Cheltenham Festival Runners: Pick up Your Winner 2021
Commercial content | New Customers Only | 18+
The 2021 Cheltenham Festival is just around the corner, and there are a host of Festival runners to keep an eye on. The Gold Cup is the main event on Friday March 19th and if you want to know which runners are amongst the favourites in 2021, this article will focus on them.
*All odds are subject to change. Last update 17/02/2020 (Source: oddschecker)
Cheltenham Festival Runners for Gold Cup 2021
Once again, the Cheltenham Festival incorporates St. Patrick’s Day. So, while visitors are not allowed this year, there will once again be millions in bets flowing from Ireland. Prize money is huge at Cheltenham. In fact, as a racing festival, its prize fund sits second only to Royal Ascot in June.
Many stables specifically target the Cheltenham Festival, with the reputations of the runners very much at stake. Gold Cup winners in particular enter racing folklore after they land the Blue Riband event.
Despite its four days of racing magic, the Festival’s final day is the one everyone looks forward to. The Gold Cup is the entire seasonal highlight for National Hunt enthusiasts, taking place on the Friday of the meeting.
With this as the highlight of the week, Festival runners are all treated as great betting options. Bookmakers respond in kind, money-back offers, non-runner no bet deals and free bets all being promoted. Your bookie of course publishes the terms and conditions of each deal.
Cheltenham festival runners make for great betting options. Offers like money-back guarantee, NRNB, fair play, ante-post betting, free odds, free bets, and many bonuses are quite popular. The bookmaker of your choice provides the terms and conditions for every bonus offer.
About the Gold Cup
Known as the highest quality and most sought-after race of the season, the Gold Cup is the target for all UK and Irish stables. This year, Gold Cup day falls on Friday, March 19th.
Gold Cup runners will have been prepared superbly for a race that is immersed in history. The event having been run since the 1800s with the modern version on the calendar since 1924.
A Grade 1 race, there are 22 fences to take around 3¼ miles of the tough New Course at Cheltenham with runners chasing a total of £468,000 in prize money.
Cheltenham Festival Runners 2021 — Quick Facts
The Cheltenham Festival is a once-a-year jump racing spectacular. During the four days of action there are 28 races, seven each day, with four of them being ‘championship’ events. Those are the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and the Gold Cup.
The Champion Hurdle is run on day one, Tuesday, March 16th, and is staged over two miles. Although the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is one of the biggest betting events, opening the entire week.
Day two’s feature race is also a two-miler, this time over fences for the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Many Arkle winners (day one) return to have a crack at this race as mature horses with the Champion Chase this year being worth some £300,000.
The second half of the week is about the Stayers. The Stayers’ Hurdle in fact is the main race on Thursday, the three-mile event being the making of hurdling legends. Another £240k is up for grabs in this event.
The last day is the big one, Gold Cup day. Friday, March 19th is the date this time around for the £468,000 Gold Cup, run over 3 miles, 2½ furlongs of the New Course which makes it not only the highest quality race on show, but also the hardest to win.
Gold Cup winners, even in achieving the feat just once, are immediately immortalised within the industry with the names of past winners such as Arkle, Dawn Run, Best Mate and Kauto Star rolling off the tongue.
Gold Cup Runners 2020 Results
Friday, March 13th 2020 saw the 92nd running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup on the last day of the Festival. Just a year after landing his very first Gold Cup, trainer Willie Mullins was successful again with his Al Boum Photo.
In winning the race, Al Boum Photo became the first dual winner since Kauto Star in 2009. Now, it looks to become the first triple champions since Best Mate who won this in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Al Boum Photo’s time was 6 minutes, 50.38 seconds which was impressive in the good-to-soft conditions. Plus, it meant a second win for not only the horse but also for Mullins, jockey Paul Townend and owner Joe Donnelly.
Here are last year’s top five finishers in the Gold Cup, three of them still being top contenders in 2021:
- Al Boum Photo
- Santini
- Lostintranslation
- Monalee
- Delta Work
An important betting angle in the Gold Cup is looking at the trainers. With that in mind, bet365 provides the opportunity to bet on the top trainers at this year’s Cheltenham Festival: