Although jockeys usually enjoy the public adulation, it is the trainers who are the true heroes of the sport. It takes a great deal of patience, dedication and skills to make the horses operate at their very best. Only some trainers manage to achieve such a feat.

 

This coming month of March will witness the arrival of the mega Cheltenham Festival where for four days the best of the horses will be vying with each other to win a huge glory. The festival will feature some of the best races in the UK with the likes of the Champion Chase, World Hurdle and Champion Hurdle etc. Already gossips are brewing about the chances of Might Bite or Sizing John of winning the hugely popular Cheltenham Gold Cup, and the prospects of Willie Mullins horses in the racing event are also hotly discussed.

 

If you have a punter’s interest for the races, then freebets is the answer to all your betting needs at the Cheltenham Festival. It will start on 13th of March and so you better make your preparations now.

 

Get a free bet for Cheltenham from one of the leading bookmakers at freebets. Choose Paddy Power which is covering all the 28 races at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival. It is also giving the Non Runner No Bet along with the £20 risk free bet for Cheltenham. While Betfair is also offering the same NRNB with £100 in free bets for the Cheltenham Festival, choose Betfred and you will get the NRNB offer on the big 4 Championship races at the festival. Also, you will get the Bet £10, Get £30 along with some free spins as well.

 

Paul Nicholls:

 

There is no doubt that Paul Nicholls is the one of the best trainers in the world. He started off his career as a trainer with only eight horses in 1991. He has won the British champion trainer award for 10 times. He has already bagged more than 70 wins for this season of 2017-18. He is been in the business for over 25 years now. Training some of the best horses, he has won some of the biggest races.

 

His most successful horse has been Kauto Star who won him the Tingle Creek Chase for two times, King George VI Chase for five times and the hugely prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup for two times.

 

All his horses are trained at his Manor Farm Somerset. He will be looking forward to this coming Cheltenham Festival as well.

 

Nigel Twiston-Davies:

 

Nigel Twiston-Davies is the famous British racehorse trainer who is based at stables at Naunton. He started training from 1981 and got his first victory at Hereford Racecourse in 1982 with Last of the Foxes.

 

The winners he trained exceed over 1000 in numbers with Earth Summit and Bindaree getting him two famous victories at the Grand National. He also has the honour of winning the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup with Imperial Commander. Also with Imperial Commander, he won the 2009 Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham Festival.

 

Nicky Henderson:

 

Nicky Henderson is a big name in horse racing. He has over 30 years experience as a trainer. During this long career, he has got some of the biggest victories. He has been the British jump racing Champion Trainer for 4 times.

 

He first worked as an assistant to Fred Winter for 4 years. However soon he established his set-up.

 

One of his best horses was See you Then who remained the champion hurdle winner for three consecutive years (1985-87). He also has the honour of getting 53 victories at the festival.

 

Colin Tizzard:

 

Colin Tizzard is one of the best Jump trainers in the world. Since 1994, he is been in the business of training for a wealth of experience. He has trained some of the finest horses of racing. Cue Card is his most famous horse who won in the 2010 Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival. Then in 2014, with Cue Card he won the Ryanair Chase at the festival. The brilliant horse won him the 2015 King George VI Chase as well, while he won the World Hurdle in 2016 with Thistlecrack to get his first success in that race.

 

Willie Mullins:

 

Willie Mullins is the Irish trainer who is considered as one of the best Jumps trainers. He served as an assistant to his father Paddy and later for Jim Bolger. He started his career as a trainer in 1988. Since then, he has trained winners in all the big races of the UK.

 

In 2005, he won the Grand National with Hedgehunter. This year also, his horses are expected to perform very well at the 2008 Cheltenham Festival.

 

 

Preparation for the racecourse at Aintree for the Grand National begins months before the event, with the groundsmen needing to ensure the best running surface for the horses, with the best balance between safety and speed as the faster the course, the more dangerous it is for the horses.

 

The Grand National betting latest sees Blaklion as the favourite to win the race although it is rare that the favourite goes on to win, with most favourites finishing in the top ten. The horses are put through arguably the most challenging racecourse in the UK, having to face challenging fences like The Chair, which is the highest fence at 5ft 2.

 

The fences have changed over the years to become safer for the horses to jump, with the old fences being made of solid timber which had were unforgiving to the horses and the fences that have replaced them are made from plastic, with a plastic base that is filled with upright plastic birch which has some give in it.

 

On a normal race day, there are forty members of the ground staff that make sure everything is in perfect order for the days racing, however this number increases dramatically for what is one of the biggest horse racing events of the year, as 225 people, the majority being volunteers, will be on hand to help prepare the course.

 

The groundsmen have a lot of work to get done in preparation for the Grand National and we have created an infographic which explains exactly what they have to do for the track to be ready for the most lucrative race in UK horse racing.

 

 

Sizing John is set to defend his Cheltenham Gold Cup crown at the 2018 Festival on Friday, March 16 despite a far from perfect preparation for the blue riband event of National Hunt racing this time around. The question is can he win it back to back?

