£200 Free Bets - Claim Now
Irish bookmaker Paddypower have joined forces with us to offer an excellent special £200 Free Cheltenham Bets Offer...
Irish bookmaker Paddypower have joined forces with us to offer an excellent special £200 Free Cheltenham Bets Offer...
The second race of the Cheltenham Festival is named after one of its most famous competitors, Arkle. Run over exactly two miles of the Cheltenham Racecourse the Arkle requires both speed and good jumping technique.
The Arkle is run at a furious pace and the emphasis is very much on fluent jumping. Analysis of recent Arkle winners points towards entrants coming to Cheltenham on the back of an impressive season. Shocks in the Arkle are few and far between and the Cheltenham Betting market favourites usually perform well.
The Arkle Challenge Trophy was inaugurated in 1969, after Arkle’s three wins in the Cheltenham Gold Cup (1964-66). In its first year, the race was worth £1,365, and was won by Chatham (10/1), trained by Fred Rimell and ridden by Terry Biddlecombe. The 2009 running has total prize money of £170,000. It was known as the Cotswold Chase before 1969.
Irish trainers have won The Irish Independent Arkle Chase ten times, including four of the last 14 runnings with Klairon Davis (1995), Ventana Canyon (1996) and Moscow Flyer (2002) and Forpaddytheplasterer in (2009).
The Irish Independent Arkle Chase has seen several trainers and jockeys run up strings of wins. Martin Pipe notched up successive wins with Or Royal in 1997 and Champleve in 1998 before Well Chief in 2004 and Contraband a year later gave him another brace of victories. Peter Easterby trained three winners - Alverton 1978, Clayside 1981 and Ryeman 1983.
Among current trainers, Nicky Henderson leads the way with three successes (Remittance Man 1991, Travado 1993 and Tiutchev 2000), while both Paul Nicholls (Flagship Uberalles in 1999 and Azertyuiop in 2003) and Alan King, successful in the two of the past three renewals with My Way De Solzen in 2007 and Voy Por Ustedes in 2006, boast a pair of victories.
Among jockeys, Jamie Osborne won three times, via a hat-trick between 1992 and 1994 on Young Pokey, Travado, and Nakir for three different trainers, Oliver Sherwood, Nicky Henderson and Simon Christian.
Tony McCoy equalled Osborne’s three wins in 2004 when scoring on Well Chief, having also been aboard Or Royal (1997) and Champleve (1998). Robert Thornton was on Voy Por Ustedes in 2006 and My Way De Solzen in 2007.
The Arkle betting goes through many changes in the run up to the Arkle as all season the class Novice Hurdlers try their hooves over the larger fences and some take to it really well while others are slow learners. Take for example last year 2008 Arkle winner Tidal Bay has not jumped well in the build up to last years race but on the day he jumped like a stag. His odds fluctuated wildly throughout the season and you can follow the Arkle odds on our site.
Check out the latest Arkle Odds on our comparison tables
Outlined on this section are the principles for the 2012 Arkle and you can check out the latest form guide on this section.
Look no further than the top trainers for the winner of this race and for more top Arkle tips check out our race tipping preview.
Winners of the Arkle Chase this decade:
2011 Captain Chris 7 (R Johnson) 6/1
2010 Sizing Europe 8 (A Lynch) 6/1
2009 Forpadydeplasterer 7 (B Geraghty) 8/1
2008 Tidal Bay 7 J Howard Johnson 6/1
2007 My Way de Solzen 7 A King 7/2
2006 Voy Por Ustedes 5 A King 15/2
2005 Contraband 7 M Pipe 7/1
2004 Well Chief 5 M Pipe 9/1
2003 Azertyuiop 6 P Nicholls 5/4F
2002 Moscow Flyer 8 Mrs J Harrington 11/2
2000 Tiutchev 7 N Henderson 8/1
Following on from last year, we are delighted to announce that we are featuring horse racing tips from Channel Four Racing presenter, Tom Lee.
Tom appears on Channel 4's Morning Line & covers live Racing in the afternoon as well fronting RTE's Racing coverage in Ireland, his Cheltenham Festival Tips and previews of each day's Racing will be available during the Festival and supported with opinions and views from our Racing writers.
View Tom's Racing Tips
We now have the latest bookmakers betting odds for the main Cheltenham Festival Races.
These odds are updated regularily to ensure that you in touch with all the market moves in the build up to the festival.
The four days of the Cheltenham Festival play host to a number of high quality races:
