Cheltenham Festival
The SP and Starting Price at Cheltenham – How it works in horse racing
The Starting Price, commonly known as the SP, is one of the most important terms in horse racing betting and it plays a key role at the Cheltenham Festival.
For punters placing bets on the day of a race, the SP is the industry standard that determines what price is officially returned on a horse if no other odds are specified.
At its simplest, the SP is the final price offered on a horse at the off, calculated from a sample of on-course bookmakers’ odds. Once the race begins, that figure becomes the official return used to settle bets. For example, if a horse is returned with an SP of 8/1 and wins, anyone who backed it at SP will be paid out at those odds.
The SP remains especially significant at Cheltenham because of the sheer volume of money wagered during the Festival.
With millions of pounds staked across four days, bookmakers and punters rely on the SP as the fairest, most transparent measure of a horse’s price at the moment the tapes go up.
For traditional punters, betting to SP ensures that they do not need to worry about taking odds earlier in the day.
If the horse drifts or shortens in the market, the wager is settled at whatever the official return is when the race begins. This system also underpins pool betting, such as the Tote, where dividends are often published alongside the SP for comparison.
At Cheltenham, the SP can also influence ante-post markets.
Horses backed at bigger prices weeks before the Festival may go off at much shorter odds on the day, rewarding early punters. Conversely, those who take SP on the day risk being paid at a lower return if a horse is heavily supported in the final minutes before the off.
The SP has a long history in British racing and remains a trusted benchmark, even in an era of online betting and Best Odds Guaranteed promotions.
Its role at the Cheltenham Festival is central: whether punters are on-course, in betting shops, or wagering online, the SP is the figure that ultimately settles the majority of bets.
With the Festival drawing closer, attention will once again turn to how the markets move in the minutes before each race, and what the SP reveals about the weight of money behind the big contenders.
