Cheltenham Festival 2022: What to watch out for at four-day meeting

The roar which greets the start of racing's Cheltenham Festival will be heard for the first time in two years as crowds return on Tuesday.

Last year's four-day fixture, which usually attracts a total attendance of about 250,000, was held behind closed doors because of Covid-19.

Rachael Blackmore will look to win the opening day's Champion Hurdle again with Honeysuckle.

She made history in 2021 as the first woman to be the meeting's top jockey.

The unbeaten mare Honeysuckle seeks a 15th straight career win in Tuesday's feature race at 15:30 GMT.

Blackmore will ride last year's runner-up A Plus Tard against stablemate and defending champion Minella Indo in Friday's Gold Cup.

Cheltenham was one of the last major sporting events to be held with spectators before the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.

A year later, winners passed the finishing line to a smattering of applause from stable staff. The noise this time will be a sharp contrast with thousands of Irish punters set to travel over and tickets selling in record time.

Bookmakers expect around £500m overall to be wagered during the Festival and while notes will be accepted by bookies on course, the track's bars and restaurants will be cashless and require card payments.

There are a total of 28 races over the four days with Tuesday's concluding race run as the Ukraine Appeal National Hunt Chase to support those affected by the humanitarian crisis after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

British trainers aim to do better than a year ago when they went down to a record 23-5 defeat by Irish runners as Blackmore won more races (six) than all the GB trainers.

Here's some of this year's highlights:

Tuesday — Supreme Novices Hurdle: Trainer Nicky Henderson will be hoping to provide a home win