Cheltenham Course Guide: Old Course vs New Course (and the Cross Country)

Home › Racecourses › Cheltenham Course Guide

By The Guv'nor · Last updated October 2026

Cheltenham Old Course vs New Course is mostly about the calendar. The Old Course hosts The Showcase, the November Meeting and Festival days one and two. The New Course takes the Christmas Meeting, New Year's Day, Trials Day, the April Meeting and Festival days three and four, including the Gold Cup. The Cross Country course sits inside the main track.

That's straight from the racecourse's own course maps. The bit punters care about is whether it matters, so I went through all 193 Cheltenham races in Betfair's price files for the last two seasons and built my own Cheltenham racecourse stats, split by course. Race counts sit next to every percentage so you can see how much weight each one carries. For every other track, see my UK and Irish racecourses guide.

Old, New and Cross Country: which meetings use which

Here's the 2026/27 season at Cheltenham, with dates from The Jockey Club's Cheltenham fixture list and the course for each meeting from the racecourse's official course maps page (both checked on 5 October 2026).

Two caveats. The racecourse lists Cross Country maps for November, December and Festival day two, but in 2025/26 there was no Cross Country race in November and one on Trials Day instead (24 January 2026, 16 runners). And the Race Night on Friday 30 April 2027 isn't assigned to either course, so check the racecard.

Cheltenham Old Course vs New Course: what actually changes

Both courses race in front of the same stands and finish up the same hill. The detail is in where the fences and hurdles sit. The differences usually quoted (Wikipedia's entry for the course, for example) are these:

• The New Course has a longer run-in in chases. More time for a horse to be passed after the last.
• The New Course has a tricky downhill fence.
• Two-mile hurdles on the New Course are front-loaded. Most of the flights come early, with only two jumped in the last seven furlongs (about 1,400 metres).

I haven't measured those myself, so treat them as received wisdom. What's certain is which big races sit where: the Champion Hurdle (Tuesday) and the Queen Mother Champion Chase (Wednesday) are Old Course races; the Stayers' Hurdle and the Ryanair (Thursday) and the Gold Cup (Friday) are New Course races.

The Cross Country is a different animal: a twisting course of banks, ditches and rails inside the main track. The racecourse says it arrived in 1995, with the "cheese wedges" in use since November 2009, and the races belong to the Glenfarclas series alongside Punchestown and Pau.

The hill: myth vs data

The racecourse itself calls it "the legendary Cheltenham Hill", and the story goes that it finds out horses that look like winners at the last. If that were true, we'd see more races here where a horse traded odds-on in running and still got beaten.

Betfair's files record the shortest price each horse traded at in-running. So I counted the races where a horse hit 1.5 (2/1 on) or shorter, meaning the market had it as at least a two-in-three shot, and still lost. Every winner trades short near the line, so it's the beaten ones that tell you something.

Over two seasons, a horse that looked the winner in running got beaten in about one Cheltenham race in four (49 of 187), the same as everywhere else. Last season on its own was worse, 28 of 87, but the season before was 21 of 100, so it looks more like luck than a trend. Near-certainties at 1.2 or shorter got turned over less often here than elsewhere. Old and New were close too, so the longer New Course run-in didn't show up.

My read: the hill is real, but it doesn't turn over more in-running jollies than other tracks. It makes Cheltenham a proper stamina test, which is a form question to answer before the off.

Favourites and big-priced winners by course

This is where Cheltenham looks different, until you allow for field size. For the national picture, see how often favourites win; here's Cheltenham split by course.

The Old Course was kinder to favourites in both seasons: 34.1% against 26.0% over the two years. On about 90 races each that gap is within what luck can do, so it's a lean, not a rule. A BSP of 10.0 is roughly 9/1, and between a quarter and a third of Cheltenham winners went off at that or bigger (27.5% Old, 32.3% New), against 17.1% at other UK jumps tracks (31.5% in their 10+ runner races).

The most useful line: Cheltenham's favourites won 56 of 187 (29.9%), three points below favourites in other UK jumps races with 10 or more runners (224 of 680, 32.9%). On 187 races that gap is well within what luck can do (a fair range for Cheltenham's true rate is roughly 24% to 37%), and the benchmark is one season against Cheltenham's two, so I wouldn't read anything into it either way. Fields averaged 11.7 runners at Cheltenham against 7.9 elsewhere, and comparing with bigger-field races shrinks the gap from eight points to three. Field size explains most of it, not magic in the turf. Six Cross Country races tell you nothing yet.

The Festival itself is the extreme. In 2026 the Betfair SP favourite won 8 of the 28 races and 16 of the 28 winners went off at a BSP of 10.0 or bigger. There's more on how the Festival plays out race by race in my Cheltenham Festival trends.

Does course form repeat at Cheltenham?

"Proven course form" is the most quoted angle in Cheltenham previews. The real question is whether course winners win more often than their price says. So I checked every Festival runner for a run or a win at Cheltenham earlier the same season, then compared winners with what the BSP implied. 1.00 means exactly as often as the market expected.

Earlier Cheltenham winners did win more often (11.3% against 5.8%), but they were shorter in the betting and won almost exactly as often as their prices said (7 against 6.9 expected). Backing all 62 at BSP to 1pt level stakes lost 18.6 points before commission. The "ran but didn't win" group shows a paper profit of 176.9 points, but that's nearly all one result, Martator at a BSP of 228.85 in the 2026 Grand Annual. Crazy right? Without it, that group lost about 51 points.

Hindsight, two Festivals, small numbers. But a November win at Cheltenham is in the form book for everyone, and the price reflects it. Course form is a reason to look at a horse, not to back it. The ground matters as much, and my guide to horse racing going covers how I read it.

How I use course form at the Festival

Look, I'm essentially a statistics/maths geek, so "it's won here before" is never the bet on its own. It's a question about price. I check which course the race is on and what kind of race it is, because a Grade 1 on the Old Course and a big-field handicap on the New Course are different puzzles. Then I ask one thing: is the price wrong?

If it isn't, I pass. If I'm honest, skipping a bet you're unsure about is one of the best things you can do at the Festival. I like outsiders and each-way value in those big fields: even when they place, we make more profit than an odds-on shot winning.

Stakes stay in points (1pt = £5 on a £100 bank, say), and nobody should go all in on a feeling about one up the hill. Understanding that losers are a thing is the key to being a winner longer term. Trust the process. And yes, I bet on every horse I tip.

My Cheltenham Festival tips preview goes day by day, and the actual selections are part of my premium tips.

Cheltenham course FAQs

Is the Gold Cup run on the Old Course or the New Course?

The New Course. It's on Festival Friday, and days three and four are run on the New Course. It has been a New Course race since 1959.

Which days of the Cheltenham Festival are on the Old Course?

Days one and two: Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 March 2027, with the Champion Hurdle and the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Thursday and Friday switch to the New Course.

What is the Cheltenham Cross Country course?

A separate course of banks, ditches and rails inside the main track, used for long-distance handicap chases: three in 2024/25 (November, December, Festival day two) and three in 2025/26 (December, Trials Day, Festival day two).

Where can I see a Cheltenham Old Course or New Course map?

On the racecourse's own course maps page, which has separate PDF maps for the Old, New and Cross Country courses with the fences, hurdles and starts marked.

More in this guide

• UK and Irish racecourses: every track by direction, shape and surface
• Aintree course guide: Grand National Course vs Mildmay Course
• Draw bias in horse racing, course by course
• All-weather racing guide: Tapeta vs Polytrack
• Cheltenham Festival tips and preview