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The third race on the first day of the Cheltenham Festival is the Festival Handicap Chase which was sponsored by the Stewart Family in 2011. It was formerly known as the William Hill Trophy and is the first big handicap of the Festival for punters to get their teeth into. Horses that run in the Festival Handicap Chase are often considered Grand National horses of the future and it can often be used to test a horse's stamina and jumping with Aintree in mind.
The race itself is run over 3 miles at Cheltenham and there are 19 fences for the field to jump around the old course at Prestbury Park. There have been some top class winners of the race in recent years with perhaps the most memorable being Wichita Lineman who was given one of the great rides by AP McCoy to win in 2009. The most recent winner of the race was Bensalem who came out on top of a classic battle with Carole's Legacy in 2011 and much of the credit should go to Choc Thornton who game him a terrific ride.
The Festival Handicap betting goes through many changes in the run up to the race with the most significant day being when the weights are announced by the handicapper. Punters will be looking for those horses who have the stamina and the class to come out on top in what is always a high quality Cheltenham race.
Check out the latest Festival Handicap Chase Odds on our comparison tables
Outlined on this section are the principles for the 2012 Festival Handicap Chase 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 Festival Chase tips check out our race tipping preview.
Winners of the Festival Handicap Chase this decade:
2011 Bensalem (R Thornton)
2010 Chief Dan George (P Aspell)
2009 Wichita Lineman (AP McCoy)
2008 An Accordion (T Scudamore)
2007 Joes Edge (D Russell)
2006 Dun Doire (R Walsh)
2005 Kelami (R Thornton)
2004 Fork Lightning (R Thornton)
2003 Youlneverwalkalone (B Geraghty)
2002 Frenchman's Creek (P Carberry)
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:
