The Cheltenham Festival is now just one day away. Bookmakers and bettors alike are getting ready for one of the biggest events in British and Irish horse racing.

This year’s festival comes amid a backdrop of uncertainty around the betting and racing industries, particularly in the UK, but for the average punter this is far from front-and-centre of their minds.

What will be front-and-centre, however, is odds, tips and trading. As Cheltenham betting volume piles up ahead of the big day on Tuesday, SBC has reached out to Fitzdares, Entain, Flutter Entertainment and bet365 for a two part Bookies Corner special…

Bookies Corner: Who are punters backing to take home the big trophies at this year’s festival?

Henry Beesley, Marketing Manager, Fitzdares: As always, Willie Mullins’ horses are proving very popular amongst Fitzdares clients. Majborough has been the most popular selection in the Queen Mother Champion Chase after his demolition job at the Dublin Racing Festival last month. 

Seemingly punters are prepared to forgive his sketchy jumping display in last year’s Arkle over the same course & distance.

In the big one, The Jukebox Man for Fitzdares-sponsored trainer has seen plenty of support. He’d be the first horse since Long Run to complete the King George-Gold Cup double.

James Knight, Racing Trading Director, Entain: This year has been unusual in that there has been a lot of uncertainty in the Championship races in the lead up to the Festival. The Champion Hurdle market has been quiet as punters have been waiting to find out whether Constitution Hill runs or not. 

Now we know that he doesn’t, what is left is a very open contest and, in many ways, last year’s winner – Golden Ace – looks the solid each-way option at a track that she loves. She has been well supported in recent days. 

Meanwhile, the Champion Chase market saw a major shake up after the Dublin Racing Festival as Majborough scored a decisive victory over Marine Nationale and co in the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase and took over as favourite for Cheltenham. 

Majborough has always had loads of talent, but he does have a mistake or two in him so does come with a bit of a wealth warning for anyone viewing him as a banker on Day Two! 

The Gold Cup looks as open a renewal as we have seen in many years and the King George 1-2-4 of The Jukebox Man, Gaelic Warrior and Jango Baie head the market – Jango Baie has been the most popular with punters since December and it isn’t hard to see why – he’s the youngest horse in the race, arguably could have won at Kempton with a better ride and the Gold Cup trip could unlock more improvement.

Pat Cooney, Horse Racing Trading Expert, bet365: Typically, punters come out on top on day one of the meeting, and Nicky Henderson trains the well-backed favourite in the opening two races in Old Park Star in the Supreme and Lulamba in the Arkle.

There’s no doubt that Majborough in the Champion Chase will be a pivotal result either way. He features in just about every multiple bet and is now an odds on favourite. He hasn’t always convinced in his races though, and was beaten at similar odds at this meeting a year ago. He certainly divides opinion and his race may well be either the most profitable or expensive of the meeting.

James Mackie, PR Executive, Flutter: The Cheltenham Gold Cup is the pinnacle of the meeting, and for many, the National Hunt season. It certainly is the race that I look forward to most every season. This year’s renewal is wide open as we go 9/2 the field with Fact To File, the current market leader. 

Stablemate Gaelic Warrior would not be a good result for us. It is still up in the air whether he goes for the Friday feature but if he was to turn up and win, the Willie Mullins-trained runner would be a loser in the book. He is currently priced at 5/1 second favourite to win the Gold Cup.

Across the other Championship races, The New Lion has been strong in the betting at 7/4 for the Champion Hurdle after Tuesday’s latest declarations. He could prove very tough to beat with the withdrawal of Constitution Hill.

On Wednesday, the Champion Chase market has seen a big change with last year’s winner and the second favourite at the time Marine Nationale, now a non-runner in the race. Having been 2/1 in the market before his withdrawal, it has now only strengthened the position of the favourite Majborough at the top of the market. He is the clear 8/11 odds-on favourite to land a second Cheltenham Festival success.

Are there any particular outsiders that are gaining ground in trading?

Henry Beesley, Fitzdares: Nothing major as things stand but I am sure that will change closer to the first race of the Meeting.

Kateira has been a market mover in the County Hurdle for race specialist Dan Skelton, whilst we also saw some money at big prices for Olly Murphy’s horse Indeevar Bleu in the Coral Cup.

James Knight, Ladbrokes: It’s ‘Preview Night’ season so we do see a lot of horses tipped at big prices and shorten in the markets in the run up to the Festival – the hard bit is working out which tips are genuinely interesting and which are being tipped after a few too many beers! 

One of the more interesting outsiders backed recently is Grey Dawning in the Gold Cup who is currently 16-1 from 33-1. 

He was disappointing on the face of things in the Cotswold Chase, but I thought he was given a very negative ride, presumably designed not to give the horse a hard race – and a bad mistake two out meant that he couldn’t recover. 

I think we could see a different ride and maybe a different horse come Gold Cup day. Another Dan Skelton trained horse, L’Eau Du Sud, has been popular in the Champion Chase – being backed from 16-1 into 7-1. He was disappointing last time at Sandown, but punters are maybe looking at his demolition of Jonbon in the Schloer Chase back in November and wondering whether a repeat of that performance might prove to be good enough to win this.

Pat Cooney, bet365: There has been a real move in recent days in the Gold Cup for defending champion Inothewayurthinkin. He has been extremely disappointing in all three runs this season, so a gamble on him looked very unlikely. 

However, he represents top class owners and given that he usually shows his best form at this time of year, the move from 16/1 to around 8/1 looks very interesting.

Haiti Couleurs in the same race has also proven to be a very popular horse with the punters this season.

His win in the Welsh National in December was expensive for us. He’ll be ridden by Champion Jockey Sean Bowen in the big race, and it’s not often that any of his mounts starts at around double figures, so he’ll be well supported on the day as well.

James Mackie, Flutter: We’ve seen a lot of business for Mon Creuset in the Triumph Hurdle over the past three days following Willie Mullins putting him up as a dark horse to follow with Sporting Life. We have racked up a fair liability already on him heading into Friday’s opening race having gone from 25/1 into 10/1.

Another horse across the week and a fan favourite for many is Hewick for Shark Hanlon in the Grade 1 Stayers Hurdle, who is one of our biggest losers of the week. Now 11 years of age, it would be one of the stories of the week for punters if he was to take the Thursday feature.

Keep an eye out for part two of this Bookies Corner Cheltenham special, where we’ll be looking at the cultural side of things, on Tuesday morning…