Cheltenham Festival 2027 Betting: Free Bets, Races and the Gold Cup
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For four days every March, Cheltenham becomes the centre of the betting year. The Festival decides jump racing’s championships, draws an enormous Irish contingent across the water and prompts more people to bet on horse racing than any meeting bar the Grand National. In 2027 it runs from Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March.
Not every sign up offer works on racing, so offers.bet has checked which ones do and paired them with the dates and race order, the main races and markets with worked examples, the recent winners and the trends behind them. For the wider calendar, see our UK betting events guide.
What the Cheltenham Festival Is: Jump Racing’s Four-Day Championship
The Festival is run by The Jockey Club at Cheltenham Racecourse in Prestbury, Gloucestershire. It stages 28 races over four days, seven a day, and almost every one of them is the season’s target for the horses that run in it.
Each day is built around a championship race. Tuesday has the Champion Hurdle, the two-mile hurdling title. Wednesday has the Queen Mother Champion Chase, two miles over 12 fences. Thursday brings the Stayers’ Hurdle and the Ryanair Chase. Friday closes with the Cheltenham Gold Cup, run over about three miles two and a half furlongs, the most prestigious steeplechase of the season.
Around them sit Grade 1 novice races, such as the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle that traditionally opens the meeting and the Triumph Hurdle for four-year-olds on Friday, and a run of big-field handicaps. It is the handicaps, with 20 or more runners, that make each-way terms and extra places so important at Cheltenham.
Cheltenham Festival 2027 Dates, Venue and Race Order
The Jockey Club has confirmed the dates as Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March 2027. The Gold Cup is on Friday 19 March, with a scheduled start of about 4pm.
The full 2027 race order had not been published when this guide was updated. The day-by-day pattern below is how the 2026 Festival ran, and the championship races have kept their days for many years.
| Day (2027) | 2026 name | Championship race(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 16 March | Champion Day | Champion Hurdle (Grade 1, about 2m 87y, eight flights) |
| Wednesday 17 March | Ladies Day | Queen Mother Champion Chase (Grade 1, 2m, 12 fences) |
| Thursday 18 March | St Patrick’s Thursday | Stayers’ Hurdle and Ryanair Chase (both Grade 1) |
| Friday 19 March | Gold Cup Day | Cheltenham Gold Cup (Grade 1, about 3m 2½f) |
One quirk of the 2027 calendar: St Patrick’s Day itself falls on Wednesday 17 March, the second day of the meeting.
It is also a crowded week on television. The Six Nations finishes on Saturday 13 March, three days before the Festival opens, and the Champions League round of 16 second legs are on 16 and 17 March.
Cheltenham Free Bets: Sign Up Offers That Work on Racing
There is no special Cheltenham welcome offer from the bookmakers we review; the offers below are their standard new customer deals. What matters in Festival week is whether the free bets can be used on racing, and these five can.
Coral
Bet £10 Get £50
Promo Code: Applied automatically
New UK + ROI customers only. Certain deposit methods & bet types excl. Min first £/€10 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 to get 5x £/€10 free bets (selected sportsbook markets only, valid 7 days, stakes not returned). Restrictions + T&Cs apply. 18+ GambleAware.org
The 1/2 minimum is easy to meet with a well-fancied Festival favourite, and Coral adds Best Odds Guaranteed from 8am for later bets.
Betfred
Bet £10 Get £50
Promo Code: Auto-applied at sign-up
New customers only. Register, deposit with Debit Card, and place first bet £10+ at Evens (2.0)+ on Sports within 7 days to get 3 x £10 in Sports Free Bets & 2 x £10 in Acca Free Bets within 10 hours of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility & payment exclusions apply. Full T&Cs apply. 18+ GambleAware.org
Three of the five free bets are sports free bets that can go on racing. Totepool bets do not count for the qualifier.
