When is the Gold Cup 2023? Date, time and tips for Cheltenham Festival's marquee race on Friday

The 2023 Cheltenham Festival comes to a close on Friday and all eyes will be on the big race of the day: the Gold Cup.

The Gold Cup is the most prestigious jumps race in British horse racing, with the likes of Arkle, Best Mate, Denman and Kauto Star among the star-studded list of previous winners.

Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Gold Cup when she led A Plus Tard to victory last year and is expected on the start line again in 2023 but the pair will face stiff competition in their bid to become the first back-to-back winners since Paul Townend and Al Boum Photo in 2020.

Here’s everything you need to know about the big race:

When is the Gold Cup 2023?

The 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup takes place at 3.30pm on Friday 17 March, with live TV coverage on ITV.

It is one of seven races that take place on Friday:

• 1.30pm: The JCB Triumph Hurdle
• 2.10pm: The McCoy Contractors County Handicap Hurdle Race
• 2.50pm: The Albert Bartlett  Novices’ Hurdle Race
• 3.30pm: The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup Steeple Chase
• 4.10pm: The St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Steeple Chase
• 4.50pm: The Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Steeple Chase
• 5.30pm: Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle

Gold Cup 2023 odds

• Galopin des Champs 7-4
• Bravemasgame 13-2
• A Plus Tard 8-1
• Noble Yeats 9-1
• Stattler 10-1
• Conflated 14-1
• Protektorat 14-1
• Ahoy Senor 16-1
• Minella Indo 20-1
• Sounds Russian 25-1
• Hewick 33-1
• The Real Whacker 40-1
• Royal Pagaille 40-1
• Eldorado Allen 150-1

Odds correct on Tuesday 14 March

Gold Cup 2023 tips

Ahead of this year’s Cheltenham Festival, sat down with ITV Racing commentator Richard Hoiles to get his insight on how to pick a winner and his tips for the week.

Here’s what he said about the Gold Cup:

“The Gold Cup is one of those races where Galopin des Champs (7-4 favourite) is a little bit like the up-and-coming horse, but he has a lot more to prove yet to my mind.

“If you want to tip against a horse, you really want to try and do is look at what conditions he would least be suited by and work out which others in the field would therefore be suited by those conditions.

“If he’s not going to stay, it would be because it’s turned into an absolute mudbath come Friday and if that’s the case, there’s a horse called Stattler who won the National Hunt Chase last year at the Festival. Yes, it was a lower grade, slower race. But if it turns really really attritional, then it would suit him.

“There’s another horse in the same race at a big, big price called Royal Pagaille, trained by Venetia Williams, who also is a little bit underestimated under those conditions.

“I would reserve how much I staked on those horses until I got an accurate Cheltenham weather forecast midway through the week, and the muddier it got, the more interested I’d be.”