Cheltenham Festival Tips - Free Bets and Odds Comparison
| Channel 4's Derek Thompson has recorded his exclusive tips for Betfred. If you would like to hear about some big price tips for the Cheltenham Festival - Listen Now |
| 2008 Cheltenham Tips - Free Bets from UK Bookmakers |
| 1. Don't feel as though you must always take the morning prices. |
Unless you're following one of the really popular and influential newspaper tipsters, don't feel compelled to take a price on every horse you want to back. Remember that Cheltenham has the strongest betting ring in the world meaning that the bookmakers are hugely competitive and it takes more than a couple of thousand pounds to make an impact. My advice is to wait until the opening show at least before placing a bet, but only after — if you have the chance — monitoring the markets throughout the morning for horses that are on the move. |
| 2. Bet two horses to win in the major handicaps rather than one each-way. |
| Whenever asked about betting on the National, I always advise punters to only back each-way if their selection is 33-1 or bigger. At Cheltenham it's a similar story even though the field sizes don't quite measure up to the big one at Aintree. Nonetheless many punters back horses each-way at relatively short prices when a better approach to my mind is to side with two (or more) win only. The reason for this is that the handicaps are so hotly contested that it's simply not worth clinging to the hope of getting a place payout. If you think the best your horse can do is a place then don't get involved, but if you've found a couple that you think can win back both to do just that. |
| 3. Consider the Tote pools. totesport - FREE £5 to £25 Bet |
| Many supposedly 'pro' punters often don't even give the Tote a second glance — with good reason as their take-outs are higher than the bookmakers in the ring and, of course, a sizable bet will often have a massive impact on the pools. However, at Cheltenham things are slightly different. Like the betting ring, business is really healthy and if you're considering backing anything that isn't a strong favourite (or the choice of a major newspaper tipster) then it's worth taking a look at the odds on the Tote. |
| 4. Don't try get lulled into becoming an each-way thief in the Championship races. |
When the major races 'cut up' — a good example this year is going to be the Queen Mother Champion Chase — punters often try to seek out a horse with so called 'each-way value' to squeeze into the frame. The danger with this is that EVERYTHING at the Festival is trained to be at its very peak, so the chances of a rank outsider pulling off a massive shock are always going to be slimmer than they would be in one of the early-season feature races. Therefore, each-way thieves are effectively writing off their win portion of the bet straight away, whilst the very nature of the championship races at Cheltenham is that competition for the places is going to be almost as tough. The long and the short of it is only back those you honestly believe can WIN and not those that might be placed. |
| 5. Respect previous Festival winners. |
The Festival has unique demands compared to other meetings. The races are invariably run at a strong pace, which puts a premium on jumping ability and stamina that contrasts markedly with so many 'prep' races. The latter — particularly the two-mile hurdles and three mile chases - are run at a crawl in the early stages meaning that jumping errors don't count for as much whilst speed is more of an asset than stamina. Cheltenham turns that on it's head, just look at last year's results: Well Chief, Hardy Eustace, Maximize, Creon, Azertyuiop, Iris's Gift, Best Mate and Earthmover had all either won or run creditably at previous festivals. For that reason, I'm on two previous Festival winners — Back In Front and Azertyuiop — to repeat the dose in the Champion Hurdle and Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2008. |
