cheering on some of his horses at Cheltenham.
His best chance of victory at 16-1 looks like being Shakem Up'Arry, who runs in the Plate Handicap Chase at 4.10pm on Thursday.
Redknapp recently told the funny story of how he came to name the horse - and why he thinks he could win the Grand National next month.
You might also recognise the name of top football agent David Manasseh, who has red-hot favourite Ballyburn in the Gallagher Novices' Hurdle at 1.30pm on Wednesday.
There's more from outside the world of sport, too.
Rich Ricci is a flamboyant banker with some of the best horses around including huge Mares' Hurdle favourite Lossiemouth.
While the likes of Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary will also have a load of top horses running in his Gigginstown silks - made famous by Tiger Roll winning the Grand National - throughout the week.
THE CELEBS
You can bet they'll be out in force during the week.
From Carol Vorderman to Made In Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo, there's no shortage of glam on show at Prestbury Park.
Footballers such as Peter Crouch and Wayne Rooney love it too - although not every year passes without incident, as this collection of most shocking moments shows.
And sometimes they even manage to land a big winner.
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Toff won £37,500 from this crazy bet a couple of years ago while former Ryder Cup golfer Lee Westwood managed to top that.
He pocketed a simply astonishing amount from this rarely-seen Super Heinz bet - about as rare as a hole in one!
So if you're there keep your eyes peeled on the crowd because you'll never know what you see.
Even Frankie Dettori getting swept off his feet by Rod Stewart's wife Penny... literally!
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THE START
Unlike the Flat there are no starting stalls for a jumps race — the horses line up behind a tape which is released by the starter to signal the race has begun.
FREE BETS AND TIPS
Bookies love to offer loads of goodies for Cheltenham Festival.
We've grouped together all the best ones here.
Sun Racing's main man Templegate will bring you his tips every day of the Festival - and you can find his selections for day one here.
HANDICAP or NON-HANDICAP?
The goal of a handicap is for horses of different abilities to race each other without the result being obvious.
To try to equalise them, the faster horses carry more weight than the slower ones. The idea is that weight slows horses down.
In jumps racing, the horses can carry as little as 10 stone and the best horse would generally carry 11 stone, 12 lb.
A jockey would weigh about 10 stone with their saddle and other equipment.
The rest is made up of thin lead weights that are put into the saddle.
So if a horse is due to carry 11 stone and the jockey plus their saddle and other equipment like boots etc adds up to 10 stone, then that horse will have a stone of lead put into the saddle.
The weights are set by the official handicappers who decide how good they think each horse is.
When a horse runs well it generally has more weight to carry next time and if it runs badly it often has less weight in future races.
In a NON-HANDICAP, the horses generally all carry the same weight.
Although female horses, known as fillies until they become mares at the age of five, get a 7lb weight allowance in some races.
RACE DISTANCE
In jumps racing, the shortest races are just under two miles long. The longest race of the season is the Grand National at Aintree in April which is over four miles, two furlongs and 74 yards.
A furlong is 220 yards and there are eight furlongs in a mile. Races over three miles and further are often called “staying races”.
A horse called a stayer is considered to have lots of stamina.
RACE CLASS
Our racecards show the class of today’s race. Class is a bit like the divisions in football.
A Class 1 race would be the Premier League, Class 2 the Championship, Class 3 League One and so on.
You’ll see much better horses in Class 1 races than Class 5 contests.
Some of the races at Cheltenham are Grade 1, 2 or 3.
That is higher again than even Class 1 with Grade 1 the pinnacle of the sport.
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THE GOING
The going is the condition of the track on the day of racing.
If there has been a lot of rain it will often be described as soft or heavy which means very soft. This is also known as slow ground.
If there hasn’t been so much rain around, it could be good to soft, good or good to firm.
It’s important because some horses like soft ground and others like it good or firm.
The Favourite racecards tell you which going each horse has won on – S-Soft, G-Good, GS-Good to Soft, F-Firm, GF-Good to firm.
FORM
You can spend seconds or hours looking at a horse’s form — the record of how it has done in its previous races.
On the racecard, the horse’s most recent run is always closest to its name.
So if it says 311-221 that means the horse won its last race and finished second in the two before that.
There is detail in the form we carry for every race. That tells you where the horse ran last time and how it got on.
OWNERS, TRAINERS AND JOCKEYS
Surprise, surprise, owners own the horses. But they can be individuals or racing clubs and syndicates with thousands of members.
Trainers look after the horses, they live at their stables and are kept fit and prepared for each race.
Jockeys ride the horses in the race. Some jockeys have little figures in brackets after their name. These are usually young riders called “conditional” jockeys who are just starting their career.
They get weight knocked off the horse they are riding – 7lb until they have clocked up 20 wins, 5lb until 40 wins and 3lb until 75 wins.
After that they become fully fledged jockeys and get no weight allowance. The figure in brackets is the amount to knock off the horse’s weight in today’s race.
JOCKEYS’ COLOUR
The colours relate to the owners. Each owner has their colours that jockeys riding one of their horses wear.
When the same owner has two or more runners in the race, the jockeys wear the same shirt but have a different coloured cap.
HEADGEAR
There are different types of headgear. They are shown by different symbols on the racecard.
T: Tongue tie. This is used by trainers to stop the horse’s tongue from flapping about. It doesn’t hurt them.
B: Blinkers. This is a type of hood with little cups around the eyes. It helps the horse to look forward during the race.
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H: Hood — it doesn’t have the blinkers on but goes over their ears to help block out some of the noise and help them stay nice and calm.
P: Cheekpieces. These look like big sideburns and are attached to the horse’s bridle. They help horses concentrate.
STAR: The star means the horse has the blinkers, cheekpieces or hood – known collectively as headgear – on for the first time.
You’ll also hear talk of a “wind op”. This is a medical procedure some horses have to help them breathe more easily during a race.
TRACK RECORD
Horses that have run well at Cheltenham often come back and run well again. This is shown on the racecard.
C: The horse has won at this course before — ie Cheltenham.
D: The horse has won a race over this distance before.
CD: The horse has won a race over this course AND distance before.
OLD COURSE OR NEW COURSE
Cheltenham is two tracks in one.
The Old course is used for the first two days of the Festival.
Then there’s the New course which is a bit more of a test of stamina and you often see horses coming from miles back to win up the hill.
Both courses have the same finish in front of the stands.
Forget that, Cheltenham is three tracks in one! There is a cross-country course in the middle of the other two that is used once.
There are a whopping 32 obstacles to be tackled including different types of hurdles, fences and banks.
It is a throwback to racing hundreds of years when races would be run across open fields from steeple to steeple, hence the term steeplechase.
HAVING A BET
We all love to take a few quid off the bookies. There are various ways of doing this, here are just a few:
WIN SINGLE: Pick a horse and back it to win. It has to be first past the post to get a return.
EACH-WAY: Your horse has to win or finish in the places. Usually places are the first three in races of 5-15, or the first four for 16 runners or more.
Some bookies offer more places so check the adverts in the Favourite. With an each-way bet half your stake goes on the win, and half goes on the place.
FORECAST: This is where you try to name the horses that will finish first and second – in the right order. A bit tricky!
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ACCUMULATORS: Also known as an acca, this is where you try to pick the winner of two or more different races – and they all have to win to get a payout. Even more tricky!
PLACEPOT: This is where you pick a horse to be placed in the first six races of the meeting. If they do you’ll get a potentially very nice return at Cheltenham.
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