 

Owned by the late Alan and Ann Potts, Jessica Harrington’s charge came into last year’s renewal as a totally unexposed horse at the Gold Cup trip (an extended 3m 2f). Connections had tired of chasing subsequent Queen Mother Champion Chase flop Douvan home over 2m and duly stepped Sizing John up in distance with great success.

 

Leaving that upwardly mobile profile from last season behind him, Sizing John is no longer an under-the-radar horse. The plan for this campaign had been a tilt at The Jockey Club’s £1,000,000 bonus for the National Hunt Stayers Chase Triple Crown.

 

Bottomless ground at Haydock for the Betfair Chase in November forced a rethink, however, and Sizing John was rerouted to the John Durkan at Punchestown. Despite facing similar underfoot conditions on home soil, he confirmed the form of his previous two runs by comfortably beating Djakadam again.

 

Sizing John failed to follow-up up in the Leopardstown Christmas Chase (formerly the Lexus) when sent off odds-on and finishing a 32-length seventh to Road To Respect. Beaten favourites last time out have a notoriously poor Cheltenham Festival record.

 

As Djakadam was also below par and subsequent scoping found nothing wrong with either, the only explanation for Sizing John’s disappointment when previously in action is that the John Durkan took plenty out of him. He remains prominent in the 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup betting odds, however, at shorter than his starting price last year with Paddy Power.

 

Some stats support punters who side with Sizing John; three of the last four Gold Cup winners have been Irish-trained. Three of the four victors before him, meanwhile, were eight-year-old horses – his current age.

 

 

“Cheltenham Gold Cup” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Carine06

 

Others make a case for betting against Sizing John. None of the last six Cheltenham Gold Cup heroes came into the race with just two runs in a season. Only a couple in the last 13 renewals were victorious with so few on-course outings in a campaign under their belt.

 

The mighty Best Mate, who won three consecutive Gold Cups in 2002-2004, is the last horse to have landed back-to-back renewals. Prior to that, L’Escargot won in 1970 and 1971, while the legendary Arkle dominated the race during the mid-1960s.

 

Just five horses have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup more than once since the Second World War. Kauto Star is the most recent, but his victories in 2007 and 2009 weren’t consecutive. That highlights the magnitude of the task facing Sizing John.

 

Harrington has given him a break to freshen up since Leopardstown and there are question marks hanging over a number of fellow Emerald Isle raiders, including stablemate Our Duke. Like Sizing John, the 2017 Irish Grand National winner has had a less than ideal prep for his first crack at the Gold Cup after disappointing on his two 3m outings this season.

 

Other contenders have fallen by the wayside, most notably Disko and the mudlark Betfair Chase winner Bristol De Mai. Neither will contest Cheltenham. Irish duo Coney Island and Killultagh Vic, meanwhile, both failed to complete their prep runs at Ascot and Leopardstown, respectively.

 

The latter’s stable companion Total Recall won the Ladbrokes Trophy (formerly the Hennessy), but Willie Mullins hasn’t trained a Cheltenham Gold Cup hero yet. That leaves King George winner and favourite Might Bite, plus the lightly campaigned Native River as dangers, alongside Road To Respect – who had the beating of Sizing John over Christmas.

 

Can he win consecutive Gold Cups?  It’s possible more than probable for Sizing John and, if he were to win again at Cheltenham, would secure him a spot in horse racing history.

 

Racing has never been more popular, and there’s nothing that grabs the attention of racing fans more than one of the big events, or festivals. The Grand National and Royal Ascot both bring in huge TV audiences as well as big crowds at the course. Millions upon millions of pounds are waged, and everyone from professional gamblers to those taking part in office sweepstakes, tune in to cheer on their selection. For the racing purists though there is nothing that quite matches the Cheltenham Festival, one of the key festival dates. Steeped in tradition, the four days of competitive racing action bring out the best of the best, in terms of horses, jockeys and trainers. Coming out on top in one of the big races here has the power to get your name fast-tracked into the history books.

 

There are almost too many highlights during this four day racing Festival (which this year runs from Tuesday March 13^th – Friday 16^th) but if I had to isolate a highlight from each day, something that would make everyones list, I’d go for the following: The Champion Hurdle (Tuesday) , Queen Mother Champion Chase (Wednesday), Ryan Air Chase aka the Festival Trophy (Thusday) and least but most certainly not least the Cheltenham Gold Cup (Friday).

 

The Champion Hurdle, first ran all the way back in 1927 is a personal favourite of mine. It’s a Grade 1 race for horses aged four and over. Ran over 2 miles ½ furlong it’s a must see for National Hunt fans. Last year’s winner was the Nicky Henderson trained Buveur d’Air at 5-1. The one race though, that even those with a casual interest in racing will know of, is the one and only Cheltenham Gold Cup. This is again a Group 1 race. Run over 3 miles 2½ furlongs and with a who’s who of racing greats winners list (Arkle, Kauto Star, Best Mate) it’s the one Cheltenham Festival race you simply cannot miss. With priZe money of over £500,000 is it any wonder that the race attracts the cream of the crop? Who’s your money on for the Golc Cup his year?

 

Whether you’re just tuning in for the feast of racing, or intend to put your money where your mouth is, enjoy Cheltenham and be lucky!