NewsHow to Follow the Cheltenham Festival on TV This Coming March 2023

How to Follow the Cheltenham Festival on TV This Coming March 2023

man riding horse in race
Photo by Julia Joppien

Every year jump racing fans eagerly await the Cheltenham Festival and begin following the activities leading up to this four-day event months before it actually takes place. This year as usual, the Festival will be held at Prestbury Park in Gloucestershire and is one of the biggest days in British horse racing, with only the Grand National being a ‘larger’ event. Even so, as far as viewership and betting goes, they are close rivals and with the final day being March 17, there will be hundreds of thousands of racing fans looking for that bit of gold at the end of the Cheltenham rainbow. However, where can you watch the Festival live on TV? That’s a very good question, but unfortunately, there is only one answer, or is there more? Let’s see about that!

The Weeks Leading Up to the Cheltenham Festival

Before looking at how to follow the weeks leading up to the Festival on TV, let’s just say that there is only one way to watch the entire event live on TV and that would be by subscription to Racing TV. Some races may be shown individually or in the final moments of a race, but if you are looking for a way to follow the entire event live on television, you would need to watch it on that subscription channel mentioned above, Racing TV.

Now then, for the days and weeks approaching opening day at Cheltenham Festival you can get news of horses, owners, jockeys and such on channels like BBC or Sky Sports. This is actually the time to start keeping track of the top contenders in the races you are interested in because when the bets begin, you’ll want to be ready to place a wager on the horses or jockeys to your liking. Since you can watch live streaming races at online sports betting sites, you might rather look for Cheltenham Festival betting offers on sites that offer free live streaming viewing for those placing a wager.

Most often bookies begin taking bets 24 to 48 hours prior to a race and that is really a good practice. After all, anything can happen in 60, 30, 14 or even two days before the race. Horses have been withdrawn right up until they are ready to line up at the gate, so saving your bets until the last moment is a wise decision on your part (or the part of those who set the standards).

Is Television Your Best Option?

You also need to think about whether or not television is your best option for following an event as big as the Cheltenham Festival. While you may not be up for trying to get tickets to the event at Prestbury Park, you may only be interested in a few of the 28 races to be held over those four days. In fact, even most hardcore racegoers won’t sit through the entire four days on location or on television. They will pick and choose their favourite races based on the horse, the jockey or the exact race itself. With that said, if you aren’t exactly a racing fanatic, you might not want to pay for a subscription to Racing TV. There may be more pleasing ways to view the races of your choosing.

A Look from the Pub

Then again, there are pubs throughout the UK that actually subscribe to racing channels so you may want to sit with a mug and a mobile. That would be a mobile device like that mobile phone that is pasted to your hand all day every day. In fact, some racing aficionados prefer it this way because that ale is mouth-wateringly good and the mobile phone a necessity for placing in-event bets. 

The actual point is just this. Unless you have a connected device handy when viewing the Cheltenham Festival, it doesn’t really matter how you watch the races. You want to be in on the live race so that you can place your bets at any time prior to calling a halt to bets. Will you be lucky this year? Perhaps it’s time to chat up the horses! They will surely know who they’ve decided to take the cup – not yours of course. Horses will be withdrawn if found to have alcohol in their blood. With that in mind, you drink the mug and let them run the race. It really is much more fun that way, isn’t it?

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