2027 Cheltenham Festival Antepost Betting Guide
Antepost betting is simply the term used when you are betting on a market that exists in advance of an event. As a rule, this is usually at least a day in advance of the event and prior to the final declarations. Many people will bet the night before the following day’s racing but this is not considered to be antepost betting. The key difference being that in antepost betting, you lose your bet if the horse is a non-runner. However, if you bet the night before or on the day, you will typically be refunded if your horse is a non-runner, with the bet simply voided.
There are many advantages to antepost betting but the crucial one is that placing your bets early means you will often secure bigger odds. The nearer you get to the event itself, the shorter the odds will typically go, especially if your horse performs well in the interim and/or its form gets franked. Many punters will build multiples with antepost selections in order to further amplify the enhanced odds. This can be same day events rolling onto antepost selections or a combination of antepost selections entirely.
As an example, I tipped Jinkgo Blue for the BetMGM Cup at 16/1 in my
Each Way Lucky 15 for the 2026 Cheltenham Festival. This bet was actually advised on 9th March 2026, which was just days before the race, but nonetheless we still secured tremendous value, as the horse went off at 9/2 favourite and won. Another example where I made my move earlier would be the
2025 King George VI Chase
back on Boxing Day. I tipped The Jukebox Man at 20/1 in early August and he was ultimately sent off 7/1 on the day and won!
Best bookmakers for antepost bets at Cheltenham
The antepost odds on a horse can vary considerably, so it’s very important to ensure that you shop around for the best price. In my opinion, from our panel of
Cheltenham bookmakers, the best ones for antepost betting have been bet365, William Hill, Unibet, Betfred and Betway. These bookmakers regularly have all of the big races priced up in their antepost markets.
The most effective way to find the
best horse racing odds
is to use an odds comparison tool. There are multiple options available to punters both free to access and behind paywalls. If you had to check each bookmakers’ odds individually, it would be a very tedious process but these tools make it quick and easy. You can often see a wide range of odds available and the difference from smallest to largest only gets wider the bigger the odds of the selection are. Therefore, if you are backing a horse at bigger odds, it’s even more important to shop around for the best odds.
An example I can give you is my betting tip for the
Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at the 2027 Cheltenham Festival. Two bookmakers were offering odds on my selection of 33/1. However, by searching across different bookmakers, I was able to see that multiple bookmakers were offering 50/1. Even on a modest bet like that one (0.5pt Win), the difference in the odds could see the return producing an additional 8.5pts. To put it into monetary terms, a £5.00 bet to win would return £255.00 rather than £170.00.
When to place antepost bets for the 2027 Cheltenham Festival
You can place antepost bets on Cheltenham all year round, in fact, they even open the betting markets for some of the key races over a year in advance! The three key times though are early, mid-season and late.
Early bets would be placed from the extremes of prior to the previous Cheltenham Festival through until the summer/autumn time. This is the best time to strike for the big superstars and also completely unexposed horses. As the big superstars showcase their ability throughout the season, their prices will only shorten. Likewise, if you know a horse is unexposed and can rapidly improve through the season, you want to get on before they show their hand.
The mid-season bets would be placed once we get an idea of the lay of the land, which would typically be around December/January time. For example, Home By The Lee progressed from his reappearance run over Christmas to produce a career best effort when winning the Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park in late January. Post race, his trainer - Joseph O’Brien confirmed he would head to Cheltenham for the fifth time, to have another crack at the Stayers Hurdle. He subsequently not only went to the race but he won it!
Finally we have the late bets, which will fall around the late February/early March time. By late February, almost all of the Cheltenham Festival runners will have had their final runs before heading to Prestbury Park, so we will have all of their form in the book to work with. The closer you get to Cheltenham, you then get the final confirmations, which helps steer you on which horses will be targeting which races etc.
The earlier the bets, the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. Overall a varied approach across all three categories would be best - Have some early plays, wait until nearer the time on others and if you’re confident on one, you can always top up on it. If a horse is particularly fragile or you’re unsure of their target, it can often pay to be more patient and take a shorter price nearer the time.
2027 Cheltenham Festival Antepost Tips
Betting.co.uk and I already have a plan in place for you when it comes to providing antepost betting tips for the 2027 Cheltenham Festival. Each month I will be providing two articles regarding the Cheltenham Festival. One will be an antepost betting tip and the other will be a guide for the race. The guide will be informational with key details such as past winners, trainers, records etc. Over the year-long build up to the meeting, I will cover all of the key races such as the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, Stayers Hurdle and Ryanair Chase as well as many more. All of these articles will be added to this page as we go.
I have tipped many winners at the Cheltenham Festival over the years. Some of the highlights from the 2026 Cheltenham Festival were Jingko Blue winning the BetMGM Cup at 16/1, Final Orders winning the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at 15/2 and Meetmebythesea winning the Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase at the same price of 15/2. Back in 2025, I had winners such as Marine Nationale in the Champion Chase at 6/1, Doddiethegreat in the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle at 25/1 and Jasmin De Vaux at 10/1 in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle.
A lot of people ask me how I make my selections and there is no set formula. There are many factors that come into the decision making such as the horse’s form, reasons for them to improve, statistics, trends, value in their price, whispers about them, their pedigree and much more. If we take Jingko Blue as a recent example. His trainer - Nicky Henderson has a phenomenal record in the race. He had previously competed in Grade 1 company over hurdles, suggesting the stable thought a lot of him and Nicky Henderson confirmed as much when I attended his stables earlier in the year. His form looked fantastic and I felt his handicap mark underestimated him. His jockey - James Bowen, also rated his chances in a Cheltenham Preview I attended. As you can see from just this one horse, many factors come into consideration and I’m sure I could still list more.
