Your 2022 Cheltenham Festival Guide

The 2022 Cheltenham Festival will offer horse racing fans four days of extraordinary entertainment. The famous festival will run from 15 to 18 March, meaning it’s almost here. Those familiar with Cheltenham are no doubt looking forward to the festival. If you’re thinking about getting into horse racing and following the events, there’s no better time than now. In this article, we will provide you with the best 2022 Cheltenham Festival guide you can find. We’ll list and detail the events so that you can choose which one to watch and follow. Our guide will show the available programmes for each day of the festival plus some useful information on the events.

The four-day festival takes place every year at the Cheltenham Racecourse which hosts many races throughout the year. Even though it’s in England, the festival is extremely popular with fans from Ireland and all parts of the British Islands. Additionally, there are many French attendants at the races as well. The festival is famous for its elite Grade I races, the atmosphere, and its gambling side too. Saint Patrick’s Day also coincides with the festival, another reason for the huge crowds. The date of origin can be traced back to 1860. Naturally, there have been many changes since then. One of the more important, and best ones, is the addition of a fourth festival day, which was done in 2005. Let’s jump into the festival programme and see what the event holds for both attending fans and those at home.

Champion Day and the Roar

The first day of the Cheltenham Festival traditionally takes place on a Tuesday and is known as Champion Day. On the 15th of March will see multiple Grade I race at Cheltenham. This day is headlined by the Champion Hurdle, a 2 mile long Grade I race that will start at 15:30. There are 14 runners this year and last year’s winner, Honeysuckle, is the favourite once again. Most online sportsbook sites in the UK have odds for all of the racers already. But this isn’t the only exciting race on the first day of the festival. The festivities will start with the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at 13:30.

This is when fans can participate in and/or experience the famous Cheltenham roar. Then comes the Arkle Challenge Trophy and the Ultima Handicap Chase, a Grade I and III chases, respectively.

Since the Champions Hurdle sort of serves as a “half-time” event on Day one, there will be 3 additional races after it. The David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle is the final Grade I race of the day and will feature 25 runners. Make sure you don’t miss it. The day is concluded with two Grade II races, the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle and the National Hunt Chase. The National Hunt Chase, taking time at 17:30 this year, is also the longest race of Day one, with 3 miles and 6 furlongs. These seven races will have hundreds of riders so make sure to select some favourites beforehand. There will be plenty of live music for the people fortunate enough to be at the festival this year. It’s also important to note that before the first race, the RoR (Retraining of Racehorses) Parade will take place, honouring some of the greatest retired horses.

Ladies Day Within the 2022 Cheltenham Festival Guide

The second day of the 2022 Cheltenham Festival, otherwise known as Ladies Day, will take place on Wednesday, 16 March. Similar to Day 1, it features 7 races, including the headline event, the Queen Mother Champion Chase. The popular two-mile-long chase has 13 fences that need to be jumped. 18 racers are competing this year with Shishkin and Energumene as the favourites.

Odds for these two British and Irish horses are available on sites like Bet365 Sportsbook. The race has an impressive winners’ purse of nearly £400.000 this year. The Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, and Coral Cup make up the first half of the day. The first two races are both in Grade I so they feature fewer racers naturally. What’s great is that the competition is tight for all three races. The odds for the first five favourite horses are nearly identical so anyone could win.

The second half of Day 2 gives fans plenty of varying excitement. At 16:10 the festivities continue with the Cross Country Chase, the longest race of the day with 3 miles and 6 furlongs. Three-time champion Tiger Roll is the favourite to win it again this year. The event is followed by the Grand Annual Chase, the second Grade 3 race Grade III race. The closing event for the day is the Champion Bumper. It’s a standard national flat race which makes it pretty popular. The race seems one-sided as Facile Vega is the heavy favourite. Use this 2022 Cheltenham Festival guide before or during the event. All radio broadcasts start a couple of hours before the first races. There will be live music throughout the day on 16 March too. Each festival day will have a headline event, like the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Two Feature Races Within One Day

The third day of the Cheltenham festival celebrates all things, Irish. 17 March will be Saint Patrick’s Thursday and two Grade I races headline the day. The Ryanair Chase and the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle are the two championship races for the day. The three miles long Stayers’ Hurdle marks the middle of the races. It’s a 26-runner race this year with Flooring Porter starting with 5/2 odds.

The Ryanair chase will also feature 26 runners and a winner’s purse of almost £370.000. Most online sportsbook sites in the UK have all kinds of betting options available for these two. Some people will even wear green for that much-needed Saint Patrick’s Day luck. If you’re at the festival in person, there’s a chance to win with Wheel of Wealth itself, which is available exclusively on Day 3.

Out of the three remaining events for the day, there are two Grade II races. These are the Mares Novices’ Hurdle and the Kim Muir Challenge Cup, the longest race of the day. The first race after the break is the Grade III Plate Handicap Chase. Some experts believe that the winner will be out of the top 10 favourites. Just as before, live music and radio broadcasts will be available during the day. Don’t forget about the live streams on sites like Bet365 Sportsbook if you want to stay up to date. Day 3 of the 2022 Cheltenham Festival will leave two remaining championship races for the last day. So let’s get to the main event.

Learn About the Gold Cup With this 2022 Cheltenham Festival Guide

The famous Cheltenham Gold Cup is the feature race of the festival. It’s the race with the most spectators, biggest prizes, and best horses and jockeys. This event is covered pretty much everywhere virtually. Winning the Gold Cup is a safe way of putting your name in the history books. This year’s race will have an insane winners’ purse of over £600.000. In comparison, this number was around £468.000 last year. A Plus Tard, Galvin, and Minella Indo are all the top three favourites this year. Keeping an eye on Al Boum Photo would also be a clever move. Check out the best 2022 Cheltenham betting odds for this race especially. Now let’s talk about the other races of the day. The other two Grade I races of the day, the Triumph Hurdle and the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle also draw in big crowds.

After the Gold Cup, only three Grade II races remain for the day, and the festival itself. The Foxhunter Steeple Chase, Mare’s Chase, and Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle close out the day, in this order. The first one is known as the amateur Gold Cup as it’s on the same court with less experienced riders. Mares’ Chase is one of the newer races at the Cheltenham festival. It will also have only 15 riders competing so it might be easier to select favourites. The 28th race in our 2022 Cheltenham Festival guide is the previously mentioned Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, which is dedicated to the legendary retired trainer. An impressive number of 109 riders will participate in this year’s event so one could read about the odds for hours. Even though it’s the final race of the festival, not all online sportsbook sites in the UK cover it.

2022 Cheltenham Festival Special Events

Apart from the 28 races, there will also be two specials. At the Cheltenham Top Trainer event, the favourites are as follows: Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry De Bromhead, Nicky Henderson, and Paul Nicholls. Recent years have seen the Irish achieve great things at the festival. Many favour Da Bromhead because he’s aiming for the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup once again with Minella Indo and Honeysuckle. If you’ve checked out the odds already, you’re familiar with these names. Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls are the two British trainers among the top 5.

Click here to stay tuned with bet365 Sportsbook

As one would expect, the other special event is the Cheltenham Top Jockey achievement. Jockeys play an equally important role in the holy trinity of horse-jockey-trainers. These two events take place during the entirety of the festival so betting options should be available for some time. With less than a week to go until Day 1 of Cheltenham, Paul Townend is leading the favourites with over 50% of winning the title. He’s working with top trainer favourite Willie Mullins so they must be expecting big things this year. The next in line is Rachael Blackmore with around a 20% chance of winning. If you look into it, all the top trainers and top jokes are somehow in league with each other.