Sportsbook Guardian

The second race of the third day of the Cheltenham Festival is the Pertemps Final.

16 qualifiers are scheduled throughout the season. Horses must have run in a Pertemps Qualifier in order to make an entry for this race.

Race Conditions

• The Pertemps Final is a Class 1 Listed Handicap Hurdle.
• The race will be contested at a start time of 14:05 on day three (Thursday) of the Cheltenham Festival.
• The race is open to horses aged five years or older
• The race is run over 3 miles.
• In 2011 the winner received circa £40,000.
• There are twelve flights of hurdles to negotiate.

Race Trends

• 9 out of the last 16 winners finished 1st in their previous race.
• Since the race began in 1974, only once has the race been won by a 5 year old (Pragada in 1988).
• Since the race began in 1974, only 1 winner has run from out of the handicap.
• No horse rated over 142 has won the Pertemps in the last ten renewals.
• 7 of the last 8 winners carried less than 11st.
• Only one favourite has won in the last 15 renewals.
• Only two horses have won the race when aged ten or older (Willie Wumpkins in 1979, 1980 & 1981 and Buena Vista in 2011).
• 8 of the last 10 winners have previously won at 3 miles or further.

Betting on the Pertemps Final

There may be a chance for punters to see a greater return for their money in this event. More often than not it is a highly competitive race and winners have double figure odds recorded against their names. In 2006 JP McManus’s Kadoun was priced at 50/1.

Entry to the final requires success in any one of the sixteen Pertemps qualifiers held in Britain and Ireland. These include the Cheltenham Qualifier in October each year. Ten-year-old Buena Vista, trained by David Pipe, won the Pertemps Final for the second consecutive year in 2011. He qualified through this particular race and has used the same route to appear this year.

Weather conditions on the day can also play a major role. Stamina was called for when, in 2008, Ballyfitz championed through unrelenting rain in a punishing contest. The better weather forecast for this year’s Festival brings considerations of speed over stamina to the fore. The Pertemps qualifiers can provide useful indications of form. Certain placed horses are likely to be better horses to follow than winners because they will carry less weight.

For the 2012 Cheltenham Festival the leading offers are: Bet365 £200 free bets, BetVictor £25 free bet, and Stan James £150 free bets.

History of the Race

From 1974 to 1993 this long distance handicap hurdle was named and sponsored by Coral bookmakers and run as the Coral Golden Hurdle Final. The race history goes back further as pre-1974 it was the George Duller Handicap Hurdle. There have been various other sponsors but since 2002 it has been in the hands of Pertemps with a shortening of the distance in 2005 from 3 miles and 1.5 furlongs to 3 miles. The race kind to JP McManus. The owner has won the race three times.