The Guide to Cheltenham: Day One

Welcome to day one of the four-day guide to the 2011 Cheltenham Festival. This guide was written to give you the basic information for all four days of the festival, and more in-depth information on the days’ major races.

Opening day at Cheltenham packs in three Grade 1 races, including the infamously energetic opening race: the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. To top it off, the fourth race of the day is none other than the 84-year old Champion Hurdle Challenge. To sum it up: the first day at Cheltenham sets the bar for the festival impressively high, a day not to be missed by the horse-racing fan.

You can find links to days two, three and four at the bottom of the article. 

Day One Schedule

Major Races

While day one sees seven separate races hit the track, there are three major races which deserve the majority of the punter’s attention. The Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Arkle Challenge and the Champion Hurdle make up the major races of the day.

Supreme Novices’ Hurdle

This is one of the older Cheltenham Festival races and is the traditional opener of each fixture. The race is famous for the “Cheltenham roar” with punters producing a massive racket to celebrate the festival getting underway. The race goes 2m110y and there are eight hurdles to be jumped.

• Betting on novices can be tricky as many contenders here are still developing. You will see rapid improvement from some and signs of inconsistency from the unseasoned jumpers.
• The race is always overbet as it’s the first race of the four-day festival and most punters have more money in their pockets for this one than at any other time during Cheltenham.
• You have to go back to the 1950s to find a period of dominance by a specific trainer in this race. There is no yard with a clear measure on this one.
• A number of these contenders have only been out a handful of times. Look for outside contenders with decent experience in bumpers.

Arkle Challenge Trophy

Named after the most legendary jumper of all time, this 2m contest sees novice contenders navigate twelve fences. The traditional second race of the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, a number of up-and-coming chasers have scored in this one and gone on to much bigger things.

• This is the minimum distance that chasers can go so you’re not looking for much demonstrated success over 2m.
• It’s best to back a selection that has run a full year’s campaign over fences in lieu of one switched off the hurdles circuit midway through the season.
• Both Alan King and Martin Pipe have won back-to-back Arkles within the past seven years.
• Two of the last three Arkle winners were campaigned in Ireland.

The Champion Hurdle

Easily one of the most ancient races at the festival (first run in 1927), this 2m110y race is the centrepiece of the opening day at the Cheltenham Festival. Punters will generally find a star-studded selection of outstanding hurdling specialists and that leads to massive betting volume.

• Since this contest is for the top division of short-distance hurdlers, a number of solid contenders have won the race multiple times. Istabraq won three years in a row from 1998-2000 and Hardy Eustace scored back to back wins in 2004-2005.
• Nicky Henderson has won the race five times since 1985 and is the all-time leading trainer for the Champion Hurdle.
• Be more forgiving of a non-winning record in the build-up as these contenders are usually running against higher quality competition.
• The last three winners of the Champion Hurdle have all run in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, though only one of them was victorious.
• The only recent winner to boast a solitary effort in a Champion Hurdle-winning season was Sublimity in 2007.

The Guide to Cheltenham by day:

The Guide to Cheltenham: Day 1
The Guide to Cheltenham: Day 2
The Guide to Cheltenham: Day 3
The Guide to Cheltenham: Day 4