The 2020 Cheltenham festival

We are fast approaching the Cheltenham festival in March, as fans from around the world sit in anticipation on what is one of the major events of the sporting season. Bookmakers continue to offer some fantastic bonuses, such as the ones at cheltenhamguides.com. These can be used in order to boost you bets on your selections across the four days in March. Here we cover a horse to follow for the marquee race on each day of the festival.

Day One – Champion Hurdle
The opening day of the festival centres around the Champion hurdle, which this year looks to be as competitive as ever. Epatante is likely to head in as the favourite but has many questions to answer, having ran no race at the festival last year. Pentland Hills is another horse from the Henderson stable, who would appear to be another key contender. He is amongst the favourites and was an impressive winner of the Triumph hurdle on Gold Cup day last year. He has returned this season with an eye catching performance in the International hurdle and could be set for major improvement.

Day Two – Champion Chase
The Champion chase on day two is another that looks very open at this stage. Current champion Altior is heading up the betting but was beaten on his reappearance and has now yet to make the track following a setback. The Willie Mullins trained Chacun Pour Soi was also beaten on his return but remains amongst the favourites. The one to follow could be Defi Du Seuil. The Philip Hobbs trained runner has won four of his last five starts, that includes an impressive victory over Gold Cup contender Lostintranslation in the JLT at the festival last year. He appears to perform well at Cheltenham, so is one to follow for the race.

Day Three – Stayers Hurdle
This will be many people’s idea of the banker of the festival and is likely to start as one of the shortest priced favourites of the week. This being Paisley Park, who has now won six races in succession that includes the horse going unbeaten throughout the whole of last season. This rise saw the Emma Lavelle trained horse land the Stayers hurdle in impressive fashion and all roads now lead to a defence of that crown. He has returned with an faultless success in the Long Distance cup at Newbury and it appears his to lose ahead of Cheltenham. If the cap fits would appear to be his strongest challenger.

Day Four – Gold Cup
The Gold Cup is the marquee event of the Cheltenham festival and the national hunt season on a whole. This pits the star horses against each other in the staying chase division and this year again appears to be very open. Al Boum Photo is the defending champion and worthy favourite and could be set for another victory. Another horse worth following is Clan des Obeaux. He is coming off the back of landing his second King George in succession. The eight year old appears to have returned better than ever and given a break before the Gold Cup, could be the horse to land the race having finished fifth last season.