Cheltenham Festival Placepot Guide

Placepot Tips

Handicaps

The Handicap races are normally the hardest races to predict at the festival, there are often many big priced outsiders grabbing places in these races

There are 11 handicap races run during the Festival but only 9 of those are in the placepot races,

In the last 5 years there have been 45 handicap races run involved in the placepot.

44 of those had 4 places and 1 had only 3 places, that's 179 races in total.

From those 45 handicap races, we can see that the favourite won/placed in 18 of those races (40%)

Looking at all 179 handicap races we can see the following -

55 of the 179 win/placed horses were singled figure priced, including favourites (30.75%)

55 of the 179 win/placed horses were priced between 10/1 & 18/1 (30.75%)

69 of the 179 win/placed horses were priced at 20/1 or higher (38.5)

124 of 179 win/placed horses were priced in double-figure odds (69.3%)

Grade 1

The Grade 1 races are the best races at the meeting, they are known as the championship races and there are 12 of those run at the festival and all but 1 of them are included in the placepot.

Quite a lot of these races have short-priced favourites in them, but do all the short priced favourites grab win/places.

In the last 5 years, there has been 55 Grade 1 races, 10 of those have had 3 places and 1 other (Triumph Hurdle) has had 4 places, in total that's 170 places.

36 favourites have won/placed from the 55 Grade 1 races over the last 5 years (65.5%).

In the last 5 years, there have been 14 odds on favourites, 11 of those have won/placed (78.6%).

Of the 170 won/placed horses in these races, 112 have been sent of as single figure prices (65.9%) with only 58 being double-figure prices (34.1%.

Only 1 of the 55 races has seen all of the placed horses return at double-figure prices, that was the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle in 2010 when the winner returned at 33/1 and the 2 placed horses were 28/1 & 66/1, a very likely Placepot buster, which is why the placepot paid £41,288.40 on that day.

My Placepot Advice

If you do intend on playing in the placepot then why not try a perm, you will not a lot of luck to win with a straight line, although it has been done many a time.

A perm gives you better chances of winning, when I play the placepot at the Festival I will ONLY ever pick a favourite if I think it is certain to place if I am not certain it will place I leave them out.

When I do a perm at the Festival I will normally pick 2 races with 3 runners, 3 races with 2 runners and 1 race with 1 runner, known as my banker selection or possibly 3 races with 3 in, 2 with 2 in and a banker.

My banker selection will always come in a Grade 1 race as I find the form in grade 1 races holds up more than let's say Handicaps.

Every time i place a placepot bet I always have at least 2 selections in races 1 & 6 

I hate to go out in race 1, although even with 2 or 3 selections it's possible and I don't like relying on 1 horse in race 6 should the dividend be bigger than I thought

Without knowing the exact fields and the size of each I am probably looking at the following -

Tuesday Race 1 This race normally has about 20 runners, although there are often short-priced horses i prefer to have 3 runners in this race

Race 2 The Arkle can sometimes have a smallish field and some short priced horses, normally it would be this race or the Champion Hurdle i use as my banker selection

Race 3 Race 3 is a handicap chase, I would always pick 3 horses in this race, some big priced horses have been placed in recent years

Race 4 Like the Arkle, the Champion Hurdle can often have a smallish field, depends on the size of the field as to which race I have my banker selection in

Race 5 Cross Country Chase, no fav placed in last 4 years, most likely a 2 horse selection race

Race 6 The Mares Hurdle has had Quevega in the last few years and although odds on i would always put 2 in here, just in case

Possible bet of 3 x 2 x 3 x 1 x 2 x 2 = 72 Bets

Wednesday Race 1 Chase over 4 miles with about 20 runners and not a handicap, so only 3 places, i would probably pick 3 here

Race 2 Grade 1 novice hurdle with probably 2 selections here

Race 3 RSA Chase, no fav placed in last 4 years, probably 2 horses here

Race 4 Champions Chase, will probably have this as a banker race

Race 5 Handicap Hurdle with about 30 runners, definitely a 3 runner pick here

Race 6 Another Handicap Hurdle to finish, 2 or 3 race pick here

Possible bet of 3 x 2 x 2 x 1 x 3 x 3 = 108 Bets

Thursday Race 1 Novices Chase to start the day, at least 2 in this race

Race 2 Very tough handicap hurdle, must be 3 picks here for me

Race 3 Ryanair Chase, some good middle distance chasers in this race, probably a 2 pick race unless something stands out strongly

Race 4 World Hurdle, between this race and the Ryanair for the banker selection

Race 5 Handicap Chase, would depend on the size of the field, 2 or 3 picks

Race 6 Again a handicap chase and again depending on size of field, 2 or 3 pick

Possible bet of 2 x 3 x 2 x 1 x 2 x 3 = 72 Bets

Friday Race 1 Triumph Hurdle, although not a handicap, 4 places on offer, 3 picks in this race

Race 2 Tough Handicap Hurdle, probably 3 picks here

Race 3 Albert Bartlett, Grade 1, good races for favs with 4/5 won/placed, possibly a banker race

Race 4 Gold Cup, no more than 2 picks here, possibly even 1 but probably 2

Race 5 Foxhunters Chase, 2 picks here

Race 6 Handicap Hurdle to finish with, 3 picks in this race

Possible bet of 3 x 3 x 1 x 2 x 2 x 3 = 108 Bets

Good luck with everybody having a punt over Cheltenham, oh and 1 last thing:  DO NOT be put off by big prices, if you fancy a horse then pick it, horses at prices up to 100/1 do win and place at Cheltenham.

OLBG Member Wins Cheltenham Placepot

In 2019 a host of OLBG members attended the Tuesday of the Cheltenham Festival with one skilful member winning a share of the 91K placepot with the following selections. He won the placepot to a 30 pence stake. 

Please check out the dedicated blog on how to win the placepot. 

As you can imagine the Cheltenham meeting is a major highlight for OLBG members.

 You can check their horse racing tips for every day of the Cheltenham Festival. 

The OLBG betting experts also go into miniscule detail for every race over the four days via the essential guide to the Cheltenham Festival.