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Cheltenham Specials Markets: Beyond Win and Each Way
Most punters arrive at Cheltenham thinking about individual races — the Champion Hurdle, the Gold Cup, perhaps a handicap that caught their eye in the morning previews. But the cheltenham specials betting markets run alongside the race-by-race card and offer a completely different type of wager: bets that span the entire Festival rather than a single event.
These markets exist because of the Festival’s sheer scale. According to William Hill, all 28 Cheltenham races in 2025 ranked among the top 31 highest-turnover races of the entire year. When the betting volume is that concentrated across four days, bookmakers build additional markets to capture the interest that extends beyond individual race outcomes — who will ride the most winners, which trainer will dominate, whether a specific combination of results will land.
This guide covers the main specials categories: Top Jockey and Top Trainer outrights, Festival treble and accumulator specials, nap selections, and the novelty markets that add an extra layer of entertainment to the week. These are not substitutes for race-by-race betting — they are a parallel option that rewards a different type of analysis.
Top Jockey and Top Trainer: How Outright Festival Markets Work
The Top Jockey and Top Trainer markets are the flagship outright bets at Cheltenham. Both operate on a simple principle: which jockey or trainer will ride or saddle the most winners across all 28 races?
Top Jockey
The Top Jockey market is settled on the number of winners ridden during the four days. In recent years, the market has been dominated by a small group of riders with access to the strongest yards — jockeys attached to Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, and Nicky Henderson have consistently featured at the top. The pricing typically sees the leading fancy at 2/1 to 3/1, with the next tier of riders available at 5/1 to 8/1.
The strategic angle here is understanding the relationship between jockey and trainer. A jockey who rides for a single dominant yard — and that yard has a deep bench of likely runners across multiple days — has a structural advantage over a freelance rider who might pick up a couple of spare rides. The number of booked rides matters as much as the quality: a jockey with fifteen rides across the week has more opportunities than one with eight, even if the latter’s individual rides are marginally better.
Dead heat rules apply if two or more jockeys finish level on winners. Some bookmakers settle dead heats by dividing the stake proportionally; others offer “without” markets that remove the favourite and offer enhanced odds on the remaining contenders. These “without” markets can represent strong value if you believe the favourite’s dominance is overstated.
Top Trainer
The Top Trainer market follows the same structure but adds a different dimension. A trainer can saddle multiple runners in the same race, which means a dominant yard can accumulate winners at a rate that a single jockey cannot match. Willie Mullins holds the record for most Festival winners in a single week — ten, achieved in both 2022 and 2025 — and the market routinely makes his operation favourite at short odds.
The question for bettors is whether to take the short price on the obvious market leader or to look for value further down the list. If Mullins is 8/13 to be Top Trainer, the implied probability is roughly 62%. That means the market believes there is a 38% chance he does not lead outright. For those 38% scenarios, trainers like Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead, or Nicky Henderson offer significantly longer odds with a credible path to winning the title — particularly if Mullins suffers a quiet first two days and a rival makes early gains.
Festival Specials: Trebles, Naps, and Novelty Bets
Beyond the outright jockey and trainer markets, bookmakers offer a range of Festival-specific specials that cater to different tastes and risk appetites. William Hill projects £450 million in total wagering across the 2026 Festival, and a meaningful portion of that flows through specials markets that are unique to Cheltenham week.
Festival Trebles and Named Accumulators
Several operators offer pre-built trebles and four-folds centred on the feature races — for instance, a treble combining the winners of the Champion Hurdle, the Champion Chase, and the Gold Cup. These are standard accumulator bets but packaged as “Festival Specials” with enhanced odds or acca insurance. The appeal is simplicity: rather than building your own accumulator across seven races, you select a curated combination and the bookmaker prices it as a single market. The downside is that the curated combinations often carry a wider margin than a self-built acca at standard prices.
Nap of the Day Markets
Some bookmakers and racing media run “Nap of the Day” competitions during Cheltenham, where tipsters select their strongest single bet of each day. While you cannot bet directly on a nap selection through the bookmaker (it is an editorial feature), several operators offer enhanced odds or bonus bets linked to their featured nap. These are essentially odds boosts with editorial packaging — useful if the selection aligns with your own analysis, but worth treating with the same scrutiny you would apply to any enhanced price.
Novelty and Fun Bets
Cheltenham also generates novelty markets that sit at the entertainment end of the betting spectrum. These might include the colour of the winning jockey’s silks in the Gold Cup, the distance of the winning margin in a feature race, or whether a specific nationality of trainer will dominate a particular day. Novelty markets carry wide margins and should be treated as what they are: fun bets with minimal analytical basis. They are not where serious value sits, but for a small-stakes punt that adds a layer of engagement to the afternoon, they serve their purpose.
Which Bookmakers Offer the Best Specials Coverage
Not all bookmakers offer the same range of specials, and the depth of coverage varies significantly during Cheltenham week.
Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook, both under the Flutter umbrella, tend to offer the widest range of specials, including novelty markets and pre-built accumulators. Paddy Power’s brand identity leans into creative promotions, and the Cheltenham specials menu reflects that. bet365 provides comprehensive Top Jockey, Top Trainer, and Festival accumulator markets, though the novelty end of the range is more restrained. William Hill, as Festival sponsor, typically runs a dedicated specials hub within its app during race week. Ladbrokes and Sky Bet both cover the core outright markets and offer enhanced accumulators, though their novelty coverage is thinner than Paddy Power’s.
If specials markets are important to your Cheltenham betting approach, the practical step is to have accounts with at least two or three operators and compare the specials menus on the morning of Day 1. Prices on Top Jockey and Top Trainer can differ by two or three points of odds between bookmakers, and on a market that often comes down to fine margins, shopping for the best price is a more reliable route to value than trying to pick the winner outright.
Responsible Gambling Reminder
Specials markets are designed to be entertaining, and that entertainment value can blur the line between a considered bet and an impulsive one. Set a separate budget for specials — treat them as the social side of your Festival betting, not as a strategy. If you find yourself placing more specials bets than you planned, take a break. Deposit limits and cooling-off tools are available through all UKGC-licensed bookmakers. For support, visit www.begambleaware.org or call 0808 8020 133.