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Today I’m going to give a brief introduction to the two main jumps racing festivals, which take place at Cheltenham and at Aintree each year.
This is the first in a short series of tutorials which I’m going to produce as an introduction to jumps racing in the UK, also known as National Hunt racing. Over the course of the next few weeks I want to cover a number of topics…
- The Festivals: all the top horses in each jumps racing category bid for champion status at one or both of the main Festivals at Cheltenham or Aintree
- Major Events: Cheltenham and Aintree aside, details of the other major races and events staged throughout the jumps racing season.
- Hurdles and Steeple-chases: the different types and categories of jumps races
- Race Grades: both categories of jumps races are divided into different ‘grades’ according to quality, so I’ll be explaining these
- Order Of Merit: a points-based competition to find the best horse of the season
- Point-to-Point Racing: often regarded as the poor cousin of hurdles and chase races, I’ll explain what it is, and where you can watch it
Let’s crack straight on with today’s article about the two main National Hunt festivals. Each of the different types of jumps racing, be it hurdles or chasing, has its championship races at either the Cheltenham or Aintree festivals towards the end of the season. These are the two key events of the jumps racing calendar, and most of the top horses will be targeted by their trainers towards one if not both of the festivals.
The Cheltenham Festival (March 15th – 18th)
The Cheltenham Festival probably just about edges the Aintree festival in terms of prestige, although Aintree still boasts the public’s favourite jumps race, the Grand National. But generally, every trainer aspires to sending out a winner which comes home up the Cheltenham hill in front of the famous roaring crowd. Every one of the twenty-five or so races is a championship event, right from novice hurdles through to the Gold Cup steeple-chase.
Denman (left) and Imperial Commander contesting last year's Gold Cup at Cheltenham
Cheltenham takes place before Aintree in March, and this year the dates are Tuesday 15th to Friday the 18th. On the first day, the feature race is the two mile hurdle championship race, the Champion Hurdle. Last year trainer Nicky Henderson achieved a double when Binocular was the winner, following on from Punjabi in 2009.
Day Two and it’s the turn of the two mile chasers to take centre stage when they contest the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Master Minded won in 2008 and 2009 and was the odds-on favourite to make it a treble last March. But on the day he could finish only fourth behind Big Zeb.
On Thursday it’s Ladies’ Day and the long distance staying hurdlers contest the World Hurdle. In recent years Baracouda has won twice, and Inglis Drever a record three times over four years. This year sees Big Bucks attempt to go one better and win three years in succession. The other big race on the Thursday will be the RyanAir Chase won last year by Albertas Run.
Friday is the big day of the week, and the climax of the whole Festival is the Blue Riband event of the jumping calendar the Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase over three miles three and a half furlongs. Last year was billed as a head-to-head between Denman and Kauto Star, with the remaining runners given scant chance of winning. However, on the day, and to underline the fact nothing is pre-written in horse racing, it was Imperial Commander who prevailed.
I’ve mentioned the main races, but even the novice events for the hurdlers and the chasers are all championship races in their own right. Whilst the handicap races are among the most coveted and hotly contested races of the year.
The Aintree Festival (April 7th – 9th)
The Aintree Festival comes along hot on the heels of Cheltenham, and this year the dates are Thursday 7th April to Saturday the 9th. Indeed I shall be there on the Saturday with the current Mrs Whelan, and thoroughly looking forward to it.
Everybody knows the Grand National. It’s the one time each year everyone has a bet, and last year it really captured the public imagination when fifteen times champion jockey Tony McCoy finally said goodbye to the monkey on his back when he won the race at the fifteenth time of asking aboard Don’t Push It. Winning the race also went some way to ensuring he won the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Award, and thoroughly deserved it was too.
Tony McCoy wins last year's Grand National
The Grand National is the world’s most famous steeple-chase, and for the winning owner the most valuable too. It’s the race that gets everyone in front of the telly, clutching your betting slip, or the slip of paper from the office sweepstake, and sets your heart pounding with expectation before the tape goes up to set the forty-strong field off and over thirty challenging fences.
There are two other big races during the three day festival. Alongside the Grand National on Saturday’s card is the two and a half mile championship hurdle race the Aintree Hurdle. The current champion is Khyber Kim. On the Friday the Melling Chase is the two and a half mile chasing championship race, won last year by Albertas Run who compled a double having already won the RyanAir chase at Cheltenham.
Well that just about covers my introduction to the two major Jumps festival meetings. In the next episode I’m going to explain the different types and categories of jumps races.
Betting opportunities for the Cheltenham Festival will be covered in great detail by my Horse Racing Trends service. Last year we managed to come away from Cheltenham with a profit whilst the majority of punters suffered badly. I’m hoping to provide more of the same this year, and if you want further details of the service and how it works, please visit HorseRacingTrends.com
If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up for my regular newsletter by leaving your name and email address in the form on the right hand side of this page. You’ll get a message every time I post new content here on Skybluekangaroo, but you will also get instant access to all of the free stuff I reserve just for my regular readers. The latest freebie I’ve posted is my ’20 Horses To Follow’ guide, which reveals twenty of the horses I have my eye on this jumps season, but also what I consider to be the best situations under which to back them.
That’s it for today. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your punting.
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