If you speak to UK racing fans, many will tell you that the Cheltenham Festival stands tall above any other national hunt racing festival that takes place. As a standalone race, the Grand National also stands out, but that is just one race, and not a week of thrilling racing on the track.
For those betting on the Cheltenham Festival, you know every single horse on the track is primed for that day. It is the biggest race of the year for almost all runners, and sometimes the biggest race of their entire career. Big names feature in the championship races, and the biggest of them all is the Cheltenham Gold Cup, a winner that all fans of the sport would love to back. The best horse racing odds show that A Plus Tard is the current race favorite, priced up at +350 to win the race he finished second in last season.
We often see horses come back for more at the festival, just like A Plus Tard will be doing, which helps people become fond of the horses, as they see them every season at this big event and see how they progress through their racing careers.
On and off the track, there is a lot that makes Cheltenham very special.
The Atmosphere of the Festival
One of the big reasons why people love the festival is because of the atmosphere it brings. Across the four days of the meeting, the average attendance is 65,000, with many of those people being huge racing fans.
With so many lovers of the sport in one place, and so many big storylines taking place on the track, excitement, joy, heartbreak, and much more are all shown in the stands for almost every race. The sport of racing brings people together for special moments, and the Cheltenham Festival is known for delivering those moments every year.
A Celebration of Talent
There are few sports that can offer you the chance to go and know you are seeing the very best available. Whether this is trainers, jockeys, or of course the horses, when you go to Cheltenham, the best are all in attendance.
Horses go on to make huge names for themselves, some of them become not only legends of horse racing, but legends of the festival. In 2021, we saw Tiger Roll win his 5th festival race by landing the Cross Country Chase, he is the kind of horse that people at the festival love. He’s won the Grand National twice but will almost certainly have something named after him at Cheltenham when he retires, as we have seen with past stars.
When stood in the stands for those four days at the Cheltenham Festival, those lucky enough to be there are witnessing the pinnacle of the sport, in one of the best environments that the sport offers. This is why many believe it is the best festival that UK national hunt racing has to offer.
