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It’s certainly come around fast hasn’t it? In fact, we’re now less than a month away from one of the most highly anticipated racing festivals of them all, The Cheltenham Festival. Set over four days in March, this showcase of top tier national hunt racing, is set to once again captivate racing fans up and down the country. From professional gamblers to the casual crowd, we’ll all no doubt be placing our hands in our pocket and putting our money where our mouth is!

The Cheltenham Festival takes place over four days in March, starting Tuesday March 12th 2019 with Champion Day, followed by Ladies Day on Day two, St Patrick Day on Day three and the most popular day of them all, Gold Cup Day on Day four. Some of highlights of the festival include the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and of course the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The Gold Cup alone has prize money of over £600,000. So who’s in the running to win this prestigious race and earn a place in racing history? It’s early days, but it can’t hurt to throw out some early thoughts for tips for 2019 Cheltenham Festival, and the Gold Cup in particular. Could it be last years winner Native River? At 5-1 punters certainly put him in the running, and winning back to back would of course be the kind of result that would tick the fairy tale ending box. In the betting odds though, Clan Des Obeaux is currently slightly favoured over Native River, with Presenting Percy favourite at 3-1.

Colin Tizzard previously confirmed that Native River would skip Ascot’s Denman Chase this time around (after it was rearranged due to the equine flu scare), but that he might get another run elsewhere. As result it’s potentially quite hard to get a good read on the state of play prior to the Gold Cup run.

In his absence Clan Des Obeaux went on to win the race for Paul Nicholls quite handily, which goes some way to explaining the narrowing of his Gold Cup odds. Presenting Percy’s owner Philip Reynolds, is busily singing his praises too. “He’s absolutely terrific – kicking the boards. In great shape.” Says Reynolds. Taking all of this into account. it’s certainly shaping up to be an intriguing race. Hard to call and, I anticipate, exciting to watch!