As 2023 cranks into gear, the sports betting countdown to the 2023 Cheltenham Festival begins to gather steam and in the blink of an eye those four fabulous days of top quality jumps action between March 14-17 are suddenly upon us.
The entries for all the Cheltenham Festival races slowly get released between January and March and here are the important dates to note:
January 3rd:
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Cheltenham Gold Cup
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Queen Mother Champion Chase
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Ryanair Chase
January 10th:
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Champion Hurdle
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Mares' Hurdle
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Stayers' Hurdle
January 17th:
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Arkle Challenge Trophy
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National Hunt Chase
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Brown Advisory Novices' Chase
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Turners Novices' Chase
January 24th:
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Supreme Novices' Hurdle
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Ballymore Novices' Hurdle
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Triumph Hurdle
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Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle
February 14th:
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Mares' Chase
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Mares' Novices' Hurdle
February 21th:
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Ultima Handicap Chase
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Coral Cup
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Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
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Pertemps Final
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Plate
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Kim Muir Handicap Chase
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County Hurdle
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Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle
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Grand Annual
February 28th:
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Cross Country Chase
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Champion Bumper
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Hunters' Chase
Cheltenham Gold Cup Entries (27)
Full list of 2023 Gold Cup entries: A Plus Tard, Ahoy Senor, Angels Breath, Bravemansgame, Capodanno, Conflated, Coole Cody, Eldorado Allen, Envoi Allen, Franco De Port, Frodon, Fury Road, Ga Law, Galopin Des Champs, Galvin, Hewick, L'Homme Presse, Minella Indo, Monkfish, Noble Yeats, Protektorat, Royale Pagaille, Shishkin, Sounds Russian, Stattler, The Big Breakaway, The Real Whacker.
When I attended Wetherby in February of last year to watch Ahoy Senor win the Towton Chase, I would never have imagined that the horse that plodded on to finish a never threatening 5½ lengths to him, would go on to win the Grand National and then become my main fancy for the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup.
That horse of course is the Emmet Mullins trained Noble Yeats.
Noble Yeats - what a superstar for Emmet Mullins 🏇
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) December 3, 2022
- Grand National hero
- Many Clouds Chase
Noble Yeats loves @AintreeRaces & turns on the turbo to run out a brilliant winner of the G2 Many Clouds Chase under @Sean_Bowen_ pic.twitter.com/0zG22JExrh
The eight-year-old still wasn’t in my antepost portfolio until that unbelievable turn-of-foot performance in the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree at the beginning of December made me think – this horse could now be a serious Gold Cup contender!
The son of Yeats has come out of relative obscurity to being one of the more likely candidates for Cheltenham’s blue-riband event. It’s a monumental rise to prominence for the Kristene Hunter-bred gelding.
Hot favourite Galopin Des Champs is understandably dominating the antepost markets, and having won all his four completed chases, it’s easy to see why.
His trainer Willie Mullins has five entered with the rest of the quintet made up of Capodanno, Franco De Port, Monkfish and Stattler.
The last two winners of the race Minella Indo and A Plus Tard for Henry de Bromhead, are engaged once again.
L’Homme Presse, who remains the leading domestic Gold Cup contender with us here at 888sport and trading in our online horse racing betting at odds of 6/1, could go straight to The Festival without another run according to his connections.
Suggestion: Noble Yeats @ 6/1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup
