This year's Cheltenham Festival

The peak of the jumping season for our British friends, the Cheltenham Festival is fast approaching. From Tuesday 16 March to Friday 19 March, more than £4.5 million in allocations will be distributed during the 28 races on the menu of these four days. Fourteen Group 1 events are on the bill, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup on the final day of the Festival. In this 5,300 metre long, £625,000 steeplechase, defending champion Al Boum Photo will be looking to retain his crown. Such a feat has not happened since Best Mate's double win (2003-2004).

The Cheltenham Horse Racing Championship is the second largest in England. It regularly coincides with St Patrick's Day. During 4 days, the best English and Irish horses compete in races. The championship opens on the first day with a race called "Champion Day", the second day is Ladies Day. For fans that love placing a bet on the event this day it's a good idea to go have a look at the Ladies Day tips from cheltenhamfestival.net . Then of course comes the St Patrick's Thursday race and finally the championship ends with the famous "Gold Cup Day".

People from the beautiful area of Exeter are of course used to a very good quality of life. Thanks to its important university, it is also a young and dynamic city. Many artists have also settled here to take advantage of its mild climate and the richness of its vast architectural and cultural heritage, which is considered the most important in the country after that of Bath. It's of course also known for its grand traditions concerning horse racing. The Cheltenham Festival usually attracts more than 200,000 fans over the four days, but this season's Jumps centrepiece will take place in front of empty grandstands. Fortunately, there is no shortage of coverage available on TV, live online broadcasts and radio, which means we're stuck at home to capture all the action.

Here's all you need to know ...

ITV claims to have the greatest range of coverage of the Festival, with the first six races each day to be broadcast live on ITV1, compared to five in previous years. Coverage begins at 1pm each day and continues until 4.30pm, with the first race at 1.20pm and the featured race at 3.05pm.

In addition, the channel will also have The Opening Show every morning to preview the day's races. You can also follow news about the races on BBC Gloucester. However, the only TV channel where you can watch all seven races on the live map is Racing TV. The subscription channel has full compilation, analysis and reaction over the four days and has offers for day passes as well as monthly and annual subscriptions. The main coverage of ITV and The Opening Show will be broadcast live on the ITV Hub website and application, meaning that TV licensees can watch the action on a desktop, tablet and mobile. Similarly, Racing TV offers an online streaming service to its subscribers at no extra cost. BBC Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra are expected to provide full coverage of the four days of the meeting. talkSPORT, meanwhile, will comment on three races a day on its main channel, including the feature race, as well as replays of the first five races on talkSPORT 2.

 

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