Cheltenham ‘defining week of a bookmaker’s year’

The Cheltenham Festival can literally make or break a bookies’ year.

“Without decorating it in any way, it is the defining week of a bookmaker’s year,” said David Williams, of Ladbrokes. “You have a good week at Cheltenham and you remember it for the rest of the year. You have a bad one and the same, sadly, is true. It is very difficult to put your finger on it, but my theory would be somehow it always adds up to more than the sum of its parts.

“Whether it be the natural setting, the quality of the horses – if you put it all into a computer programme the results it turned out would not be anything like the overall experience.