The Cheltenham Festival is the highlight of the jump racing season, with the top horses from across the UK and Ireland putting on a four-day sporting extravaganza during March.
It can be a notoriously difficult meeting to predict, as many of the races are packed with horses who have genuine winning chances.
Read on for our top three tips to help you beat the bookies at the Cheltenham Festival.
Study the form
Horse racing provides a vast array of statistics and information on past races that can help you decide which horse is more likely to win.
The odds offer a guide to which horses are fancied, but numerous races at Cheltenham are tremendously competitive.
Much like a visit to Top Online Roulette Casinos where strategies play such an important part, studying the form can give you the edge against the bookmakers.
The horse’s recent form, the weight it’s carrying, the class of the race and the trainer’s form are amongst the main factors to consider.
Many horses are also classed as ‘Cheltenham specialists’, often only producing their best form at the track, so it can often pay to follow these at the Festival.
Handicaps are a minefield
The four-day Festival features a wide cross-section of races and it makes sense to be selective when considering your wagers.
It features several Grade 1 races including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and World Hurdle, all of which feature the best horses in their particular class.
There are also a series of championship races for novice hurdlers and chasers which are contested by the best up-and-coming equine stars of the future.
The Festival also has numerous handicap races, often contested by over 20 runners, and these can be a minefield for punters.
Sticking to the Grade 1 and novice races, which are usually won by well-fancied horses, can help you make a profit from your visit to Cheltenham.
Don’t ignore the experts
Like many other sports, horse racing attracts pundits who offer analysis designed to help you make informed betting decisions.
Some of these so-called experts aren’t worth listening to, but there are a selected few who know the sport inside out and are certainly worth following.
Record-breaking jockey Tony McCoy is a good judge of horse racing, while tipsters like Tom Segal and Hugh Taylor regularly return a profit on their tips.
It’s not easy to make money at the Cheltenham Festival, but using all the information at your disposal will help you maximise your enjoyment of horse racing’s number one event.