/ Editor / 08 January 2010 /

In trying to pinpoint the best Cheltenham Festival horse, it's always worth considering (wherever possible) previous course form before coming up with your Cheltenham Festival tips.

Only a couple of years ago, the Cheltenham races were adapted to stretch over four tremendous action-packed and intensive days and it is not only the horses who need plenty of stamina but also those striving for the best Cheltenham Festival odds!

During those four days in mid-March 2010, Cheltenham racecourse will become the centre of the racing world. It will even grab the headlines on the front of many daily papers, with the likely meeting of Kauto Star and Denman sure to lead to a frenzy of betting activity and public interest.

Following his fourth straight win at Kempton on Boxing Day, Kauto Star's odds of adding his name to a very select list of triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winners were slashed, leaving his stable companion and 2008 hero Denman trading at bigger odds in the betting, but as a definite second favourite. It seems hard to imagine that the winner of the 2010 Gold Cup will come from anywhere other than the Paul Nicholls stables, as he trains both Kauto Star and Denman!

Irish horses have had a particularly strong grip on Cheltenham's Champion Hurdle over the last decade, but that grip was somewhat loosened when Nicky Henderson's Punjabi scored for the home team last season. Henderson has proved time and again over the years just what a great trainer he is of Cheltenham Festival horses and having sent out See You Then to win three successive Champion Hurdles at a variety of odds in the 1980s, he knows exactly what is required to present Punjabi in tip-top shape for the Cheltenham races as he bids to defend his title.

Paul Nicholls has dominated Cheltenham racecourse in recent years and won three of the four daily highlights at the last Cheltenham Festival. Not only did Kauto Star take the Gold Cup, but Big Bucks scored in the World Hurdle and Master Minded landed the odds comfortably when winning a second successive Queen Mother Champion Chase. Both Big Bucks and Master Minded respectively are favourites once again to repeat the dose at this year's meeting, having already proved themselves as very high class Cheltenham Festival horses. There is little doubt that substantial multiple bets will be laid for all three of Nicholls' champions to win once again.

This year's RSA Chase also promises to present a number of Cheltenham Festival horses who we could see a great deal of over the larger obstacles in years to come. Nicky Henderson's French import Long Run looked very special when scoring at Kempton on Boxing Day, whilst his Punchestown (runner-up to Big Bucks in last season's World Hurdle) has made a successful transition to chasing and heads many lists of ante-post Cheltenham Festival odds for the event.

Irish raiders Sizing Europe, Captain Cee Bee and Pandorama have already shown that they have what it takes to figure prominently in the betting for the three-mile novice chasing championship and are certain to be the subject of significant bets as they attempt to write their names into Cheltenham history.

The strongest of all Cheltenham trends is in the Cheltenham Festival Bumper, the concluding event on day two. Since 2000, eight of the last nine winners have been trained in Ireland and have been the subject of some of the most frenetic betting activity of the whole meeting. It would be hard to bet against another Irish trained winner in 2010.

Whoever wins at this season's meeting, the winning Cheltenham Festival horse and those who have given it their all in defeat, will carve themselves a place in Cheltenham history.

With the countdown to the greatest jumps racing show on earth well and truly underway, there will be no shortage of Cheltenham Festival tips coming your way from a wide variety of sources.

Whether you'll be watching on television, listening on the radio or attending Cheltenham racecourse itself, there's no doubt that everyone is looking for an edge over the bookies to give themselves a chance of a few winning bets at attractive odds in one of the busiest periods of the whole year for the betting industry.

From a year prior to the actual Cheltenham races themselves, Cheltenham Festival odds are available with all betting firms as the anticipation builds and builds through the many recognised trial races on both sides of the Irish Sea. There is absolutely no doubt that most owners and trainers of Cheltenham Festival horses genuinely believe they have a chance of winning or reaching a place, often resulting in virtually every runner being the subject of Cheltenham Festival tips somewhere.

For all the latest on the 2010 Cheltenham Festival then please click here and check out our dedicated Cheltenham Festival Betting and Tips page

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