Events / Editor / 04 August 2007 /

Cheltenham's second major fixture of the season is staged in December, where two days of top class racing and betting action keep National Hunt fans warm in the run up to Christmas.

The listed handicap chase run over three-miles-and one-furlong, is always a hotly contested betting heat where many of the field attract significant bets at a wide spectrum of odds. The race often provides pointers to ante-post odds value for horses running in the major staying handicaps at the Festival in March, and those having a bet often have one eye on the future as well.

The Cross Country Chase has been a licence to print money over the years for loyal betting fans, who have been prepared to believe that veteran Spothedifference could keep coming up with the goods and defy the odds. Enda Bolger's star did it again last year winning over the course and distance for the sixth time where bets were available at 6/1.

The feature race of the meeting though is the day two highlight, the race now known as the Boylesports Gold Cup. A testing Grade 3 two-mile-five-furlong handicap chase, last year Exotic Dancer completed a famous double and landed many punters' bets when coming home to beat Knowhere at odds of 8/1, to follow up his win at the course a couple of weeks earlier.

Ante-post odds and bets for the King George VI Chase or even the Gold Cup can often be affected by the result of this contest, so punters having a long term betting view about a runner might find better odds prior to the race than after it, if there charge runs well.

The Grade 2 International Hurdle is a genuine Champion Hurdle trial and often sees the biggest bets of the meeting being struck. Detroit City was odds-on in the betting ring in 2006 and duly obliged, before his season nose-dived and he failed to retain his championship crown three months later.

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