2023 Festival Plate Preview, Trends & Analysis

A handicap chase over 2m4½f on the new course at the Cheltenham racecourse, formerly known as the Mildmay of Flete for many years and is a race where the Martin/David Pipe yard had an exceptional record, scoring seven victories between 1997 and 2014. It is also worth noting that Venetia Williams has had three wins since 2007 so they are two trainers to very much note in this race, both had placed runners in 2016 and David Pipe also had the runner up in 2015.

Read on below for our preview of the race in greater detail with previous Festival Plate trends and stats to help you find the winner of the Paddy Power Plate. Before placing your bets on the festival plate, head over to the Cheltenham Offers page to see which bookie you should be placing your bet with.

Festival Plate Content:

• Festival Plate Past Winners
• Festival Plate Trainer Statistics
• Festival Plate Jockey Statistics
• 2023 Festival Plate Trends
• Festival Plate Trend Analysis
• Schedule at the Cheltenham Festival

To see which runners the OLBG racing tipsters are tipping throughout the card that includes this race, head over to the Cheltenham Betting Picks on the day of the race, do they agree with the runners on the trend shortlist or are they predicting other runners?

Over the last 20 renewals, it was the David Pipe trained Ballynagour ridden by Tom Scudamore who has set the fastest winning time in the Festival Plate, the runner won the race in a time of 4:59.34 that was set when winning the race in 2014. At the other end of the scale, it was the combination of trainer Gordon Elliott and jockey Davy Russell with The Storyteller who set the slowest winning time, the race-winning time was 5:28.20 in the 2018 renewal.

These are the top three quickest run Festival Plate over the last 20 renewals:

• 2014 - Ballynagour (4:59.34)
• 2004 - Tikram (4:59.80)
• 2003 - Young Spartacus (5:05.00)

How competitive is the Festival Plate market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2013 when the race had an over-round of 116%. The race in 2020 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 137%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the Festival Plate, the over-round has been 129%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £129 which is bet.

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 20 if you had followed the winner of the Festival Plate next time out then you would have back a total of 2 winners. Backing all 18 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of -0.50. Remember to bookmark the racing tips page so you can get easy access to the OLBG racing picks on a daily basis.

Here are the Festival Plate past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. The trainer of the horse at the time of winning the Festival Plate as well as the jockey is also displayed along with the starting price the horse was sent off.

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the Festival Plate have been based:

• GB: 16 winners with an additional 51 placings from 366 runners
• IRE: 4 winners with an additional 6 placings from 57 runners
• FR: 0 winners with an additional 2 placings from 9 runners

There are two leading trainers in the Festival Plate over the last 20 renewals with both Venetia Williams & David Pipe who have both won the race 3 times. Venetia Williams winners have been with Idole First (2007), Something Wells (2009) & Carrickboy (2013). David Pipe winners have been with Great Endeavour (2010), Salut Flo (2012) & Ballynagour (2014). The only other trainer to have recorded multiple wins in the Festival Plate is Nicky Henderson (2 wins). There are multiple trainers who have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the Festival Plate, Paul Nicholls (0-28), Philip Hobbs (0-18), Nigel Twiston-Davies (0-17), Jonjo O'Neill (0-16), Colin Tizzard (0-14) & Alan King (0-14) have all failed to produce a single winner despite sending multiple runners to the race.

Here are some of the top Festival Plate trainer statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

There are two leading jockeys in the Festival Plate over the last twenty renewals with both Tom Scudamore & B J Cooper who have both won the race 2 times. Tom Scudamore winners have been with Salut Flo (2012) & Ballynagour (2014). B J Cooper winners have been with Empire Of Dirt (2016) & Road To Respect (2017). There are two jockeys who have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the Festival Plate, Sam Twiston-Davies has had a total of 10 rides to the race without recording any wins whilst Paddy Brennan has had 10 rides without a winner.

Here are some of the top Festival Plate jockey statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Rides, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

Favourites finishing positions (oldest to latest): ,UR,2,4,F,19,F,2,2,3,1,8,2,2,(F,PU),PU,1,2,1,1,2

The percentage shown is the percentage of the total number of runners who fell under that factor. High percentages are less appealing than lower ones as you would expect them to do well.

• 20 / 20 (78%) - Not ASC DON HAY or KEM (LTO)
• 20 / 20 (84%) - Field of 8-21 runners (Debut)
• 20 / 20 (87%) - Furthest ran 2m1½f - 3m
• 20 / 20 (87%) - Ran in Cl2 or worse (Debut)
• 20 / 20 (87%) - No bigger than 20/1 (LTO)
• 20 / 20 (89%) - Fewer than 9 placings (Hcps)
• 19 / 20 (74%) - Top 3 finish last 3 starts
• 19 / 20 (74%) - Fewer than 5 starts (Course)
• 19 / 20 (81%) - Within 8lbs of the Ave Weight
• 19 / 20 (82%) - Holds an OR of 128-148
• 19 / 20 (83%) - Ran over at least 2m3f (LTO)
• 19 / 20 (84%) - Fewer than 6 starts (Class)
• 19 / 20 (85%) - Either a pure bay or grey
• 19 / 20 (86%) - Fewer than 3 placings (Course)

Remember to use the trends listed above along with the Cheltenham racing predictions to see if you can find the winner of the Festival Plate. You may want to do your own research into the race, there are times when there are a number of runners who pass the trends so you need to do your own research to find a bet, we have a Horse Racing Form Reading Made Easy & What to Look For article to help you do just this in the OLBG Betting School section.

Are you already a member? If not, then why not! With over £6,000 given away each month in the tipster competition, why not get involved? Remember, It is completely FREE! So, head over to the registration page to sign up today! If you are already a member, then why share your thoughts on the Festival Plate by adding a tip on the race here.

The trend factor which has produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +79.33 is when runners wore no equipment. The worst performing factor which has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had 2 starts in the past 180 days, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-69.

The course which has produced the most winners of the Festival Plate is Cheltenham, there has been a total number of 6 winners of this race who ran at Cheltenham last time out.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 19 winners from a total of 419 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 1 winner from a total of 13 runners.

Looking over the past renewals, there is only one stallion whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the Festival Plate, that stallion is Shantou who has produced 2 winners (2018,2014).

These are the stallions whose offspring have not produced a winner of the Festival Plate despite multiple attempts:

• Presenting (0 Wins from 14 runners)
• Kings Theatre (0 Wins from 12 runners)
• Old Vic (0 Wins from 7 runners)
• Oscar (0 Wins from 7 runners)
• Anshan (0 Wins from 6 runners)
• Beneficial (0 Wins from 6 runners)
• Bob Back (0 Wins from 6 runners)
• Supreme Leader (0 Wins from 6 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest priced winner was Mister McGoldrick in 2008 when winning for Sue Smith at odds of 66/1 under the guidance of Dominic Elsworth. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there has been a total of 4 winning favourites in the race. Before placing your bet on the 2023 Festival Plate see which other runners today are being back by the best racing tipsters today.

Have a look at our racing tipsters Cheltenham predictions for the Festival Plate. Next up is the Ryanair Mares Novices Hurdle, head over to find trends and tips.

Cheltenham Festival races for Tuesday 14th March 2023

Cheltenham Festival races for Wednesday 15th March 2023

Cheltenham Festival races for Thursday 16th March 2023

Cheltenham Festival races for Friday 17th March 2023