Cheltenham gears up for Festival

By Frank Keogh at Cheltenham

Latest odds: feature races Listen to all of BBC Radio Five Live's coverage on this website

Punters are set to go on a £600m betting spree as the first four-day Cheltenham Festival gets underway on Tuesday.

The event, the jewel in the crown of National Hunt racing, will see a total of 250,000 spectators cram into the Gloucestershire course during the week.

Many of those will be Irish, and the heady mixture of racing, gambling and socialising will be a stamina test for racegoers as much as the leading horses.

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The opening day's big race, the Smurfit Champion Hurdle, features seven leading Irish contenders.

Another Irish raider Beef Or Salmon is one of the hot favourites for the Festival's blue riband contest, the Totesport Gold Cup on Friday, after the exit of triple winner Best Mate and leading fancy Kingscliff.

Kingscliff puled out of Gold Cup

All 60,000 tickets for Gold Cup day sold out weeks ago, and racecourse managing director Edward Gillespie - marking his 25th year in the role - believes the move will prove a success.

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Four races have been added to the schedule to make a total of 24, six each day, for what is often referred to as racing's Olympics.

"The entries look really strong, and, in my opinion, the meeting is not diluted at all," Gillespie told BBC Sport.

Beef or Salmon is favourite for the Gold Cup in the absence of Best Mate

The shock withdrawal of Best Mate, who would have been seeking an historic fourth Gold Cup success, is undoubtedly a blow to the Festival's prestige.

But it does mean the meeting's big race is wide open, with Strong Flow, Kicking King and Celestial Gold among those set to test Beef Or Salmon.

Strong Flow has returned from a long injury lay-off, while Celestial Gold would give record-breaking champion trainer Martin Pipe his first win in the race.

Carberry set for late fitness test

A real fairtyale story would be come in the shape of victory for Kicking King, ruled out of the race with illness just two weeks ago by his Irish trainer Tom Taaffe.

Taaffe, son of the late jockey Pat who rode Arkle to three Gold Cup wins, decided against putting the horse on a course of antibiotics and he has staged a remarkable recovery to take his place in the line-up.

Best Mate leaves stage set for King

A Kicking King victory would not be good news for everyone, however, as a total of £47 was staked on the betting exchange Betfair when the horse's odds drifted out to 999-1

Baracouda is the red-hot favourite for the Ladbrokes World Hurdle

It means, for example, that someone who thought they might make a quick £5 by "laying" or backing him to lose, now faces a liability of £5,000 should he win. Kicking King's odds are currently about 8-1.

Bookmakers are relishing the Festival's extra day and expect record turnover.

"It is going to be the busiest four days in punting history," said William Hill spokesman David Hood.

Racing purists will be looking to the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday to provide the most exciting finish of the season.

The race, run over the minimum jumping distance of two miles, sees Ireland's 2003 winner Moscow Flyer renew rivalry with last year's champion Azertyuiop and Pipe's rising star Well Chief.

All three are so highly regarded they are actually rated better than Best Mate, judged by the handicapper's official ratings.

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On Thursday, French hero Baracouda will bid to make history in the staying hurdlers' division as he seeks a record third triumph in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle.

Baracouda will be ridden by nine-times champion jockey Tony McCoy, who despite being on course for a tenth riders' title, has endured disappointments this season.

McCoy, known to punters simply by his initials AP (for Anthony Peter), left Pipe to ride for trainer Jonjo O'Neill, who famously rode Dawn Run to a Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double at Cheltenham in the 1980s.

But O'Neill's huge Jackdaws Castle stable, mainly funded by millionaire owner JP McManus, has been laid low by a virus for the last two months.

Meanwhile, illness, infection and injury have forced several leading Festival contenders - including Ollie Magern, Ambobo and Power Elite - to miss the meeting.

It has also caused an early headache for ante-post backers, who lose their money when they take odds during the winter and horses do not compete.

Bookmakers only operate a non-runner, no-bet system in the days around the Festival.