Cheltenham Festival is back and bigger than ever with over £1BILLION on the line, 25,000 bets a minute & 260,000 pints

DIG out that tweed you never wear, study the form and get ready for some fun – because Cheltenham Festival is back and bigger than ever.

We were all forced to watch from home last year as Rachael Blackmore – who had to hitch a ride to her first Festival because she was so skint – became the Queen of Cheltenham.

She teams up with superstar mare Honeysuckle looking to make it a sweet 15 wins from 15 races on day one.

Should they do that in Champion Hurdle at 3.30pm – the big race on Tuesday – then expect the roof to come off the place.

The Guinness will be flowing, the champagne popping and, hopefully, the bookies dishing out lots of cash thanks to the day one banker.

There are six other races to get just as excited about, though, as the British trainers headed by Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls seek revenge for the hammering they took last year.

On the Irish side are Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, who returns with his biggest squad of runners ever one year on from his dead horse photo ban, and the softly-spoken Henry de Bromhead.

The latter was the surprise package last year, completing the holy grail of Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Gold Cup victories.

Just to prove it was no fluke he and Blackmore, 32, then teamed up for their historic Grand National triumph at Aintree a month later.

The Irish won 23 of the 28 races in 2021, a hammering the Brits are desperate to put right.

Our best chance of a winner looks to come in the form of superstar chaser Shishkin.

Trained by Henderson, who is based at his Seven Barrows yard in racing heartland Lambourn, he has been unbeatable over fences and is the one they all have to bring down in the race for the £225,000 prize.

Shishkin runs in the Champion Chase, the big contest on Wednesday, which is also Ladies’ Day.

GREATEST SHOW ON TURF

Keep your eyes peeled for a whole host of celebrities taking in the action and hoping to find a winner or two.

Thursday is St Patrick’s Day and Friday is Gold Cup day, when at 3.30pm the most prestigious race in the National Hunt season starts.

All in all there are a whopping 28 races over the four days.

Our No 1 tipster Templegate will bring you his selections for each day starting with Tuesday’s picks – and you can check out Sun Racing’s longshot fancies for the curtain raiser too.

In addition to this, Piers Morgan, Harry Redknapp and Chris Hughes have all come together to give their main fancies for each day.

Our free bets page shows you the best sign up offers around – which includes getting Allaho at a whopping 30-1 to win the Ryanair on Thursday.

Bookies reckon more than a billion quid will be wagered over the course of the week, showing just how much a hold on punters’ hearts and wallets Cheltenham Festival has.

There really is no other week like it in the calendar – and bookies are already running scared thanks to a raft of heavily fancied favourites.

PINTS, PUNTERS AND PARTYING

A spokesperson for Paddy Power revealed: “If you had a £1 accumulator bet on all the favourites running on day one in the festival, you would pocket £4,684.79.

“If you carried that accumulator bet through to day two, and all those favourites won, you’d need to reverse a horsebox up to the betting ring at Prestbury Park in order to haul home your winnings – as it would be close to £10.5m!”

Last year proved big wins are possible, with Paul Dean winning £250,000 from a fiver – despite one of his horses falling!

And this year another punter stands to win £275,000 from £5.

Cheltenham Festival – it’s the place where dreams come true, and there’s no better place to follow it all than Sun Racing.

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