Cheltenham Festival Bookmaker Bonuses May See Some Big Payouts

The Cheltenham Festival will see something approaching £600m (over half a billion pounds) staked on the outcome of the 26 races. The Festival will also account for around 10 per cent of the Tote’s annual on-course pool betting turnover (not bad for four days’ racing out of a fixture list consisting of well over 1,000 meetings), while at least £1 million pounds changes hands on every race in the betting ring at the racecourse, with over 250 bookmakers in attendance for each day of The Festival.

It is no wonder that the bookmakers have a number of bonuses on offer for the owners, trainers and stable staff, some of which are very well known. The biggest is from exchange company WBX who are offering £1 million for the horse that wins the WBX.COM Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle in November, the williamhill.com Christmas Hurdle at Kempton in December and the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle at The Festival. Last year’s Spinal Research Supreme Novices’ Hurdle victor Go Native, trained in Ireland by Noel Meade and owned by the Docado Syndicate, is eligible for this bonus in 2010, having landed the Newcastle and Kempton contests. The bonus will be split with £700,000 going to the owner, £150,000 to the trainer, £100,000 to the groom and £50,000 to the stable staff.

Next that may have to open their wallets is Boyleports with a £200,000 bonus payment for the horse winning both the Boylesports.com International and the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle in the same season. If won, this will be split £180,000 for the owner, £10,000 for the trainer and £10,000 for the successful yard’s stable staff. Khyber Kim, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, won the Boylesports.com International at Cheltenham in December and is a leading contender for the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle.

The bonus kings Paddy Power are offering £75,000 for the horse that wins the Paddy Power Imperial Cup at Sandown Park on Saturday, March 13, and goes on to win any race at The Festival. Olympian managed this in 1993, taking the Coral Cup at The Festival, while Blowing Wind in 1998 captured the Imperial Cup and the Vincent O'Brien County Handicap Hurdle at The Festival. Gaspara took the Sandown handicap in 2007 and the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham the following week to become the latest horse to win the bonus, which until 2008 was offered by the Imperial Cup’s previous sponsor Sunderlands.

Finally well done to Plumpton racecourse who are putting up £60,000 for any horse that wins one of five selected novice or beginners’ chases at Plumpton and goes on to win any chase at The Festival. Bensalem, Kind Edmund, Nomecheki and Mobaasher are all potential winners of this bonus, which is sponsored by SIS. Voy Por Ustedes collected the bonus in 2006.

Bookmark this article with:

              

Previous Cheltenham Festival News: