With Cheltenham only two weeks away, I thought I’d cover some of the angles and necessities that are required to make it through the gruelling four days.
Whether you’re at the festival or not, there’ll be people up and down the land shouting for joy, hanging their heads with tears and feeling generally exhausted, elated, crushed, jubilant, “what if” and every other emotion out there!
But, at least most people don’t have to commentate on these showpiece races. Could you?
These West Ham stars try their hand at horse racing commentary.
More on that in a moment.
We’ve covered the four main aspects that should keep you going through the four days of this major racing festival. Grab a cup of tea (or beer, dependent on the time you cast your eyes over this article) and let’s get cracking …..
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Homework, homework and more homework
I know you probably left school a longtime ago but, as with any major festival, we need to start by doing our research.
It’s like a job interview.
You wouldn’t just rock up unprepared, would you?
It’s the same with a horse racing festival. As Benjamin Franklin once said… By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Admittedly he probably wasn’t talking about the Cheltenham Festival when he said those words as it was exactly 70 years after his death that the festival first started.
With homework we need to be either looking for a tipster that has a proven record at these festivals or, if we want to do our own research, we need to be breaking down the races that we feel we can find an angle in. With the latter, once we have found the races we’re prepared to bet in, we need to work out our staking. Which brings us onto the second aspect of the festival that we need to be focussing on.
2. Staking, banks and bets
We’ve all had that feeling where we’ve had an amazing outcome in a race and rather than celebrate and enjoy the moment, we suddenly get cursed with the “I wish I’d put more money on” thoughts.
This is where it’s imperative that we have a staking plan.
Let’s assume, that we’ve got a £500 starting bank. We’ve decided that we’re going to be betting in ten races over the four days. We divide our £500 by the ten races to get £50 stakes in each race.
Great, but what if we have 2, 3 or even 4 horses that we believe to have a chance. This is where we can have some real fun (if we get it right, of course)!
With a multitude of different bet types out there, it’s important to look at each race and work out the best scenario for our return. For example, there’s no point trying to land a Tricast in a four runner bumper race. That’s just silly betting. However, in such a race we’d look at only having the one runner to back and lumping our full stake on that outcome. On the other hand, if we’re looking at a 28 runner handicap, then the Tricast is a mouthwatering prospect.
If you’ve do your homework in step one, then you should already be ahead of the game.
3. Bookmakers, exchanges and the Tote
Once we’ve done our homework and worked out our staking, it’s time to decide where we will be placing our bets.
This is a short and sweet aspect to consider and can be broken down into 4 simple points:
- Anything over 8/1 needs to be backed on the exchanges as you’ll get much bigger prices.
- Anything that we fancy and is at the top of the market, you need to use a bookmaker so that you can take advantage of Best Odds Guaranteed.
- Forecasts, Tricasts and other exotic bets need to be done with the Tote as the dividends are usually much bigger than the computer generated ones provided by the bookie.
- Use a bookie like Betway (cheeky push there guys, but you know we don’t push anything we don’t like!) and take advantage of their price boosts.
So, with those key 3 aspects covered, we move onto point 4.
4. For a bit of fun, try to commentate!
Yes, we know, almost know help at all but can you imagine trying to commentate on a race at Cheltenham?
These West Ham players had a go and when you’ve finished your homework, staking plans and what bookies to use, this will make you feel a whole lot better. Click play on the video at the top (or to the left) of this post!
