Cheltenham will water the track a day early as clerk of the course Simon Claisse aims to deliver Good to Soft ground for the Festival which starts on March 16th.

The Cheltenham Festival, which will see Kauto Star clash with Denman in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, is set to be one of the UK’s biggest online betting events ever. Sites such as Betfair are gearing up for what they predict will be one of their busiest times.

A member of the Betfair team said:

“We’re expecting it to be big, probably our biggest event yet. We have been running some really high-profile advertising campaigns and that, coupled with our relationship with Manchester United, should see us double the number of wagers we handled for the last Cheltenham Festival.”

Betfair, which operates differently to other betting sites by allowing punters to trade direct with each other, has grown significantly during the last 12 months as betting punters look for better odds.

Last year over £300 million were struck in bets, with this years total set to soar even higher with the increased interest on races such as the Gold Cup thanks to the Kauto Star/Denman match-up.

Tags: Cheltenham Festival, cheltenham gold cup, gold cup free bets